Sneak peek: Merced College's Blue/Gold scrimmage tonight

Bob Casey has seen glimpses of what his team can do.

With the late start to the football season, the Merced College football team has already had a couple mini intra-squad scrimmages.

Casey's been pleased with the team's progress so far, but now it's time for the first-year head coach to really push his squad.

The Blue Devils' season-opener against San Joaquin Delta is just nine days away and Casey will use tonight's annual Blue/Gold scrimmage at Stadium '76 as a measuring stick for how much work still needs to be done between now and then.

"In the last scrimmage I was pleased that guys competed," Casey said. "We had people where they needed to be assignment wise, and guys seemed to know and understand the schemes.

"Now we just need to keep getting better. We're looking for things to be smoother, for guys to really execute the details.

"There's certain things our guys have to have down before the start of the season and we're going to use (today) to find out where we're at."

Casey has changed up the Blue/Gold scrimmage a bit in his first season, moving the game to a weekday and the evening.

Casey is hoping to use the extra few days to prep for the season opener.

Play is scheduled to get underway at 6 p.m.

There won't be a running clock, but the MC offense and defense will run through a number of series.

"There's some situational stuff that we're definitely going to do," Casey said. "We'll stop it to work on special teams and things like that.

"There's not going to be any set amount of time.

"We're basically going until the coaches are satisfied with what we see."

With the amount of depth the Blue Devils possess across the board, Casey said he thinks position battles will exist for most of the season.

While Casey wouldn't go into specifics, one thing for fans to keep an eye on is the secondary.

The Blue Devils graduated both starting cornerbacks and a safety.

Sophomore Bernard Bolden is safely entrenched in the starting lineup, but fierce battles are being waged for the rest of the spots.

There's a number of holes that need to be filled on the offensive line as well.

"Hopefully some guys will really step up and impress us," Casey said. "We know what we're looking for, and hopefully the kids will be able to meet that level."