Benkert appears to be the guy

By Brian Bailey
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East Carolina football fans can only hope that the results end up being similar.

Kurt Benkert threw an interception for a touchdown on his first pass of the spring. He bounced back nicely, going 13-17 with a touchdown pass to Isaiah Jones in his first real action as the Pirates' starting quarterback.

Shane Carden’s first pass in a game had the same result. That jogged head coach Ruffin McNeill’s memory.

“I thought it was big today,” said McNeill when asked about the interception afterwards. “Just like Shane’s first play in college was an interception against South Carolina. Same thing happened today. We got some good guys over there. (Benkert) came back the next play and he made a play when he got back in there. Made his turn and made a touchdown pass to Isaiah. He is going to be fine.”

Life as a starting quarterback is much different than that as a backup. While it’s certainly not written in stone, all indications are that Kurt Benkert will be Shane Carden’s replacement. He’s getting the most reps and appears to be the guy ready to take the next step.

For the Pirate sophomore, it’s a whole new ballgame.

“It’s just fun,” said Benkert. “A little more live, a little more everything, it’s just good to have everyone out here, going hard.”

Benkert wasn’t pleased with his mistakes, but he seemed bound and determined to learn from them.

“I know I can do better,” he explained. “I need to eliminate turnovers. It was fun, I had a good time. It’s big to show that not one play is going to hold you down. You can have a lot of bad plays in the game, but you can still win a game. So you have to turn it around quick for the next play. It’s getting there. It’s a little different than just playing second team all the time. It’s slowing down; it’s getting to what I want it to be.”

One of the big keys to Benkert’s success is earning the respect of his teammates, especially those with plenty of game experience and those who benefitted so much from Shane Carden’s talent getting them the football.

"Benkert's awesome,” said ECU receiver Isaiah Jones. “He's doing well. I'm really impressed with him, you know. A lot has been placed on him and other quarterbacks as well, and I think he's stepping up to the challenge now.”

Jones continued with his assessment of the Pirates' outlook at quarterback.

“You know, I wouldn't say [Benkert is] where he needs to be because there's so much more potential with him and some of the other guys. But I’ve been really impressed with all of the quarterbacks.”

I had a chance to see about half of Saturday’s scrimmage, and it’s really difficult for the average guy to evaluate the play. The Pirates seem to run the football well, and the defense made a couple of big plays. Still, it’s just a scrimmage and a very early one at that.

Perhaps Coach Ruff said it best.

“We don’t play next week,” said McNeill. “We play in September sometime, late August, but I like the start and where we are.”

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