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Pirates rigging for difficult seas

By Al Myatt
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

The 2015 East Carolina football schedule is quite a conversation piece. There's a rematch with Florida from the Birmingham Bowl in the Swamp on Sept. 12. The trip to Navy for the Midshipmen's first ever American Athletic Conference contest ensues Sept. 19.

Then it's back home to take on Virginia Tech on Sept. 26. The Pirates stretch their legs for ventures to Southern Methodist (Oct. 3) and Brigham Young (Oct. 10). ECU hosts Tulsa (Oct. 17) before Temple comes to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for a Thursday night game on Oct. 22. Then there's a Friday night contest at Connecticut on Oct. 30 and a home game with South Florida on Nov. 7.

After 10 games, the Pirates have an open date before a Thursday night game at Central Florida (Nov. 19). The regular season finale is at home against preseason AAC favorite Cincinnati on Nov. 28.

The game nobody seems to be talking about is Towson in the season opener at home on Sept. 5.

"The games are a long way off," Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill said recently. "The team we need to be thinking about is us. We need to be focused on getting better every day in practice, every play in practice."

Teams with continuity on their coaching staffs and in their personnel can improve greatly in the preseason. When there is less transition within a program, less learning and teaching is required. Installation is essentially a review for many of the players who will be on the field. That means a higher degree of comprehension and proficiency within systems. ECU has some areas of transition but for the most part the voids are being filled with folks who have been waiting to step up.

The Pirates have a new offensive coordinator, Dave Nichol, although he has been around the Texas Tech attack that has evolved into the ECU scheme going back farther than his predecessor, Lincoln Riley, who left ECU for Oklahoma after an 8-5 season that included a 5-3 ledger in the AAC.

"I'm 10 years older than Lincoln," Nichol noted at media day last week.

In the next man up sort of hiring process that McNeill employed, Nichol moved from outside receivers coach to OC and Garrett Riley, Lincoln's younger brother, was promoted from staff assistant to outside receivers coach.

McNeill accepted the departure of Lincoln Riley as well as the exit of offensive line coach Brandon Jones to California as consequences of success. The hire of Brad Davis as offensive line coach could be a season changer. Davis, a starter on the offensive front during a period of high performance at Oklahoma, is motivated and demanding. He appears poised to get the best out of an experienced group that has the ability to enable a skill corps to run and pass.

The defense tends to play second fiddle when the offense is averaging 533 yards per game, outgaining all four Power Five teams it faced in 2014. The unit lost six starters but line coach Marc Yellock, linebackers coaches John Wiley and Duane Price, and defensive coordinator/secondary coach Rick Smith have tweaked positions so that the least experienced players will be on the weak side. The least experienced players defending the smallest area to the boundary. You have to like the thinking.

"We can run," Smith said when asked about the strength of his unit. The front seven should be pretty stout with lineman Terrell Stanley back from an automobile accident that sidelined him in 2014.

"He's a grown man," McNeill said of Stanley, who had seven sacks in 2013.

With a philosophy that stresses running to the ball, mike linebacker Zeek Bigger is usually among the first to arrive, leading the team in tackles as a junior.

The secondary has a greater degree of experience than it did last season. Smith will get the most out of smoke, mirrors and cultivated talent.

ECU needs more production out of a field goal unit that was 1-for-8 beyond 40 yards last season. The Pirates had a better conversion rate on fourth down (11 for 24 for 46 per cent). That's simply an area that must be improved for ECU to fulfill its self perception in football. The missed field goals were often costly when weighed against the average margin of defeat of 7.6 points.

The Pirates' average margin of victory in 2014 was 21.1 points.

Every team has its own personality as McNeill has expressed at the outset of preseason camp, so we will see who assumes leadership roles in the absence of accomplished quarterback Shane Carden.

The Pirates need to hit the ground running against Towson, a Football Championship Subdivision program that was 4-8 overall last season and 3-6 in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Tigers have 19 starters back.

The second game of the season might be a good time to play the Gators, who are in the midst of a transformation under first-year coach Jim McElwain. Hopefully, the Pirates will be closer to full strength than when they lost 28-20 to the Gators in Birmingham despite holding a 536-399 lead in total yardage. The Pirates had three turnovers at Legion Field and each was huge.

ECU has had some epic struggles against Navy's option offense and quarterback Keenan Reynolds is back for his senior season. That will be a challenge as the Midshipmen have an open date while the Pirates are at Florida. The outcome against Navy will not impact the Pirates' ability to win the AAC East Division. Navy is in the West Division and ECU will still control its fate with head to head matchups against division opponents.

If the Pirates divide the season into quarters as has been the case in the past, the Midshipmen will complete the first quarter.

The strength and conditioning program of Jeff Connors continues during the season and certainly will be tested against Virginia Tech, which seeks to establish old school dominance at the line of scrimmage. The Hokies open the season at home against defending College Football Playoff champion Ohio State. Virginia Tech travels to Purdue the week before coming to Greenville.

If ECU can win its games against SEC and ACC opponents and those teams play well within their schedules, that factor has the potential to boost the Pirates in the national picture in terms of strength of schedule.

SMU has a new coach, Chad Morris, who was noted for his offensive production at Clemson. A factor worth watching will be what kind of effect matchups with Baylor and Texas Christian will have on the Mustangs before they host ECU.

It will be interesting to see how the lengthy trips to SMU and BYU in successive weeks have on the Pirates. The matchup with the Cougars in Provo, Utah, was scheduled when Terry Holland was athletic director at ECU and it appeared BYU might help access to the Big East.

The Pirates will no doubt be happy to get home for a pair of games with Tulsa and Temple. Hopefully, ECU can take better care of the football than when five lost fumbles and an upset by the Owls led to an exit from the national rankings last season. Temple has 10 of 11 starters back on defense and eight returning on offense.

If there were lessons to be learned from the Temple matchup, it was that the Pirates need to be focused on every opponent and that severe weather can be a factor in the AAC.

The trip to UConn could be subject to the latter factor. The Huskies played ECU within 31-21 last year in going 2-10. South Florida has changed its systems. The Pirates' 28-17 win in Tampa last season required a comeback for ECU's first victory over the Bulls.

The AAC schedule makers certainly created some potential drama with UCF and Cincinnati at the end of the Pirates' regular season slate. Hopefully, ECU can go into those contests in contention for the division title.

The AAC's first-ever championship game between the East and West division winners is Dec. 5 at noon. That's really a long way away in college football chronology.

More importantly, there are two practices scheduled for today and a scrimmage Saturday morning.

The Pirates need to get better in the preseason. The schedule will require ECU to be at its best week after week.

E-mail Al Myatt

PAGE UPDATED 08/14/15 11:59 PM.

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