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BAILEY'S
TAKE ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the
Anchor Desk
Tuesday,
August 23, 2011
By Brian
Bailey |
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Pirates get a jump on game week routine
By
Brian Bailey
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
East Carolina’s football
squad broke camp on Monday morning, another step towards the start of
the new football season.
As if the logjam on
Greenville Boulevard wasn’t evidence enough, the students are back and
classes begin today.
The Pirates have been in
football class for the last couple of weeks. Now the balancing act
begins.
Pirate coach Ruffin
McNeill explains it this way.
"This is the start of a
mock game week," McNeill said. "We treated today like a regular Sunday
practice with Sunday practice gear and Sunday practice preparations.
Tomorrow will be treated like a Monday off day with the players going
through their first day of classes. We’re trying to duplicate a game
week to get them acclimated for next week."
Next week will be the true
game week. East Carolina opens the season in Charlotte on September 3rd
against South Carolina.
The Pirates ran through
their second scrimmage of the preseason on Saturday morning at Dowdy-Ficklen
Stadium. Video cameras were not allowed but all indications were that
the scrimmage went well.
Coach Ruff “eye-balls” a
workout and then evaluates it on tape. Usually, his first impressions
are proven through the camera’s lens.
"Watching film I saw
fundamental improvement, which I’m always looking for," he said. "The
schematic execution was very good from all sides of the football. The
offense did a great job with some long plays and the defense was able to
turn the ball over on fourth down and make tackles for lost yards."
The Pirates will take
Tuesday off to start classes and then get set to begin
the team’s regular practice schedule.
McNeill says normal game
week practices are much more specific and precise.
Those practices run down
like this:
••• On Sunday, the team
returns from a game and goes through meetings, film study, and
conditioning and begins to think about the next week’s opponent.
••• Monday is the Pirates'
day off. The NCAA mandates that teams take one day off per week. At East
Carolina that day is Monday.
••• Tuesday is a heavy
work day of practice in full pads. It is by far the team’s toughest day
of work during the week.
••• Wednesday is
considered a medium day. Hitting is curtailed for the most part, but the
physicality of the practice is judged on an “as needed” basis.
••• Thursday is more of a
dress rehearsal day for the squad. The game plan is now in place, just
tweaked a bit during the walk-through. The squad limits the hitting even
more compared to earlier in the week.
••• Friday is a travel
day. For home games, it’s a bit of a second rehearsal as game day
approaches.
Just like previous coaches
at East Carolina, if the schedule changes for some reason, the days keep
the same name. Thursday night games throw a big monkey wrench in the
schedule, but players and coaches know that regardless of what the
calendar says, five days before a game is a Tuesday workday, meaning the
team will be in full pads and working hard.
At this point many are
wondering, what day is it anyway?
The day that matters most
is less than two weeks away, as the Pirates open at Bank of America
Stadium against the Gamecocks.
BB
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08/23/2011 02:11 AM |
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