Carden & Co. clicking... or not so much?

By Brian Bailey
©2014 Bonesville.net
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The East Carolina offense looks like it’s in mid-season form, or maybe better.

Scrimmages always provide a catch-22 though. Perhaps the Pirate defense has some catching up to do.

In a little over a week, that offense and defense will be fighting for the same cause. For now, intra-squad competition is the only way to try and duplicate game type situations.

After a weekend to digest the scrimmage tape Pirate head coach Ruffin McNeill seemed to be pleased with his team so far this camp.

“On the field our execution wasn’t bad,” said McNeill. “But we have a high expectation on all three sides of the ball (offense, defense and special teams) and there are some things we still can tweak and get better at. I thought the offense did a good job of moving the ball down the field.

"Defensively, we did a great job of getting to the ball and had some big stops in key situations.”

Monday’s practice was pretty much business as usual.

“After our first scrimmage we are still focusing on East Carolina,” said McNeill. “Monday we exposed the team to red zone, third-and-long, and third-and-medium situations. We are always working on special teams and that group continues to do a good job with Coach (Kirk) Doll.”

The defensive secondary was a question mark coming into camp. Quarterback Shane Carden torched that defensive group with a 12-12 effort and a couple of touchdowns.

ECU defensive coordinator Rick Smith perhaps said it best afterwards.

“You know we have a lot of young pups in there, but it doesn’t matter because you have to play,” said Smith. “If we’re going to win games they’ve got to grow up. I told the secondary yesterday that you are a spare just like the spare tire on a car. You know you have four good tires on a car before a trip. You’re on a trip and you have a blowout. If they open the trunk up and the spare is flat then the trip is over.

“If you’re a second team guy and one of those guys goes down, I hope that you’ll be like a spare tire. They just put you on, bolt you down and the trip continues. But we had some flat spares today.”

The words of Rick Smith are classic, but it’s a great analogy and something the players certainly can hang on to.

Three defensive players returned to practice on Monday. Maurice Falls, K'Hadree Hooker and Montese Overton were all back after missing Saturday’s scrimmage game.

The Pirates will take Tuesday off to break camp. East Carolina will conduct the team’s final, two-a-day session at midweek this week. The final scrimmage is also later this week, before the start of game week.

Meet the Pirates

The annual “Meet the Pirates” event featured a great crowd at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The last two guys to leave the stadium, still signing autographs late, were head coach Ruffin McNeill and quarterback Shane Carden.

“I had no idea when I got here five years ago,” Carden said when he was asked about the enthusiasm from the Pirate Nation. “It's just an awesome time to see how much passion there is for Pirate football. From kids to those that have watched us for fifty years. It's awesome.”

The Pirate Nation is chomping at the bit for some East Carolina football.

The head Pirate looks forward to the rest of the world learning more about Pirate Nation.

“The whole nation is going to see how we are in two weeks,” said McNeill. "The best fan base and the best group of support that I've been around in 34 years. They are second to none. They are the best around. Any stadium, any place in the country, we’ve got it right here in Greenville, the Pirate Nation.”

Next week Coach Ruff hosts his first press conference of the season. Then we’ll know that we finally made it to game week.

Finally.

BB

E-mail Brian Bailey.