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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 1:26 AM Sunday, August 15, 2010

OXFORD — The defense had a good day for itself as Miami University’s football team held its first summer scrimmage at Yager Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 14.

The defensive line in particular had a good day as the several dozen fans who braved the late-morning heat and humidity got their first glimpse — and it was an eye-full — of 18-year-old Mwanza Wamulumba.

The 6-foot-3, 240-pound defensive end from Fort Meade, Md. spent much of the scrimmage ramming his way into the offensive backfield, stalking quarterbacks Zac Dysert and Austin Boucher.

“He’s a special kid,” Miami head coach Michael Haywood said of Wamulumba. “He’s unbelievable as a freshman. He’s done some unbelievable things.

“Our defense is a little complex for him so he has multiple mental errors,” Haywood said. “However, he gives 100 percent every time he lines up and he’s getting better every week. Because he’s such a good player, guys on the field are helping him. They explain what’s happening to him on this play and this is what you need to do.”

It was mostly the first-string offense against the first-string defense, and the twos versus the twos. The defense allowed only one touchdown, a 35-yard pass from Dysert to wideout Luke Swift during a two-minute drill, and a 30-yard field goal by Trevor Cook, which was set by on a 26-yard pass from Dysert to tight end Steve Marck.

“I’m encouraged with the defense,” Haywood said. “As you can see, there were 11 helmets around that ball the majority of the time.”

“It all starts up front,” said Miami senior strong safety and co-captain Jordan Gafford, “and the D-line is playing as good as they’ve ever played since I’ve been here. They’re playing hard, getting to the quarterback, really creating problems in the run game.”

Miami’s run game has had serious problems for the last four years, and the pass game wasn’t too effective on Saturday, either.

“We didn’t come out very good,” Dysert said. “We were lethargic out there. We came out slow. Nobody was excited ... We didn’t come out ready to play at all.”

He said the touchdown scored by Swift helped take some of the string out of the overall offensive performance.

“You don’t like to get shut out,” he said. “But we didn’t score enough. Too many three-and-outs, too many drives that didn’t get going.”

Two sophomore defensive ends teamed for a turnover when Anthony Shoemaker deflected a pass by Dysert and Will Diaz intercepted it.

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