After two hours of concurrent, short-field scrimmaging, the Lawrence and Free State high school football teams came away with the same thing: lots of tape to evaluate.

Firebirds coach Bob Lisher and Lions coach Dirk Wedd used Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium on Saturday as a chance to tape full-speed scrimmages.

Normally, both teams would play on KU’s football practice fields, but Jayhawks coach Mark Mangino told the coaches he’d prefer they use the stadium to reduce wear and tear on the practice fields.

No problem. Both teams came on just after noon, stretched, then each used different sides of the field, repeatedly running plays from the 40-yard line.

“Typical first time out. The main thing was to get looks at kids,” Lisher said. “We’ll grade film and get a better understanding of our depth chart.”

Free State hasn’t compiled its final depth chart yet. Lisher said he and the other coaches would watch film today, then compile a final roster before Thursday’s annual Jamboree at Haskell Stadium.

Lawrence’s depth chart is made, but Wedd was hesitant to comment on too much of the scrimmage until he watched the film. Some positions, like the Lions’ starting quarterback job, are too close to pencil in a starter at this point.

“It’s a situation where you won’t know until you watch the film” Wedd said. “Three of our toughest and maybe most talented kids are at the quarterback position. I’d be disappointed if we didn’t get all of them time.”

They would be seniors Brandon Womack, Tommy Mangino and junior Taylor Parker. All three had roughly the same number of snaps and looked good at times, but struggled once it started raining midway through the scrimmage.

That explained several of the muffed handoffs and problems under center.

Of course, the way the Lions’ running game looked, they may not need to pass at all. Senior fullback Brandon McAnderson consistently ran over two or three would-be tacklers at a time, while seniors Brain Seymour and Chris Fulton displayed excellent speed around the outside and up the middle.

Free State wasn’t nearly as effective running the ball, though its running backs didn’t exactly get pushed around.

“Our backs weren’t going down cheap,” Lisher said. “They didn’t always have the blocking, either.”

The Firebirds’ passing game wasn’t in midseason form, but it had some flash. Lisher said he had been pleased with the athletic ability of the eight wide receivers  seniors Bijai Jones, Cole Cruse, Ben Grey, Pearson Skepnek and Stanley Redwine and juniors Dain Dillingham, Marcus Murphy and Nick Green, some of whom may the team’s best athletes.

They gave senior quarterback Matt Berner, who passed for 1,002 yards last season, ample targets Saturday, though Lisher said he’d probably narrow his primary receivers to four or five by the first game.

Fans can get another peek at both squads at Thursday’s Jamboree. LHS is scheduled to scrimmage at 6 p.m., with FSHS following at 7:30 p.m.