Bonesville Mobile Alpha Rev. 2.1a*

Mobile Home  |  Desktop Home

ECU lost game, but may have found QB

Editor's note: This article was originally published in The Wilmington Star-News.

By Brett Friedlander
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

The East Carolina football team came out of its season opening win against Towson with more questions than answers.

Last Saturday in Gainesville, even in defeat, the Pirates may have done the opposite.

Though ECU is much too far along to be satisfied with moral victories, coach Ruffin McNeill and his team can at least feel good about the fact that even in their 34-27 loss at Florida, they might just have found a quarterback capable of leading them to a successful season.

And surprise, it wasn’t the one for which many fans were clamoring.

Backup James Summers did make his first appearance as a Pirate, playing two short possessions in the second quarter while going 3 of 4 for 13 yards. But when ECU finally got its act together and began to find a productive offensive rhythm, it was another junior college transfer – starter Blake Kemp – that led the way.

Kemp will never make anyone forget his predecessor, Shane Carden, who rewrote the school record book over the past three seasons. He still has trouble throwing across his body and isn’t very accurate on routes of more than about 10 yards.

Despite all that, he and new offensive coordinator Dave Nichol found a way to work around those shortcomings. On a soggy field aptly called “The Swamp,” they came within one slippery misfire of an improbable road victory against an SEC opponent.

“We have full confidence in Blake and in our team that we were going to get the job done,” junior receiver Isaiah Jones said afterward. “I’m just really proud of my guys. We really fought hard.”

Much of that fight was against themselves through the first 2½ quarters.

After stunning the crowd at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with a with an impressive touchdown drive on the game’s opening series, capped by the first real downfield completion of the new season, the Pirates fell back into the run, run, short pass rut that helped make last week’s win against Towson much closer than it should have been.

In the process, they wasted numerous opportunities to take control of the game.

Save for a quick-change 27-yard strike to Jones on the first play after a Bobby Fulp interception, it took ECU falling behind 24-14 late in the third quarter for Nichol to finally stop babying his replacement quarterback and aggressively start finding ways for him to get the ball to his team’s best playmakers.

“We knew what they ran and we had the right plays called for their coverages,” Kemp said. “We did a good job of running what the coaches wanted.”

Kemp found Jones and tight end Bryce Williams 11 times on the Pirates’ final three drives, one of which resulted in a field goal and another in a touchdown. Their final possession might also have yielded points, but the threat ended at the Florida 13 when a wet ball slipped out of Kemp’s hand as he reared back to throw with 20 seconds remaining.

His final numbers were a Carden-like 34 of 54 for 333 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

“I asked our coaches to find adjustments and answers, and I thought we did that.” McNeill said. “We’ll still learn from that.”

Some of that learning will undoubtedly be done by Summers, who was recruited as a wide receiver and was only moved back to quarterback three weeks ago following a season-ending injury to projected starter Kurt Benkert.

McNeill praised Summers’ cameo performance as “warlike” because of the circumstances under which it came. The coach indicated that Summers will probably get more opportunities as the season progresses.

But considering the growth, the leadership and the grit Kemp showed, especially after his team fell behind and needed it most, it’s more likely that those future snaps will come in change-of-pace situations than as the full-time leader of the offense.

Contact Brett Friedlander

PAGE UPDATED 09/17/15 02:47 AM.

Copyright © Bonesville.net. All rights reserved. No content on this site may be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any fashion without explicit written permission from the editor. Information from Bonesville staff members, East Carolina University, Conference USA and other sources was used in composing and/or compiling the articles and data on this site. This site is editorially independent and is not affiliated with East Carolina University or Conference USA. View Bonesville.net's privacy policy. For advertising or other information, e-mail editor@bonesville.net.