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Captain Carden is leaving his mark

By Al Myatt
©2014 Bonesville.net
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Shane Carden provides quite a few advantages for East Carolina. A fifth-year senior, Carden has an intricate understanding of the Pirates offense. If Lincoln Riley, ECU offensive coordinator, doesn't feel comfortable dialing up any call in the playbook, he never will.

Carden's physical skills and precise relationship with the receiving corps, Justin Hardy, in particular, allowed the Captain, as coach Ruffin McNeill and others within the program call Carden, to complete 70.5 percent of his passes last season.

Carden connects on aerials in the flat with the virtual security of a handoff, and defenses must respect his ability to go vertical on every snap, thereby opening lanes in the running game. That helped Vintavious Cooper run for more than 1,000 yards in each of the last two seasons.

The ECU quarterback is the consummate collection of talent desired in the modification of Texas Tech's Air Raid offense that Riley and company imported with their arrival in 2010.

Carden was an original in the McNeill regime, redshirting on the scout team in 2010. He did whatever was needed to get the Pirates ready at that time. He has played running back and tight end on the preparation unit.

He made one game appearance as a redshirt freshman in 2011 — as a receiver — on the last series in the eighth game of the season against Tulane, a 34-13 ECU win. Maybe that experience helped him latch on to a scoring pass from Cam Worthy near the end of last season's 37-20 bowl win over Ohio.

Carden gradually proved himself worthy of the starting designation in 2012.

In spring practice, he was competing with Rio Johnson and Brad Wornick for the job. He sustained a hand injury when he hit a teammate's helmet in a scrimmage situation and missed the latter portion of the offseason sessions.

Johnson ended up winning the starting assignment in the season opener against Appalachian State. Johnson threw for 242 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-13 win over the Mountaineers.

It could be considered a blessing in retrospect that Johnson was intercepted three times the following week at South Carolina because that opened the door for Carden to get a look after the game had been decided.

Carden's first college pass was picked off by the Gamecocks but he persisted on a warm day at Williams-Brice Stadium. He drove ECU for a 23-yard field goal by Warren Harvey to get the Pirates on the board and connected with Hardy for a 34-yard touchdown.

With ECU in need of some offensive leadership, Carden emerged as the prime candidate.

South Carolina won, 48-10, but Carden had done enough to reopen the quarterback competition and he got his first start the following week at Southern Miss.

Carden was hoping he would get a chance to meet Brett Favre in Hattiesburg. He bears a resemblance to the NFL great in his appearance and playing style. Carden didn't get to meet Favre but he eventually engineered a 24-14 Pirates win in a contest the Pirates trailed 7-3 at the half. He hit Hardy for a 55-yard go-ahead score on the same pattern that produced the TD in Columbia the preceding week. Carden ran 8 yards for ECU's ensuing score.

The star was not yet born but the labor pains had started. Carden struggled in the red zone the following week in a 27-6 loss in Chapel Hill.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them as William Shakespeare said.

Carden embodies all three avenues. His genetic makeup is solid. His dad, Jay, was a minor league baseball pitcher of some note. His mom, Scotti, a volleyball player and track athlete, was the first female at Cal-Poly to receive an athletic scholarship. Carden's brothers, Austin and Christopher, pitched collegiately. An uncle, Gordon Adams, was a quarterback at Southern California.

As far as achieving greatness, Carden has spent his offseasons improving himself under the watchful supervision of Jeff Connors, assistant athletic director for strength and conditioning. Carden achieved a body makeover before passing for 4,139 yards and 33 touchdowns en route to earning Conference USA's Most Valuable Player Award in 2013.

He worked on his abdominal rotational core with Connors this summer. Carden also spent some time with Blaine Kinsley of the strength staff, who works with baseball players. The focus was on developing the throwing muscles.

He has watched more film than Roger Ebert.

Carden may have come to ECU from Texas but he's no lone star. He has worked on building relationships with teammates. He and Hardy have a special bond as alumni of the scout team. It's not a coincidence that Hardy is within range of the FBS career receptions record. The pair's timing is impeccable yet they continue working to make it better. Hardy can make the final cut in a pattern to find the football approaching simultaneously.

When junior college transfer Quincy McKinney arrived in summer school, Carden became the offensive lineman's big brother. Carden occasionally takes the blocking corps out for a meal.

He is the embodiment of McNeill's edicts regarding no egos and no entitlement.

He was hidden from almost everyone but Harvard when ECU found him in the recruiting process. The Pirates discovered a buried treasure.

He has already taken his place among great ECU quarterbacks such as Jeff Blake and David Garrard. Blake's senior season in 1991 produced the still cherished 11-1 season that culminated with a 37-34 win over N.C. State in the Peach Bowl. Garrard's final campaign was not as celebrated after a 64-61 double overtime loss to Marshall in the GMAC Bowl in Mobile left the Pirates 6-6.

Carden's concluding chapters in his rise at ECU are yet to be written but he could go up there on the university's mythical Mount Rushmore with greats such as Sandra Bullock, Pat Dye, Blue Edwards, Vonta Leach, Leo Jenkins, Robert Morgan, Clarence Stasavich and Walter Williams.

The Pirates have an experience edge at quarterback over practically all of their opponents in 2014 and that's significant.

The schedule is sufficiently challenging that ECU could legitimately get its senior quarterback into the Heisman conversation. That would just be outside noise to the team-oriented Carden, the moral antithesis of Johnny Manziel.

Former Alabama coach Bear Bryant said he didn't have a hobby. In his spare time, he contemplated how the Crimson Tide might lose. Then he addressed those issues in preparing his team.

The Pirates have a process, too. Preseason camp will soon transition to game week for ECU's opener at home against N.C. Central at 8 p.m. on Aug. 30.

That's when the Pirate ship will set sail ... with Captain Carden in command.

The 2014 season could become a very productive voyage.

E-mail Al Myatt

PAGE UPDATED 08/21/14 02:53 AM.

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