CHRONICLING ECU AND AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE SPORTS

View from the East
Wednesday, February 3, 2016

By Al Myatt

Al Myatt

INSIDE SIGNING DAY

Pirates worked fast on recruiting class

 
 

By Al Myatt
©2016 Bonesville.net
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Thumbnail sketches: ECU's football recruiting class of 2016...

GREENVILLE — Certain elements of a real pirate's lifestyle such as attacking, plundering and escaping probably had to be done with a relatively high degree of speed.

Time was of the essence as Scottie Montgomery assembled his staff and put together his first recruiting class as East Carolina football coach.

Montgomery was named to lead the ECU program on Dec. 13 and helped Duke prepare for its 44-41 overtime win over Indiana on Dec. 26 in the Pinstripe Bowl as the Blue Devils' offensive coordinator.

He's been a busy man and so have all of his coaches. Montgomery said his staff had not taken a day off in the last month.

With the signees safely in the cargo hold of the Pirate ship, Montgomery talked about the incoming players Wednesday afternoon on the club level of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The new staff went through the old staff's commitments, evaluated their potential and added some new recruits of their own, screening for football ability as well as how they would fit in to the college world in Greenville.

The process included a half dozen from whom ECU gained commitments in the last weekend of the talent sweep.

ECU announced a class of 22. Jarred Dorton, a junior college offensive lineman, is the only one of those who did not play high school football last season.

Montgomery credited offensive line coach Geep Wade as the Pirates signed five to the blocking corps along with two tight ends.

"Offensive lineman are the bedrock of every great football program," Montgomery declared.

Story continues after the following picture...

ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery gestures while speaking with the press on Wednesday about a recruiting class that includes 21 high school players and one from the junior college ranks. (Photo by W.A Myatt)

ECU went for length and speed in replenishing the talent pool in the secondary. Defensive backs coach Rick Smith was the sole retainee from the previous staff. Incoming defensive back Javontay Smith of Carver High in Columbus, GA, reportedly was pursued by Alabama and Nebraska among other nationally-prominent programs.

Montgomery noted that three defensive line signees weighed 900 pounds combined.

Linebacker Aaron Ramseur of Shelby Crest is from Montgomery's neck of the woods in Cleveland County. Ramseur further legitimized his credentials as MVP of North Carolina's winning effort in the Shrine Bowl.

The Pirates put a priority on recruiting in-state. Seven players are within a 90-minute drive of campus. Four more call North Carolina home.

Williamston Riverside defensive lineman Jalen Price was listed at 228 pounds last year. ECU found he was significantly bigger on a personal visit.

Montgomery said that's one advantage of recruiting close to home when some schools may not want to invest the time and effort to fly in and drive to see players face to face.

Among the players ECU retained from previous commitments were backs Keyshawn Canady and Johnnie Glaspie from NCHSAA 1-AA champion Wallace-Rose Hill as well as premier passer Reid Herring of Raleigh Millbrook.

Montgomery had a relationship with Herring that helped the Pirates keep him in the signing class.

Quarterback search

ECU begins spring practice on March 16 and offensive coordinator Tony Petersen will be evaluating quarterbacks.

"I haven't seen anybody play as of right now but between Kurt (Benkert) and Philip (Nelson), it looks like I've got two upperclassmen," Petersen said. "Supposedly, they are pretty good players and we're excited about them. I look forward to it. I think it's going to be a great spring and then we've got the freshman, John Jacobs, right now. Those are kind of the three kids who'll be going at it. It's nice to have a couple of upperclassmen. I know Philip started at Minnesota his first two years and from what I understand Kurt was supposed to be the starter going into the season. They're great-looking kids. From what I hear, they're great quarterbacks. They're always coming in and wanting to talk ball."

James Summers may be headed for a position change after splitting time at quarterback last season with Blake Kemp, who is transferring.

"He's probably going to move back to a hybrid type of receiver," Petersen said. "He's just so talented. He's a guy we've got to get the ball in his hands. You never know, he could also come back in a Wildcat. He's a special player."

Petersen, a former quarterback at Marshall, was offensive coordinator for former Pirates coach Skip Holtz at Louisiana Tech for the last three years. The Bulldogs were 9-4 overall and 6-2 in Conference USA in 2015, averaging 37.5 points and 482.8 yards of offense per game. Louisiana Tech had 687 yards of offense in a 47-28 bowl win over Arkansas State.

"We're going to be a spread offense," Petersen said. "We're going to be similar to what I think East Carolina has seen. ... We want to be able to run the football and we want to be able to throw the football. I wouldn't say it's a run-first or a pass-first. ... You've got to be able to get big plays and you've got to be able to score in the red zone. That's kind of where we start from."

The Pirates will be dealing with a learning curve on offense.

"We'll be doing a lot of teaching," Petersen said. "All of a sudden, I'm starting over again with assistant coaches on the staff and players as far as installing. ... I was about to go into year four at Louisiana Tech. It's a lot easier when you've put the offense in and you've been rolling. Starting over is challenging but it's also exciting."

Petersen got positive feedback from Holtz as he considered the career move to ECU.

"He said it's a great place and you're going to love it," Petersen said. "He really enjoyed his time here."

What will Petersen be looking for from his quarterbacks?

"I'm looking for a guy who is going to make great decisions with the football," Petersen said. "That's always been No. 1 for me in all my years. If you can't make the decisions with the football, you're going to put the ball in harm's way and we're going to lose football games, so they have to make great decisions with the football. After that, I'm looking for guys who can make the plays. When I've made the right decision to throw the ball to the curl, I'm looking for a guy who can make the throw. They've got to have enough God-given ability to do it."

Similar to Vandy

Defensive coordinator Kenwick Thompson felt the Pirates did a good job of addressing personnel losses down the road.

"Being a new staff, you really need a complete class," Thompson said. "You don't want to leave holes in the class from year to year. We felt like we needed to address, especially on defense, several positions because of the fact that next year it will be a veteran crew coming back. The following year, there will be a lot of people walking out the door so we wanted to make sure we had some depth at several positions to make sure that we didn't have holes within the classes as we moved forward."

Thompson came from Vanderbilt, where he was associate head coach and linebackers coach.

"You just try to look for the player that fits the program and culture that you want at your university," Thompson said. "At Vanderbilt, we were used to looking at a lot of players because of the fact that we had to find players to be able to fit that mold, whether it be academically or physically. Here at East Carolina, we did the same thing. We tried to make sure we looked under every stone, looked behind every tree to make sure we got the best player that we possibly could. ... Recruiting is about relationships, regardless of where you're at. We feel like if players trust that you're going to help them on and off the field, they'll come play for you. We did that at Vanderbilt and we kind of took the same idea here."

Scheme-wise, Vanderbilt had a 3-4 alignment. Thompson is more focused on how his unit plays as opposed to what scheme ECU employs.

"Some of the things will be similar," Thompson said. "Of course, some of the things will not. We'll try to get our best football players on the field. I've been doing it long enough to where I've done several different things. The thing that we want to concentrate on is we want to make sure we do the things that we can do. It's not going to be about what I did at other places. It will be specifically fitted to what we have here at ECU. ... Regardless of scheme, how we play will be our calling card – how hard we play, effort, pad level, technique, how physical we are. We'll also do some things to put guys in position to make plays.

"I came from a 3-4 family so our base will be that. Again, the goal is to get the best football players on the football field, guys who are smart, play physical, fast and very aggressive on a consistent basis."

AD likes schedule, recruiting approach

Season tickets for football went on sale this week.

"I think we have a great home schedule, with N.C. State here (Sept. 10), having Western Carolina here (Sept. 3)," said ECU athletic director Jeff Compher. "Two in-state schools is huge for us. I think that will help. Obviously, with the recognition that the American Conference got last year, two Top 25 teams, a Top 10 team, a New Year's day team."

Houston got a bowl win over Florida State. The Cougars were No. 8 in the final rankings.

"That kind of competition in our league and what it could mean for us, I think people are beginning to recognize what a strong league we have," Compher said. "I think that will bring people out as well."

Compher liked the new staff's diligence and efficiency in putting together its initial recruiting class.

"My reaction is more toward the work ethic of this group of new coaches, how they came together as a staff," Compher said. "Some didn't know each other at all before they started working together. I liked seeing how Coach Mo brought everyone in, created this can-do attitude of we're going to get the best players we can and fill the needs we have. He enjoys the recruiting process and all of these coaches do. To see some of the creativity they've put into the process also was really gratifying as well."

Compensation for assistants and coordinators was an issue with ECU's previous staff.

"As far as that pool of dollars goes, there's been some adjustments, but for the most part it's about the same amount," Compher said.

'Shank' encourages Moore

Special teams coordinator Shannon Moore was encouraged by former Pirates offensive line coach Steve Shankweiler to make the move to ECU. Shankweiler and son, Kort, worked with Moore at Florida International.

"He was like, 'Go. You gotta go,' " Moore said. "Everybody said that's a great place to live. He told me how Kort used to walk over to the practice field after he got out of (Elmhurst) school. There he was every day."

The older Shankweiler is offensive coordinator at FIU, which opened the season with a stunning 15-14 win over Central Florida. Kort Shankweiler coaches quarterbacks and wide receivers.

"We want to keep things simple," Moore said. "We want to allow our kids to play fast. ... We're going to start from ground zero. We're going to be a big technique team. We're going to be easy with our schemes and allow ourselves to make adjustments. ... If you're a receiver and you're going to play special teams, you remember all the run plays, all the pass plays. Then we do a ton of different stuff on our punt team, our kickoff team, our punt return and our kickoff return and you're on those also, at some point you're going to get overloaded. If you're a receiver, if you're a linebacker, if you're a DB or a running back, probably the first thing that is going to start slipping or get a little gray is what's your special teams job?

"We've got to make sure we are just as sound and just as good on special teams as we are on offense or defense so we're going to try to keep those things as simple as we can.

"We're going to put kids in position for them to succeed. We're going to go out and compete and play fast and we're going to play good."

Connors working conditioning side

Jeff Connors continues to direct strength and conditioning for football.

"Workouts are going great," Connors said. "I really like the new system that Coach Mo brought in for winter conditioning. It's highly disciplined and detailed, more than any I've ever seen. It's exciting because I think what we're focusing on is what our team needs right now. Things are going very well in the weight room as well. We've got guys putting up pretty decent numbers already, particularly our linemen. I'm very excited about the strength of the defensive linemen.

"I think the whole mentality of our team is going to be raised by the time we get to March because of the way that Coach Mo's system works."

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