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SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY |
Duke
Media Relations photo |
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FOOTBALL |
Getting to know Coach Mo |
It's commonly accepted that people are products of their heredity and
environment. During his first official week on the job, new East
Carolina football coach Scottie Austin
Montgomery talked about his family and
factors that shaped him.
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More from
Al Myatt... |
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FOOTBALL |
Coach Mo's staff expands by two |
Scottie Montgomery's staff
continued to grow on Tuesday as East
Carolina's first-year head coach announced
the hiring of Middle Tennessee State
assistant Geep Wade and Duke staffer Ethan
Johnson ...
More... |
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BASKETBALL |
Fast start lifts Tulsa |
TULSA, OK — East
Carolina struggled
early at Tulsa on
Tuesday night and
absorbed a 55-43
American Athletic
Conference loss. The
Pirates made just
six of 33 field goal
attempts and
committed 12
turnovers in the
first half
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More... |
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Next: ECU at
Temple | Saturday, 9 pm | ESPNN |
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BASKETBALL |
Black Saturday for Pirate hoops |
The
Pirate women were looking to break a
long losing streak. The Pirate men
were looking to open league play
with a win before a tough stretch of
games. Both squads fell short of
their winning goals on Saturday. ...
More
from Brian Bailey... |
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FOOTBALL |
Pirates lure FIU special teams guru |
East Carolina head
football coach Scottie Montgomery
took the next step in putting
together his first-year staff on
Saturday, announcing the hiring of
one of Conference USA's top special
teams coordinators. ...
More... |
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BASKETBALL |
UCF rallies past Pirates |
GREENVILLE — Central
Florida overcame a
10-point second half
deficit for a 71-68
win at East Carolina
on Saturday night in
the American
Athletic Conference
opener for both
teams.
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More... |
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FOOTBALL |
Petersen departs La. Tech for
Pirates |
On the eve of
officially going on the payroll on
New Year's Day as East Carolina's
head football coach, Scottie
Montgomery swung into action a day
early on Thursday by tapping the
staff of former ECU coach Skip Holtz
for an offensive coordinator and
quarterbacks coach. ...
More... |
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FOOTBALL |
Coach Mo's staff starts taking shape |
Ten days after taking
over as East Carolina's head
football coach, Scottie Montgomery
took the first formal steps on
Wednesday towards organizing the
program to reflect his blueprint ...
More... |
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BASKETBALL |
Pirates roll after fast start |
GREENVILLE — The shooting touch that was
missing for East Carolina on Sunday at James
Madison was found on Tuesday night in
Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum as the
Pirates won 98-71 over South Carolina State.
ECU (8-5) jumped out to leads of 13-2 and
21-4 against the Bulldogs (5-8).
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More... |
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By
Al Myatt
©2016 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
VIEW MOBILE VERSION OF THIS PAGE
Scottie Montgomery may not have head
coaching experience but that hasn't stopped him from conducting business
like a seasoned veteran at the outset of his career at East Carolina. He
has put together an impressive set of coordinators and assistants thus
far. The Pirates got their first recruiting commitment of the Montgomery
era this week from linebacker Aaron Ramseur of the coach's old stomping
grounds in Cleveland County.
Montgomery talked about
himself in
Part One of this series with Bonesville. In
Part Two he discusses some of the issues facing the Pirates as they
prepare for the 2016 season. Montgomery tracked new ECU offensive
coordinator Tony Petersen for years. He's not focusing on any player
discontent that may have followed the coaching change at ECU and
he's looking forward to the pending quarterback competition in the
spring.
Coach Mo lured an OC he emulated
Montgomery has
brought in Tony Petersen, a
former Marshall quarterback, as offensive coordinator. Petersen was most
recently offensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech for former ECU coach
Skip Holtz.
The Bulldogs were 9-4 in 2015 with a 47-28 win over Arkansas State in
the New Orleans Bowl. In that game, Petersen's unit had 458 passing
yards, 687 total yards and set or tied 17 New Orleans Bowl records.
There will be some adaptations from what ECU has done offensively,
Montgomery said.
"There's going to be some transitional time for our guys," said the new
coach. "There's no question about it. I wanted to go out and get a
dynamic person and a dynamic offensive guy that can come in and impose
his will on the team and on the quarterback position. That's what we
tried to go out and do. I would say that there are some similarities.
There are also some things that differ, not only from what I've done but
what we've done here because I think growth is getting better and moving
forward.
"I've watched Coach Petersen for a couple of years. We had a chance to
watch him. They were playing against a team that we were going to meet,
Rice. They had an unbelievable game. At that point in time, I started
kind of tracking him and watching him. They just continued to do great
things on offense. He doesn't know it but I stole some stuff from him
and used it. I probably didn't do as good a job as he did but it helped
us.
"There's going to be some transition time. He is very flexible. Another
reason I like him, he's very sharp so he's not going to make guys learn
something that they don't necessarily have to. He's kind of said that
it's better for one guy to learn a few things versus 85 people to try to
learn everything new. We're really happy with him. We had a battle on
our hands to get him."
QB depth impressive at ECU
There will obviously be a lot of quarterbacks competing in Montgomery's
first spring practice at ECU.
Kurt Benkert, the projected starter last year as a sophomore, should be
back from a knee injury. Left-hander Blake Kemp completed almost 70
percent of his passes during a 5-7 season for 2,658 yards with 16
touchdowns, while splitting time with James Summers, who also will be a
senior. Minnesota/Rutgers transfer Philip Nelson sat out 2015. John
Jacobs spent a developmental year as a redshirt freshman.
"Knock on wood and I am knocking on wood as I say it, I don't think that
I've been in a situation to where we have the quarterbacks available
that we have here at the talent level that we have here that are all
available to go and to practice," Montgomery said. "We've maybe had two
quarterbacks or we maybe had one quarterback that we were holding our
breath on at Duke that we were hoping doesn't get hurt.
"These guys (at ECU), they're ready to compete. They're all anxious to
get out there, anxious to work with Coach Petersen. It's going to be sad
and lonely for me at times because I'm going to miss my quarterback
room. Coach Petersen is going to do a great job of evaluating that
position. I'm looking forward to the competition. I'm looking forward to
Coach Petersen coaching and me getting a chance to watch and critique
that position but also offensively, defensively and special teams. But
more than anything, the availability of the guys we have here. I'm
excited. It's unfortunate that you can't play more than one player at
that position unless you do some of the stuff we did (at Duke). It's
unfortunate but that's the way it is so we're looking forward to that
competition."
No transfers
There was some discontent among players reported when Ruffin McNeill was
dismissed. It appears that the Pirates in general will give the new
coach a fair chance to win their confidence.
"It's been very positive – everywhere that I've been and at that
position," Montgomery said. "At the quarterback position, everywhere
that I've been, there have been guys that wanted to leave if they didn't
get a chance by their second and third year. That's unfortunate because
that second or third year may be the year that they get a chance to
play. I have not sat down in detail with anybody in my office and talked
about them leaving or not getting a chance to compete so they want to
leave. That's not what we've had a conversation about so. ... It could
happen but may the best man win."
Recruiting in transition
Some of the names that had been reported as
commitments to the Pirates
before McNeill departed are looking elsewhere, according to reports.
Montgomery and his staff have been involved in screening for academics
and other factors since coming aboard. Finding the right guys for the
program remains the priority.
"Slow and steady wins the race," Montgomery said. "You have to evaluate
everything, not just talent. You have to evaluate their ability to come
in and play, their ability to come in and be a part of Pirate Nation,
their ability to come to Greenville and be productive in Greenville. ...
You have to have in your mind a set of calmness and you have to pause a
little bit because we're bringing in the most talented coaches that we
possibly could find. You know when you bring in that level of talent and
coaching that they're going to come with a certain amount of guys that
they want to get evaluated.
"I'm not for turning guys loose. That's not who we are. I haven't been
raised that way. I like the guys that we have in the class. I'm going to
continue to work to make sure that gets better. Now we're in the
process, we have official visits coming in. ... Recruiting is going
well. ... We've already picked it up a notch. Our guys are in here
working as we speak. More than anything, we've got to be sure that these
men are going to be great men for Greenville. That's what we're doing.
... We can't wait to see some of these high school coaches. ... "
"A lot of things can change by the time February comes. I can say it
will be a mid-size to large class."
Montgomery said the Pirates will address some position needs with junior
college players.
"Yeah, we're going to have to," he said. "Unfortunately, we're going to
have to. My standpoint on that is I don't have a problem with recruiting
certain positions from junior colleges. But I want to recruit North
Carolina and I want to be a developmental program more than an
acquisition program. That's what I want to do. Is that going to be the
correct way to do it all the time? It's not. We don't live in a perfect
world. I would like to recruit some of our talent and develop it. We've
got coaches that know how to develop talent. We're not utilizing our
coaches if we don't let them develop them. I don't want to be in the
acquisition business all the time. ... We do have some issues that we
have to address and that will happen pretty quickly. We'll do our best
to try and get it done."
Spring practice
Montgomery was asked about priorities in spring practice.
"The first thing is discipline and conditioning," he said. "They're
going to be huge. We're going to be a hustle team, first and foremost.
Schematically, we've got great ball coaches but we're going to treat the
ground like a hot stove. That's something that they need to understand.
The things that we can get better at we have complete control over. We
control our effort. We can control that as coaches, as players. We're
going to give 100 percent effort. We're going to finish everything that
we started. Our practices are going to get better as the spring goes on.
"I expect them to get better as the practice goes on. Those are the
things that we're going to concentrate on. From a fundamental
standpoint, our defensive scheme is going to be very similar with some
new detail. Offensively, it's going to be similar with some new details.
We're not coming in and putting in the triple option. We're not coming
in and putting in a completely new defense. .. We will remain a three
front on defense. ... I don't think the transitional time should kill us
to the point of where it bogs us down that we can't finish every single
play. That's what I want to see."