Junior Smith is making his presence felt
in Greenville again and helping East Carolina shore up its recruiting
presence in a key in-state region.
The Pirates' all-time leading rusher
returned to his purple-and-gold roots in December as a member of new
head coach Skip Holt’s staff. Smith was immediately assigned to recruit
the Fayetteville area where he lived and starred as a prep player at E.E.
Smith High School.
So it came as no surprise earlier this
week when the Pirates landed two players from the region for its
recruiting Class of 2005.
Linebacker J.T. McCoy from
Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville and offensive lineman Terence
Campbell of Purnell Swett High in Pembroke were products of Smith’s
recruiting efforts.
The previous coaching staff at ECU had
recruited both players, but it wasn’t until Smith arrived on the scene
that their interest in the Pirates became serious.
“Coach Smith called me about four weeks
ago and said they were going to recruit me, but he didn’t know if I’d
get an offer yet,’’ McCoy said. “Then, last Friday (Jan. 29), he called
and said if I could get to Greenville that weekend that he had gotten
the OK to make an offer.
“So I was off to Greenville.’’
Campbell had a similar experience with
Smith as his recruiter.
“Coach Smith really impressed
Terence,’’ Purnell Swett coach Thomas Umphrey said. “Before he went to
Greenville, Terence really was leaning toward N.C. State. But I think he
just fell in love with the coaching staff and how well they treated him
at East Carolina.’’
McCoy, a 6-foot-3, 222-pounder with
4.63 speed in the 40-yard dash, was a three-year starter at
Seventy-First. He earned first-team All-Mid-Southeastern 4-A Conference
honors as a senior when he led all Cumberland County defenders with 173
tackles.
Vanderbilt had originally extended a
scholarship to McCoy, but pulled the offer after it received commitments
from several other linebackers. But Seventy-First coach Chuck Marrs said
Vanderbilt assistant coach David Turner contacted the ECU staff and
encouraged them to look at McCoy.
Army, Catawba, Coastal Carolina,
Newberry, Western Carolina and Wingate also offered McCoy.
“They’re getting a kid who’s really
young to the game,’’ Marrs said. “He’s only played football for three
years. Some look at that as good and some think it’s bad. But he hasn’t
been playing long enough to acquire a lot of bad habits.
“He’s 6-3, he’s fast and he’s smart.
Because of his intelligence, for us, he made all the strength calls on
defense. In the league we play in, that takes something special because
some teams we play like E.E. Smith don’t use a lot of formations. Then
you turn around and play a Jack Britt or Scotland and they use about 30
different formations. You have to have a guy in the middle of your
defense who has the mental toughness to recognize that, who can get
everybody straight and carry out all the blitzes we do.
“J.T. was that guy. He’s just an
absolute great kid to be around.’’
McCoy is excited to have the
opportunity to play for East Carolina.
“I can’t wait to get up there,’’ he
said. “I believe Coach Holtz is going to make East Carolina a winning
program again, and I’m excited to be part of that. The school has made a
commitment to winning.’’
Campbell’s route to ECU had a few
detours along the way.
The 6-51/2, 300-pounder lived in the
Robeson County town of Maxton, but left just prior to the start of his
freshman year to live with an uncle in Loveland, Ohio, a suburb of
Cincinnati. He didn’t play football as a freshman at Loveland, then
split time between the junior varsity and varsity as a sophomore.
Homesick for his family, Campbell
returned to Maxton and enrolled at Purnell Swett for the 2003-2004
school year.
“Every coach’s eyes light up when they
see a kid who is 6-5 and close to 300 pounds and is athletic,’’ Umphrey
said. “That’s a coach’s dream.’’
Working primarily at offensive tackle,
Campbell performed well enough to earn first-team All-Two Rivers 4-A
Conference honors as a junior. He followed up by earning second-team
honors this season while playing tackle on offense and end on defense.
“He’s so quick for an offensive
lineman,’’ Umphrey said. “He runs about a 4.8 or 4.9 40 and is 6-5 and
300 pounds. He is unbelievably quick and agile for his size. He’s also
pretty strong, but he’ll have to get in the weight room and get even
stronger to play at the Division I level.’’
N.C. State was the first major school
to show interest in Campbell, and Maryland was recruiting him as well.
But neither program had come through with an offer before Campbell
headed to Greenville for an official visit.
“They set me up with a great host in
Gary Freeman (offensive lineman),’’ Campbell said. “He was kind of in
the same (recruiting) situation and he chose East Carolina a couple of
years ago. They just presented the whole package to me.
“But I was really sold when we started
taking a walking tour of the campus. I started talking to a coach – I
didn’t know who he was – and we were talking about basketball. I didn’t
know it was Skip Holtz, the head coach. But that’s how down to Earth
they are. I just had a great time.
“I talked to a lot of the players, too.
They put players in the NFL and it’s a place I can play early. It’s a
great opportunity for me.’’
