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No draft call, no problem for
ambitious Pirate trio
Bonesville.net Staff Report
©2004 Bonesville.net
Three East Carolina players
who were overlooked in this past weekend's National Football League draft
have hooked up with teams via free agent contracts and each will go into
camp intent upon carving out a niche on the play-for-pay level.
Wide receiver Terrance Copper
signed with the Dallas Cowboys, defensive lineman Damane Duckett agreed to
terms with the Carolina Panthers and fullback Vonta Leach inked a 3-year
deal with the Green Bay Packers.
Offensive lineman Brian Rimpf
was the lone ECU player selected in the draft, going to the Baltimore Ravens
in the seventh round.
Copper set ECU school records
with 87 receptions for 897 yards as a senior. He was seventh in the NCAA
statistics last season with 7.25 receptions per game. His 139 career
receptions rank second on ECU’s all-time list. He’s fourth in school history
in career reception yardage with 1,683.
“I’m very excited,” Copper
said. “It’s a dream come true. I was a little upset about not getting
drafted but this is a great opportunity.”
Copper, who ran a 4.40-second
time for 40 yards at ECU’s pro day, will report to the Cowboys on Thursday.
Dallas officials have talked with him about also playing on special teams.
Duckett, who is 6-foot-7 and
300 pounds, was athletic enough to fill a reserve role on the basketball
team at ECU earlier in his college career. He played in 48 games for the
Pirates, making 23 starts. He led ECU defensive linemen in tackles as a
senior with 41. He had 134 tackles in his college career, including 22 stops
for losses.
“I’m proud of Damane,” said
ECU coach John Thompson, a defensive coordinator at Florida, Arkansas and
Southern Miss before joining the Pirates. “All of those guys (Rimpf, Copper,
Duckett and Leach) are great athletes and even better people. ... Damane has
really worked hard in the offseason. I’ve seen him about every time I’ve
been in the weight room.
“Damane can get it done. He
could be a defensive end or a defensive tackle. It wouldn’t surprise me to
see him get bigger and become an offensive lineman. I’m not speaking for
John Fox (Panthers coach) and nobody has said anything about that to me but
he’s just a big athlete who can do a lot of things.”
Leach will take an exam at ECU
on Thursday morning and leave for a mini-camp at Green Bay after that.
“It’s a good opportunity for
me to make the team,” Leach said. “They’ve talked to me about playing
fullback and special teams, which is basically the same role I had here (at
ECU).”
Leach began his college career
as an inside linebacker but was moved to fullback as a junior although he
wasn’t always on the field as ECU used a one-back set extensively. Leach got
a lot of playing time at fullback as a senior and his lead blocking helped
Marvin Townes run for over 1,128 yards. With Townes injured in the late
stages of the South Florida game, Leach played tailback — running for 111
yards and 3 touchdowns.
Leach was offensive MVP for
the Gray team in the Blue-Gray postseason all star game.
Copyright 2004
Bonesville.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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02/23/2007 11:29:57 AM
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