Inside Game Day Saturday, August 30, 2014 By Al Myatt

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.

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PAGE UPDATED 09/01/14 06:01 AM.