Offensive coordinator John David Baker and new defensive coordinator Josh Aldridge are competing each day of spring practice through their respective units.

As iron sharpens iron, East Carolina’s overall football development is defined in a relative manner by their ongoing battles.

Aldridge joined the Pirates in mid-December, filling the void created when Blake Harrell transitioned to full-time head coach. He coaches linebackers at ECU after working with defensive ends at Auburn. He worked with linebackers at Auburn in 2023.

Aldridge liked what he saw in a scrimmage Friday.

“We were like 70 percent win on third down and won the overtime,” Aldridge said Tuesday. “We did really good in the overtime period and did a great job of affecting the quarterback. Sacks, takeaways, all that stuff. I thought they did well. Gave up a few explosive plays, not that many on Friday.”

Offense had a better day Tuesday.

“Not our best practice,” Thomas said. “I don’t know if it’s because we had a great scrimmage or what, but I didn’t think we started practice well. The offense obviously came motivated, you know what I mean? Probably from how it went Friday, I guess.

“But commending them, man, they got after us. They threw it over our head several times. We’re obviously very talented at wide out and we’ve got to fix that up. We were doing some different things.”

Aldridge is implementing a new scheme.

“You keep installing,” he said.  “You don’t stop, but that’s no excuse now. We did rise up (Tuesday) in the goal line period. I like that. I think we’ve got a really resilient group on defense. … They play with a lot of fire. We just got to hone that in and send it in the right direction. But just overall, (Tuesday) was not our best day.  We did finish really well, finished extremely well.”

Explosive plays

Whether it was Eddie Hicks or Mike Weaver breaking free in Pat Dye’s split back veer in the 1970s or David Garrard passing to Troy Smith at the turn of the millennium or Rahjai Harris leaving defenders in his wake in recent years, ECU’s best teams have had a big play dimension.

Baker commented on that element of program tradition.

“As anybody knows that’s watched us, not only last year but over the years, when we can produce explosive plays — and it’s something that we harp on a ton, just finding ways to create them — when we can create those explosive plays, that’s when we can be really, really special on offense,” Baker said. “And so, hit a lot more (Tuesday) than we were able to on Friday.

“Hit some, but the guys did a great job of learning from Friday, because we made some things really hard on ourselves on Friday in the scrimmage. It honestly felt like a reminder of the first six, seven games last year. We just made everything so hard. And I thought they did a great job of just responding and learning from the scrimmage and took it to the practice field. That’s what produced some of those things.”

2024 turnaround

The struggles Baker referred to in 2024 produced a 3-4 start and resulted in the dismissal of Mike Houston as coach. Harrell took over and ECU won five of its last six, including a 26-21 win over N.C. State in the Military Bowl.

Receiving corps

Baker credited receivers in the bounce back for the offense on Tuesday.

“They’re doing a great job,” he said. “That’s where it’s such such a good room, because you’ve got such a good mix of older and younger players. When you’ve got young guys, and I still consider Yannick (Smith, sophomore) being one of our younger guys. He’s able to learn from Tyler Johnson (Penn State transfer), even though he just got here. He’s an older guy that’s played football. He’s learned from Anthony (Smith).

“Guys like him, Jyron (Waiters), Malik Leverett, who’s having an unbelievable spring. Those young guys are able to watch those older guys and learn. I talked about before, just the ability for those guys to accelerate their development and their learning. They’re doing a great job and that it’s a group that continues to get better each and every week.”

Matchup at Auburn in 2023

Aldridge and Baker have faced off before coming to ECU.

Baker was co-offensive coordinator at Ole Miss in 2023.

The Rebels took a 28-21 win at Auburn on Oct. 21 during an 11-2 season that included a 38-25 Peach Bowl win over Penn State.

Garcia gone

Quarterback Jake Garcia left ECU this week. He took considerable experience with his departure.

“He’s got other things outside the game of football,” Baker said. “He’s got a daughter and he’s got people that he cares about, that he needs to take care of. It’s not just all a football decision, so he’s got to make some decisions and look at some things that are best for him and for his family.

“I said, ‘Man, I love you, and I will do whatever I can to help you from now until forever.’ And he knows that, and so, sad to see him go. He’s been such a joy and such a great teammate to the people around him and to people at East Carolina.

“So we’ll support him and pull for him, whatever happens for him. But we got a lot of other guys in the room that we’ll continue to coach and develop and get ready to play.”

Jeter moves up

Raheim Jeter appears likely to move into the back-up role at quarterback behind Katin Houser, who is sitting out spring ball after wrist surgery.

” He’s done a great job of just developing, getting better,” Baker said of Jeter. “It’s a testament not only to Raheim but to this place. Raheim loves going to school at East Carolina. He loves his teammates. He’s a great teammate and that’s the thing I love most about him.

“But he takes coaching so well. I love when that dude walks in the room every day and so does every guy in our quarterback room. So I’m excited for Raheim because just like those other guys, it’s a new opportunity for him. Chance for reps with a different unit and so, we will see how it goes moving forward.”

Center

Baker was asked about the center position on the offensive front.

“It’s a little bit by committee,” he said. “(Tuesday), we put Bryce Weaver (D.H. Conley) in there and just force-fed him to see what he can do. He adds some different dynamics in there that some of those other guys don’t. … He’s got versatility. He can play the guard position. He’s played out at tackle force for us last year in games, so he knows it from inside and out, but he adds a little bit of size and he’s got some pop.

“He’s got the ability to move people and believe it or not, I mess with him all the time that he’s a goofball, but he’s got some leadership qualities you want that from that position. You want him to be able to speak up and get guys pulling in the right direction like a Dustyn Hall would. And so, Bryce has been in there, Darius (Bell) has been in there and we’ll just keep going. None of those guys have really done it before in a game, but they’ve got the ability to snap and that’s a huge, huge deal for us right now.”

Wisdom from Aldridge

The Purple-Gold game is April 26 at noon.

Aldridge’s goal is to eliminate mistakes as the spring sessions wrap up.

“I want to see us get better at what we have in and what we’re doing right,” he said. “We’ want to see guys not making the same mistakes.

“If you focus on not making the same mistake, eventually, you’ll run out of mistakes to make and that’s what we keep talking about. If you’ll fix your mistakes day to day, by the end, you’ll be running out of mistakes to make.

“So, I’d like to see us just not plateau and keep stacking days and finish strong these last five practices.”