CHRONICLING EAST
CAROLINA & CONFERENCE USA
SPORTS
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View from the East
Thursday, July 26, 2012
By Al Myatt |
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Editor's note: This
report by Al Myatt from Conference USA's 2012 Football Media
Day event in Dallas is Part Two of two.
Click here to read Part One. |
Pirates not alone in QB search in
evolving C-USA
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Photos by Al Myatt |
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By
Al Myatt
©2012 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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Select and replay audio clips from C-USA
Media Day in a new window.
DALLAS — Conference USA
was in a new location for its football media day, the Dallas-Fort Worth
Airport Marriott. There was also a different format for the day's
proceedings. East Division coaches did television interviews at the
local Fox station in the morning and visited with print media in the
afternoon. It was vice-versa for the West Division bosses, who did their
session with writers before lunch.
Last year in Memphis, each
coach took his turn at the podium and spoke to the media as a group.
The upcoming season
certainly will be a contrast from a year ago when there seemed to be an
overabundance of proven quarterbacks.
Change is part of C-USA's
identity at present. The league loses Central Florida, Houston, Memphis
and Southern Methodist after this season. UCF's George O'Leary skipped
the media event this year and so did Mike Price of Texas-El Paso, who
reportedly has but one year remaining on his contract.
As C-USA evolves, it will
add Charlotte, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Old
Dominion and Texas-San Antonio to its membership. The 49ers and
Monarchs, who will no doubt become neighboring rivals of the Pirates,
will join the fray for the C-USA title in 2015.
Passing arms such as Case
Keenum's, which produced 5,631 yards and 48 touchdowns at Houston, are
gone. League champ Southern Miss lost the leadership of Austin Davis.
Tulsa moves on without G.J. Kinne taking snaps. ECU's situation in the
post-Dominique Davis era is certainly not unique among C-USA teams.
"I expect we'll see a
slower start to offensive production," said Tulsa coach Bill
Blankenship. " ... Will defenses dominate early? It should make for an
interesting start to the season."
Southern Methodist and
Tulsa both have transfers from powerful programs. Mustangs coach June
Jones is grooming Garrett Gilbert, a transfer from Texas. Gilbert came
in when Colt McCoy was injured in the national championship game with
Alabama at the conclusion of the 2009 season. The Golden Hurricane will
have Cody Green at quarterback. He played in 17 games at Nebraska.
The battle for the
starting job at quarterback for ECU will begin again on Aug. 3 when
preseason practice starts. Rio Johnson, Shane Carden, Brad Wornick and
Cody Keith are the contenders.
"I like that group," said
Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill. "Cody Keith can throw it around. I like
him. He's going to be a really fine quarterback for us here in the
future. Rio had a good spring game and ended up strong."
A hand injury forced
Carden out midway through spring ball.
"Shane Carden was really
coming along in the spring," McNeill said. "I would like to have seen
how he would have finished. Brad Wornick is a veteran. He may look tough
sometimes in practice but when the lights come on, he seems to make
plays.
"I think it will be a
battle that will be resolved pretty quickly. It will be the guy that
makes the best decisions and makes the least amount of mistakes. That's
a key and then who can move the chains and operate the offense. ... I
feel good with any of those guys."
Better depth at running
back and on the offensive line could help offset inexperience at
quarterback. In terms of talent and numbers, the Pirates defense has the
potential to continue the improvement it showed during 2011. Some of
ECU's special teams personnel may lack experience but Pirates special
teams coordinator Kirk Doll certainly does not.
Media day was a time for
questions and the 2012 season will provide the answers.
Quick Hits from East
Division Coaches
Every coach on hand was
asked about a key factor for their programs going forward. Here are the
responses from the East Division. The answers from the West Division
coaches will go up Friday.
The questions posed to
each of the coaches was, 'What factor is foremost for your team to reach
its potential this season?'
The answers:
 Ruffin
McNeill, East Carolina: "Stay healthy. Keep developing depth and
keep our competitive spirit. This team is a team I really like. I've
said that a number of times. I like their mentality, their
competitive spirit. It's a team that does not complain or make
excuses which is what I've been aiming for. No egos. No
entitlement-type thought process. Teamwork first. Those are things I
think we've got to do."
 Doc
Holliday, Marshall: "I felt last year we took a step as far as
getting this program back to winning championships. This year, if
we're going to take another step we have to get better as a football
team. We've got big challenges out there. This is an excellent
league. We play an excellent schedule. I've got a lot of players
coming back and they've got to continue to grow as players and as a
team to accomplish our goals. I like our team right now. At least we
have a quarterback (Rakeem Cato) who has played. I think anytime
you're successful, it starts with the quarterback position."
 Jason
Fuente, Memphis: "Beforehand, we talk about what we want to
accomplish. We've got to become accountable to each other. ... The
biggest thing to me is how do we handle adversity. We have typically
not handled it very well in the past in my understanding. Everybody
is in now. When the bullets are flying and we're sitting there in
the foxholes, who's going to be in there? That's the thing we've
talked about. ... You may have some rocky waters. We've got to keep
plugging away. It's a long season. It's a long game. It's a long
quarter. It's a long drive. Keep giving yourself one more chance. I
think the mark of this team will be how do we handle adversity."
 Ellis
Johnson, Southern Miss (Johnson was an assistant at ECU from 1985 to
1987): "I think the most important factor overall is that our
football team is going to have to develop confidence. That's going
to hinge on our players stepping into leadership roles. I think
we're going to have a more difficult schedule. Coming off of a
successful season, this can be a huge test for our football team's
fabric. It's going to stretch us and stress us. Without good
leadership from inside, we'll have a tough time being successful
through that stretch but if these guys step up and have great
leadership, I think we'll be fine. I think we'll benefit from the
tough games early and it's going to make us a better team at the
end. We've got issues at quarterback. We've got issues at
linebacker. We've got issues on the depth chart. We've got a tough
schedule. We've got a lot of things that are concerns for me. The
main thing that I hope happens in that first three to four weeks of
preseason is that this football team develops an attitude and an air
of confidence and a unity about themselves with some leadership from
inside."
 Garrick
McGee, UAB: "It would be the way we think. You sit at every one of
these tables and they talk about quarterback play or linebacker play
or getting more red zone reps. It's all going to be about the way we
think, the way we approach our practice sessions, the way we
approach the games. That's what's going to decide. In my opinion,
that's what separates the great teams from the average teams is the
way they think."
 Brent
Key, UCF (filled in for George O'Leary): "For us to be successful
this year, we've got to finish. That's been kind of the goal from
Jan. 1 to now is getting that into the players' heads. You go back
and evaluate the games we ended up on the short end of the stick
last year and it's a play here, a play there. Six of the seven
losses were decided by seven points or less. In spring, we got back
to the basics. We talked about finishing and then back to the
basics, being a team that's going to block and tackle. We're going
to block as good as we can and we're going to get better at it.
We're going to tackle better. When you look at it, you can be as
fancy as you want to be about the game of football but it comes down
to who tackles better and who blocks better. That's a fine line.
That's what we're trying to get back to."
Credit: C-USA Media
Day coaches' photos by Al Myatt.
E-mail Al Myatt
Al Myatt Archives
07/27/2012 02:13 AM
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East
Carolina head coach Ruffin McNeill (above)
and ECU defensive back Damon Magazu (below)
represented the Pirates at Conference USA's
media kickoff event in Dallas. They each
spoke with Bonesville's Al Myatt.