Inside
Game Day
Saturday, August 30, 2014
By Al Myatt |
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Pirates check out personnel,
systems
Al Myatt
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GREENVILLE — College football doesn't
have scrimmages like high schools or exhibitions as NFL teams do and
financial circumstances haven't always allowed East Carolina a tune-up
outing as the 2014 season opener with North Carolina Central provided at
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday night.
The Pirates had a chance to check out
personnel and systems in a 52-7 win before venturing to South Carolina for a
7 p.m. kickoff Saturday.
"It was a great chance to get on the
field and begin playing again," said ECU coach Ruffin McNeill. "We were
going a lot one versus one (first unit offense against first team defense in
practice). I was proud of how we approached the game. ... Wins are hard and
tonight, the way our team did it, excites me because we stayed committed to
the team concept."
The Pirates weren't caught looking ahead
and the 24-hour rule will be in effect until the team convenes Sunday night.
That means getting away from football
before refocusing on the work week ahead.
The clash in Columbia, SC, will be shown
on ESPNU, the American Athletic Conference announced during Saturday night's
game. It had been designated for ESPN2 or ESPNU.
The pending matchup likely lost some
luster with South Carolina's 52-28 loss to Texas A&M on Thursday night.
That outcome probably will drop the
Gamecocks significantly below their No. 9 preseason ranking.
ECU's game with Central was televised on
the ESPN News network.
One benefit of being in the AAC is
additional television exposure.
The Pirates didn't look quite ready for
prime time at the outset but were more polished as the game progressed.
Despite falling behind 7-0 on a fumble
return by the Eagles, ECU came back to grade out well against their Football
Championship Subdivision competition.
The Pirates didn't panic after Breon
Allen was stripped and C.J. Moore returned the ball 31 yards for a score
with 10:15 left in the first quarter.
After a 34-yard field goal by Warren
Harvey cut the lead to 7-3, the Pirates went ahead to stay on a 41-yard
reverse pass from Justin Hardy to Isaiah Jones with 3:27 left in the first
quarter.
The Pirates showed a few wrinkles when
some might have kept the trick stuff under wraps, but that probably will
require a little extra preparation for coach Steve Spurrier's program next
week.
Harvey also punted out of field goal
formation in a different twist against NCCU.
ECU senior quarterback Shane Carden had a
solid effort before turning the offense over to redshirt freshman Kurt
Benkert late in the game.
Carden completed 26 of 37 passes for 287
yards and three touchdowns.
Nine receivers caught passes with Jones
making 10 receptions for 150 yards.
"We hit that bump at the beginning of the
game," Jones said. "That play that coach (Lincoln Riley, offensive
coordinator) drew up really pushed us over the hump. ... I feel like once we
got the nerves out and the jitters out, we started clicking like ECU
football."
The Pirates got untracked after going
punt, turnover and field goal on their first three possessions.
"We started out a little slow,
obviously," Carden said. "I think we got away from making routine plays. I
think I was trying to take too much rather than just kind of take what they
were giving me.
"I thought we did a great job of kind of
settling and fighting through adversity."
There were questions about ECU's
offensive line after losing several quality starters from last year's 10-3
team.
"The offensive line did a great job all
night," Carden said. "(NCCU was) showing some different looks. They were
moving around a bunch, showing us some different blitzes we hadn't really
seen."
The Pirates' ground game netted 208
yards.
"I thought we did a good job," Carden
said. "We just had some penalties that kept pushing us back. The running
game was doing well. We just had those little penalties that kept bringing
it back."
ECU drew eight flags for 72 yards.
"That's not going to happen here,"
McNeill said. " ... We'll get it corrected. We'll address that."
Justin Hardy snared eight passes for 87
yards with two touchdowns. Hardy passed Dwayne Harris for the school record
in career catches. Hardy, who was wearing some Pirate eye black patches from
the book store, completed the game with 274 catches in his ECU career.
"We made some adjustments and got back
out there," Hardy said of ECU's early deficit.
The defense did not allow a point.
"We had to come out here and show what we
could do," said inside linebacker Zeek Bigger. "As a defense, we had to come
out and back the offense up."
The relatively-inexperienced secondary
yielded 104 yards passing as Eagles starter Quinn Billerman completed 12 of
18 for 101 yards.
"We have young talent in the secondary
and we know people have been talking about our secondary," Bigger said. "We
have faith in our secondary. ... I'm their backbone. They're my backbone. We
look at it as a group and we are one."
Young players in the Pirate program got
opportunities on offense as well. Running backs Marquez Grayson and Anthony
Scott got their first collegiate carries.
Scott showed his speed with a 38-yard
touchdown run with 6:40 left in the game.
The crowd of 42,758 had significant
participation in the Gold Out, wearing gold apparel as was encouraged and
promoted.
Pirate Nation enjoyed shows by the ECU
band before kickoff and the NCCU band at halftime.
Most fans had long exited the stadium by
the time McNeill had won for the fourth time in five season openers.
The lone setback in that span was a 56-37
loss to South Carolina in Charlotte in 2011, a game the Pirates led 17-0
before ECU turnovers and the play of Gamecock quarterback Stephen Garcia off
the bench led to a turnaround.
Benkert ran nine yards for a score to the
delight of the relatively few fans who were still on hand with 1:22 left in
the game. Grayson had a gain of 42 yards on the series and finished as ECU's
leading rusher with seven carries for 78 yards.
Benkert went six for eight passing for 50
yards with one interception — on a play that was reviewed and overturned.
The final margin was equal to Duke's 45-0
home win over the Eagles to start the 2013 season.
E-mail Al Myatt.
PAGE UPDATED
09/01/14 06:01 AM.
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