East Carolina has been involved in spring football practice since March 25. It is a time for evaluating and indoctrinating personnel on the individual level, a time for units to develop cohesiveness and execution and a time for the Pirates as a team to prepare for the challenges that begin with the season opener at N.C. State on Aug. 28.

ECU goes on public display with the Purple-Gold game on Saturday at noon in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium

John David Baker is on the verge of completing his second spring session with the Pirates and likes the progress he has witnessed.

“Being able to look out there and see the difference from this time last year as far as just how much cleaner everything is, and obviously, it’s because it’s the second year in the system,” Baker said Tuesday. “We’ve got guys returning, those type of things, but I just feel like we’re so much farther ahead, and not so much that we’re doing a bunch of different things offensively, but just we’re so much farther ahead in the basics and fundamentals of what we’re trying to do and want to do.

“That’s probably the thing I’m just happiest about, because it’ll just allow us to continue to grow over the summer and into fall camp.”

Carryover from practice, consistency important 

Baker wants the work in spring practice to manifest itself come game time.

“We’ve just got to be more consistent when the lights come on — situational scrimmage, or period of practice, or a scrimmage in the stadium, those times,” Baker said. “You see them do it all week in practice and out on the practice field. Well, nothing should change when we step inside the stadium.

“From a consistency standpoint, I think our guys have got to just understand that we’ve got a chance to be really good. We’re really talented, but if we don’t pay attention to the details and lock into those certain things, this is the most humbling game there is.

“If you don’t do those things, you’re going to become average really quick. Those are things that we’ve got to battle, because our guys, they know how good we can be. I think you got to fight some of that complacency, and it’s easy to let your foot off the gas in certain situations when you know or you think that you can be pretty good.

“We don’t want to be good. We want to be great, and you’ve got to be great every single day. So just consistency as a whole is the thing that I think we got to continue to get better at.”

Houser progressing

Quarterback Katin Houser originally was expected to be out for spring practice following surgery on his right wrist following the Military Bowl, but he is ahead of schedule in his rehab and has been participating in a limited role.

Baker didn’t know if Houser would take some snaps Saturday.

“We’ll see,” Baker said. “I don’t know. It’s been nice. I mean, two months ago I don’t think any of us really thought he’d have any reps this spring. We didn’t think he’d be close enough for it to be even worth it, but he was so ahead of schedule as far as just his rehab and stuff.

“Being able to get any reps at all has been a win already. We will see about how Saturday goes. I think the biggest thing for him is it’s been nice for him to shake the rust off now instead of him trying to do it over the summer or fall camp, and that’s the thing that I’m most grateful for probably more than anybody.

“It’s just been good to have him back out there and he’ll be the first to tell you he missed a couple throws today that he’s going to be concerned about all night. I’m like, ‘Dude, it’s April 22nd. We’ll be fine,’ but that’s him. He’s competitive and we’ve just got to continue to shake the rust off. He’ll be great going forward.”

Spring game format

The spring game format is yet to be announced but Coach Blake Harrell has said he wants it to be as much like a game as possible.

“That’s why I say they pay Blake Harrell the big money, and I’m going to let him decide that, and I’m just going to try and score points,” Baker said. “I’ll do my job and let everybody else do theirs.”

If there are two teams, Baker said he expects to call plays for both.

“If we did split it up, I’ll probably call both sides just because of just the young quarterbacks just for their development and benefit,” Baker said. “That way I’m on both sides and I can talk to those guys. That’s probably the best thing for everybody if that’s the case.”

Ditta on hand

Baker is the quarterbacks coach and spoke favorably of freshman Chaston Ditta of Austin, TX.

“Just really, really impressed by him,” Baker said. “The thing I like most about Chasten is that you can coach him hard, and that’s the benefit of coming where he’s coming from.

“Obviously, he came from a great program at Lake Travis and got some really great coaching down there. He understands the game and got coached by people that have a great grasp of the game,

“He’s taken strides and he’ll do some really dumb freshman stuff that is just typical, but at the same time he’s put himself in a position over and over again by doing certain things that shows you he knows what he’s doing. For somebody that’s been here for three and a half months, it’s pretty impressive.”

Spring checkoffs

Avoiding injuries tops the list of Baker’s goals for the spring game.

“The first thing is always I want to stay healthy,” Baker said. “Knock on wood. We want to go out there and execute and do things right, but want to stay healthy and protect the team and protect the guys around us.

“For me, it’s always just establishing the run. We want to be great in the run game and we’ve seen that. We’ve seen the difference that it makes in us as an offense, and then we want to create explosive plays and protect the football.

“I say it all the time, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a game, spring game, scrimmage. Those are the things that dictate any football game, and so those are the things we will harp on and focus on because the next time we step in a stadium it’ll be for real.”

Leadership

Offensive lineman Dustyn Hall and running back Rahjai Harris were leaders last season on an 8-5 team, who completed their eligibility.

Baker commented on the void created by their absence and developing replacements in their roles.

“You’ve got to let some of that stuff happen naturally, but also I think you’ve got to force people in front of the team,” Baker said. “You’ve got to force people in positions and situations where they’ve got to speak to their teammates and I think that gets lost sometimes.

“I think we just expect, ‘Well, you’ve got to be a leader.’ Well, he may not know how to be a leader and so we’ve got to make sure we do a good job and we’re intentional about putting guys in position, and make sure we also have people behind them to support them when they go step out and try and be a leader because that’s a hard situation.

“You go stand in front of your peers and try and hold people accountable. That’s the hardest thing.

“It’s easy to encourage somebody. It’s easy to tell somebody, ‘Good job.’ It’s a lot harder to go up and tell somebody like, ‘Hey, I think you can do better.’ So I think we’ve got to do a good job as the summer goes and we’ve got guys that can be that.

“We’ve got guys that have been here and we’ve got new guys that have been here for three months as transfers that I think have leadership qualities that can step into some of those roles to replace a Rahjai, to replace a Dustyn Hall, guys that for us last year who were huge in keeping the team together and being able to finish how we finished.”