What a difference a week makes

By Brian Bailey
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The offensive timing was back for East Carolina’s final scrimmage of the preseason on Saturday.

That timing was a big part of five scores for the offense in the scrimmage. It was a far cry from a week before, when the Pirate defense dominated play.

Head coach Ruffin McNeill had that same look your wife often gives you when she’s right, and you’re wrong.

"I was very pleased with both sides of the ball today," McNeill said with that sly grin. “I liked the execution and thought the special teams did a great job as well. Our sideline communication was a lot better today from box to field to coaches, and our sub packages went smooth."

Kurt Benkert, who was named as the Pirate’s starting quarterback earlier in the week, had a nice morning, completing 8-13 passes for 87 yards. His 32-yard strike to Davon Grayson was his best play of the day.

“The line gave me a lot of time,” said Benkert. “They were moving people from point A to point B. On the one drive we ran the football eight straight times and I didn’t have to throw it once. We scored a touchdown, so that was really easy for me.”

For the second straight week senior running back Chris Hairston broke a long one. Hairston exploded for a 57-yard touchdown run. Freshman Shawn Furlow, from nearby South Central, added a 12-yard touchdown run. Furlow is doing all he can this camp to not redshirt this coming season.

One thing we’ve seen firsthand is the maturity of first year offensive coordinator Dave Nichol.

Nichol was frustrated after the first scrimmage, but kept everything on an even keel. Likewise, when things went better this week, Nichol was at the same level.

“It wasn’t going to be hard to do better than last week,” said Nichol afterwards. “Last week was pretty tough. We did some good things in this scrimmage. I thought our quarterbacks played well. I think overall we were just a lot better.

"We have two weeks left. We’ll soon focus in on our game plan.”

Nichol also had high praise for his new starting quarterback.

“He (Benkert) has made great strides, especially in the last week to seven days,” added Nichol. “He’s a smart guy and he’s motivated. It’s a dependent position. The other ten guys made strides this week and I think that’s what we saw.”

As always in a scrimmage, the offense’s success comes at the defense’s expense.

Defensive coordinator Rick Smith’s main concern is giving up the long run.

“We tell our secondary it’s our job to limit any big run to 15 yards and we didn’t do that,” said Smith, who is now in his third year as the Pirate’s defensive coordinator. “Overall though, our ones played well. The twos have to tackle better. They have to understand that they are all just one play away from being a starter. We played the threes quite a bit because they have to realize they are two plays away from being a starter.”

Even though the offense had some success, Smith was pleased with his units as well.

“It was a good day overall,” Smith added. “We gave up one long pass and one long run. We only had one turnover, and in sixty some plays we’d like more than that.”

The ECU players can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. School started on Monday, and that put this squad in its normal practice routine.

“We got two more weeks and I think we’ll be ready,” said senior linebacker Zeek Bigger. “I think the young ones are ready and it’s my job as a leader to make sure they are ready.”

The most important stat on the sheet deals with injuries. The Pirates stayed healthy as a team through the two scrimmages.

Bigger says the two scrimmages were very important.

“It’s just good to get out here and get these little shakes out before the first game,” said Bigger. “I think we accomplished a lot of good things in the scrimmage. I think we are organized and ready to play. We are just looking forward to Dowdy-Ficklen rocking in a couple of weeks.”

I think we are all looking forward to that.

BB

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