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NEWS, NOTES &
COMMENTARY
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The
Bradsher Beat
Friday, September 14, 2007
By Bethany Bradsher |
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New stalwarts emerging for
ECU
By
Bethany Bradsher
©2007 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Zack Slate |
Jamar Bryant |
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Photos: ECU
Media Relations |
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A football game unfolds with numerous drives and
scores of plays, and each one can be like a window opening for any player.
With each snap, a player can help propel his
team to victory and himself to renown in his team’s corner of the world.
Saturday’s North Carolina game was an
unforgettable team win for East Carolina, and the immediate spotlight fell
naturally on place-kicker Ben Hartman and quarterback Patrick Pinkney.
But in the afterglow there was plenty of time
for other standouts to emerge, young men who are enjoying the sensation of
everything coming together in the dawn of the season, with the potential for
countless big plays ahead. Two such pacesetting Pirates are wide receiver
Jamar Bryant and defensive end Zack Slate.
After an outstanding high school career under Ed
Emory at Richmond County High School, Bryant signed with Georgia but was
forced to spend a year at Hargrave Military Academy because of academic
considerations. Things fell apart with Georgia, and he ended up at East
Carolina.
So Bryant came in saddled with high expectations
last season, but a string of injuries kept him from getting in the rhythm of
the offense, and in the end he only caught 11 passes for 108 yards.
He has already surpassed those totals in the
Pirates' first two games, with 10 catches for 113 yards. Bryant is turning
in the types of performances that were foreshadowed years ago, wide
receivers coach Donnie Kirkpatrick said, but his talent and athleticism have
finally converged with good health and confidence in the system and players
around him.
“Last year we wanted to use him more, but he
kept getting hurt and he never really understood the offense,” Kirkpatrick
said. “This year, he seems to know what to do.”
The top wide receiver in the N.C. Shrine Bowl
who also played quarterback, running back, linebacker and defensive back in
high school, Bryant has exceptional toughness for a wide receiver and the
kind of magnetic attraction to the ball that makes quarterbacks want to find
him, Kirkpatrick said.
“Jamar is one of the toughest football players,
no matter what position, that I’ve been around,” he said. “He’s got great
courage, he doesn’t mind going over the middle, he doesn’t mind jumping for
the ball knowing he’s going to get hit afterwards. He has great hands. He
can catch anything that’s around him.”
Bryant says he is having a great time so far,
especially in the emotion of starting his first home game before a lively
sell-out crowd on Saturday. And his confidence in the player on the other
end of the football is growing with every outing.
“Pat (Pinkney) threw the ball, I caught it,”
Bryant said of ECU's playmaking QB. “Perfect balls, I had no choice but to
catch ‘em.”
When Bryant isn’t on the field, Zach Slate is
likely to be on his way to the line of scrimmage. With six tackles against
UNC-Chapel Hill, 11 for the season and two sacks, Slate has provided solid
confirmation of the ECU coaches’ feeling that he was better suited for the
defensive line than linebacker, his original Pirate position.
“We moved him last year, because we just felt
like we needed more athleticism on the edge,” defensive line coach Thomas
“Rock” Roggeman said. “He had a good year last year, and he’s having an
excellent year this year. He just gets better and better.
“He’s got great work ethic. He goes full speed
all the time, he’s 100 miles an hour from the first whistle to the end. He
gives us great athleticism and speed and effort every snap.”
Slate can hardly even recall his linebacker
days, he said, so fulfilling is his current role stirring things up on
the line. His personal play so far is a microcosm for the team as a
whole, which he believes is stepping it up in every area.
“Each year we make a point that we’re going to
raise it to another level, so that’s what we continue to do,” he said. “And
I think that’s what people are seeing. The whole team’s bought into it, it’s
just a matter of correcting mistakes now.”
A junior from Melbourne, FL, Slate is an
important part of the ECU defensive strategy to rotate strong players in and
out of defensive positions. Specifically on the line, Roggeman is trying to
groom eight starters for four positions — athletes like Slate, Linval
Joseph, Mark Robinson and Marcus Hands — so that the momentum never lags if
a player gets tired.
“Hopefully next week we’ll be talking about
somebody else who had a great game,” Kirkpatrick said.
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09/14/2007 02:09:09 AM |
