The Huskie Bowl, 3 p.m. Saturday at Huskie Stadium, will have a new format but should bring the same competitive feel.

Instead of the teams originally drafted and the seven-series-apiece scrimmage used in the past, this year’s format will be more of a skills, techniques and fundamentals competition with a brief scrimmage at the end.

The Black Team will be the offense and will be led by offensive line coach Joe Tripodi, and it will have sophomore Josh Orne to handle kicking duties. The Cardinal Team will be the defense and will be headed by cornerbacks coach Kelvin Sigler, and it will have senior Tyler Wedel as kicker.

Head coach Rod Carey said the change was because the defense, specifically the defensive line and defensive backfield, was lacking in numbers because of injuries on top of graduation.

“I think it should get really accomplished what we need to get accomplished — given our circumstances right now — which is get those guys get good competition, get good work done that day and also let them have some fun because football’s supposed to be fun, right, in a lot of ways,” Carey said.

The Huskie Bowl will conclude with the Scrimmage Periods, the main event. The scrimmage will be with the full offense and defense, but there won’t be only tackling; the play will end at the “thud” of contact.

The offense will start on its own 15-yard line and can only score by touchdown (seven points) or field goal (three points). The field goals won’t be live; they’ll just be a snap, hold and kick.

The defense can score points by forcing a three-and-out (three points), stopping the offense before it gets to midfield (two points), forcing a field goal attempt (one point) or forcing a turnover (four points).

“Either way, it’s still offense vs. defense,” said senior defensive end Jason Meehan. “We do that every day in practice, and we’ll never get enough of that because you want to go 1’s vs. 1’s.

“Now will be time to really hone in on your skills and show everybody how you’ve progressed and how our offense and defense have progressed against our starters … .”

Carey said he expects all three quarterbacks to get a series or two of reps, but they could see more time if the offense gets stopped early on in each drive. He said he would like each quarterback to have 15 to 25 snaps.

Prior to the scrimmage, there will be six drills pitting the Black Team against the Cardinal Team.

Among the events are a towel drill between special teams players, a release drill between wide receivers and defensive backs, a field goal competition, a one-on-one pass rush drill between offensive and defensive linemen, a pass protection competition between linebackers and running backs, and a seven-on-seven situational drill with the offense starting on third down and trying to pick up a first down.

The field goal competition will award three points to the kicker’s team for each field goal made. The other five drills will award one point to each player’s team for each “win” in the drill.

“This thing comes down to — at this point in the spring — the competition,” Tripodi said. “And I think the way the format’s set up now, you guys will see pretty heated battles at different drills that these kids have been doing all spring. … Those are your teammates, but you develop some personal vendettas, so to speak, of just a competitive nature.”