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Part Two: Measured change is in the air

Read Part One: Getting to know Coach Mo

By Al Myatt
©2016 Bonesville.net
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Scottie Montgomery may not have head coaching experience but that hasn't stopped him from conducting business like a seasoned veteran at the outset of his career at East Carolina. He has put together an impressive set of coordinators and assistants thus far. The Pirates got their first recruiting commitment of the Montgomery era this week from linebacker Aaron Ramseur of the coach's old stomping grounds in Cleveland County.

Montgomery talked about himself in Part One of this series with Bonesville. In Part Two he discusses some of the issues facing the Pirates as they prepare for the 2016 season. Montgomery tracked new ECU offensive coordinator Tony Petersen for years. He's not focusing on any player discontent that may have followed the coaching change at ECU and he's looking forward to the pending quarterback competition in the spring.

Coach Mo lured an OC he emulated

Montgomery has brought in Tony Petersen, a former Marshall quarterback, as offensive coordinator. Petersen was most recently offensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech for former ECU coach Skip Holtz.

The Bulldogs were 9-4 in 2015 with a 47-28 win over Arkansas State in the New Orleans Bowl. In that game, Petersen's unit had 458 passing yards, 687 total yards and set or tied 17 New Orleans Bowl records.

There will be some adaptations from what ECU has done offensively, Montgomery said.

"There's going to be some transitional time for our guys," said the new coach. "There's no question about it. I wanted to go out and get a dynamic person and a dynamic offensive guy that can come in and impose his will on the team and on the quarterback position. That's what we tried to go out and do. I would say that there are some similarities. There are also some things that differ, not only from what I've done but what we've done here because I think growth is getting better and moving forward.

"I've watched Coach Petersen for a couple of years. We had a chance to watch him. They were playing against a team that we were going to meet, Rice. They had an unbelievable game. At that point in time, I started kind of tracking him and watching him. They just continued to do great things on offense. He doesn't know it but I stole some stuff from him and used it. I probably didn't do as good a job as he did but it helped us.

"There's going to be some transition time. He is very flexible. Another reason I like him, he's very sharp so he's not going to make guys learn something that they don't necessarily have to. He's kind of said that it's better for one guy to learn a few things versus 85 people to try to learn everything new. We're really happy with him. We had a battle on our hands to get him."

QB depth impressive at ECU

There will obviously be a lot of quarterbacks competing in Montgomery's first spring practice at ECU.

Kurt Benkert, the projected starter last year as a sophomore, should be back from a knee injury. Left-hander Blake Kemp completed almost 70 percent of his passes during a 5-7 season for 2,658 yards with 16 touchdowns, while splitting time with James Summers, who also will be a senior. Minnesota/Rutgers transfer Philip Nelson sat out 2015. John Jacobs spent a developmental year as a redshirt freshman.

"Knock on wood and I am knocking on wood as I say it, I don't think that I've been in a situation to where we have the quarterbacks available that we have here at the talent level that we have here that are all available to go and to practice," Montgomery said. "We've maybe had two quarterbacks or we maybe had one quarterback that we were holding our breath on at Duke that we were hoping doesn't get hurt.

"These guys (at ECU), they're ready to compete. They're all anxious to get out there, anxious to work with Coach Petersen. It's going to be sad and lonely for me at times because I'm going to miss my quarterback room. Coach Petersen is going to do a great job of evaluating that position. I'm looking forward to the competition. I'm looking forward to Coach Petersen coaching and me getting a chance to watch and critique that position but also offensively, defensively and special teams. But more than anything, the availability of the guys we have here. I'm excited. It's unfortunate that you can't play more than one player at that position unless you do some of the stuff we did (at Duke). It's unfortunate but that's the way it is so we're looking forward to that competition."

No transfers

There was some discontent among players reported when Ruffin McNeill was dismissed. It appears that the Pirates in general will give the new coach a fair chance to win their confidence.

"It's been very positive – everywhere that I've been and at that position," Montgomery said. "At the quarterback position, everywhere that I've been, there have been guys that wanted to leave if they didn't get a chance by their second and third year. That's unfortunate because that second or third year may be the year that they get a chance to play. I have not sat down in detail with anybody in my office and talked about them leaving or not getting a chance to compete so they want to leave. That's not what we've had a conversation about so. ... It could happen but may the best man win."

Recruiting in transition

Some of the names that had been reported as commitments to the Pirates before McNeill departed are looking elsewhere, according to reports.

Montgomery and his staff have been involved in screening for academics and other factors since coming aboard. Finding the right guys for the program remains the priority.

"Slow and steady wins the race," Montgomery said. "You have to evaluate everything, not just talent. You have to evaluate their ability to come in and play, their ability to come in and be a part of Pirate Nation, their ability to come to Greenville and be productive in Greenville. ... You have to have in your mind a set of calmness and you have to pause a little bit because we're bringing in the most talented coaches that we possibly could find. You know when you bring in that level of talent and coaching that they're going to come with a certain amount of guys that they want to get evaluated.

"I'm not for turning guys loose. That's not who we are. I haven't been raised that way. I like the guys that we have in the class. I'm going to continue to work to make sure that gets better. Now we're in the process, we have official visits coming in. ... Recruiting is going well. ... We've already picked it up a notch. Our guys are in here working as we speak. More than anything, we've got to be sure that these men are going to be great men for Greenville. That's what we're doing. ... We can't wait to see some of these high school coaches. ... "

"A lot of things can change by the time February comes. I can say it will be a mid-size to large class."

Montgomery said the Pirates will address some position needs with junior college players.

"Yeah, we're going to have to," he said. "Unfortunately, we're going to have to. My standpoint on that is I don't have a problem with recruiting certain positions from junior colleges. But I want to recruit North Carolina and I want to be a developmental program more than an acquisition program. That's what I want to do. Is that going to be the correct way to do it all the time? It's not. We don't live in a perfect world. I would like to recruit some of our talent and develop it. We've got coaches that know how to develop talent. We're not utilizing our coaches if we don't let them develop them. I don't want to be in the acquisition business all the time. ... We do have some issues that we have to address and that will happen pretty quickly. We'll do our best to try and get it done."

Spring practice

Montgomery was asked about priorities in spring practice.

"The first thing is discipline and conditioning," he said. "They're going to be huge. We're going to be a hustle team, first and foremost. Schematically, we've got great ball coaches but we're going to treat the ground like a hot stove. That's something that they need to understand. The things that we can get better at we have complete control over. We control our effort. We can control that as coaches, as players. We're going to give 100 percent effort. We're going to finish everything that we started. Our practices are going to get better as the spring goes on.

"I expect them to get better as the practice goes on. Those are the things that we're going to concentrate on. From a fundamental standpoint, our defensive scheme is going to be very similar with some new detail. Offensively, it's going to be similar with some new details. We're not coming in and putting in the triple option. We're not coming in and putting in a completely new defense. .. We will remain a three front on defense. ... I don't think the transitional time should kill us to the point of where it bogs us down that we can't finish every single play. That's what I want to see."

E-mail Al Myatt

PAGE UPDATED 01/08/16 04:54 PM.

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