Here's what we're allowed to share with you about Vanderbilt football spring scrimmage

There's a charitable reading of Vanderbilt football's first spring scrimmage Saturday. And there's also another version.

Though the offense scored a touchdown on its first drive, the defense dominated most of the rest of the scrimmage. The aspect that disappointed the coaches for the most part was the offense committed several turnovers, with offensive coordinator Tim Beck noting that Utah transfer Nate Johnson had two.

Held at Lipscomb Academy, the scrimmage was the first in a series of three the Commodores are holding in lieu of a traditional spring game. The scrimmage was closed to the general public but media and player families were invited to view it. However, media members were prohibited from sharing specific details about the scrimmage, including formations, plays or statistics.

The more charitable reading of the scrimmage was the pass rush, an area of major weakness the past two seasons, looked disruptive. Some of the turnovers and sacks came from defenders making the quarterbacks − Johnson, Drew Dickey and Blaze Berlowitz − uncomfortable.

Purdue transfer Khordae Sydnor continued to stand out as he has all spring, and true freshman Mason Carter was another player who showed well.

"I thought (the pass rush) was great, we got after them," Sydnor said. "Coach (Clark) Lea always calling great calls, us blitzing, getting in ways where we can affect the quarterback."

Sydnor and Carter are two of a relatively young group of pass-rushers that has a higher ceiling than those of Lea's first three teams. Other members of that group include Darren Agu, Miles Capers, Linus Zunk, BJ Diakite and Aeneas DiCosmo.

"For me, it's a little bit conflicted, but I love the way the offense finished," Lea said. "I thought (Quincy) Skinner made a couple of really tough catches today, showed his strength. ... I probably have a little less bigger picture view from my seat on the sideline as the d-coordinator but it looks like some some good tough catches and we got to continue. I thought Nate was really good on that first drive to get the ball out in time, doing that with confidence. And obviously he's going to be able to extend plays with the legs also. So some stuff there to build on."

In evaluating the quarterbacks, Beck also saw good and bad. He said Johnson didn't take enough care of the ball, and he felt that Berlowitz didn't score when he could have on a run play near the goal line.

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Part of that is communication, as Beck felt the team wasn't getting in and out of the huddle quickly enough. That's one area that Vanderbilt hopes to use the remaining two spring scrimmages to address.

"The biggest thing that I'm disappointed in is that we didn't take care of the ball like we need to," Beck said. "So we turned the ball over which we just absolutely cannot do. We can't turn the ball over and we had too many misalignments and missed assignments, but saw some bright spots and saw some things that we can build on and absolutely feel like our offensive line's gotten better."

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.