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NEWS, NOTES &
COMMENTARY
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The
Bradsher Beat
Friday, September 22, 2006
By Bethany Bradsher |
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Young blood pumping new life
into ECU 'D'
Fueled by their partisans
in the stands, freshmen and sophomores making big plays
©2006 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
On Saturday, as the Memphis offense became more
ineffectual and the East Carolina defenders seemed to be creating turnovers
at will, defensive end Zach Slate noticed a symbiotic relationship between
the men in purple and the people in the stands.
“With the crowd being the way it was, I was
excited,” Slate said. “Somebody makes a play, and the crowd feeds off of
that, and at the same time the players feed off the crowd. Next thing you
know, another thing happens, and then another thing. It’s like a snowball.
It’s one after another. It just keeps rolling in and rolling in.”
Slate, who had the interception return for the
touchdown that gave ECU the lead and turned the tide for the team’s first
victory, is part of a defensive front that came in short on Division I
experience but long on the desire and ability to make each play count.
With senior Shauntae Hunt out with an injury,
the four players who are contributing at the defensive end slots started the
season with a collective five games of collegiate playing experience, head
coach Skip Holtz said. All five of those games came from sophomore Marcus
Hands, who had earned a starting job last year before a shoulder injury
ended his season.
The other three players — Slate, C.J. Wilson and
Scotty Robinson — are true rookies, with Wilson playing as a true freshman
and Slate and Robinson coming off of redshirt seasons. While three games
hasn’t gone too far in seasoning them, it was enough of a glimpse to show
the Pirate Nation what Holtz and Greg Hudson have long suspected — ECU has a
formidable defensive line in the making.
“That position, we are much more talented than
we were a year ago, but that does not necessarily mean that we’re going to
be better,” Holtz said. “I think they’re playing really hard right now.
They’re growing, they’re developing every day. You can see the progress.
“We just need to keep maturing. And the really
exciting part of it is, they’re back for the next three years.”
Hands, a rising defensive star last year before
his injury, has noticed a maturity in his less experienced teammates that
accounts for their playmaking lately. Quentin Cotton, Pierre Parker and
Kasey Ross also caused Memphis to turn the ball over in the Pirates’ first
victory.
“If you really watch Zach Slate play, he plays like he’s a veteran,” Hands
said. “The same for C.J. Wilson, Jay Ross, they’re playing like real
veterans. It’s a good rotation.”
Slate, a native of Melbourne, FL, was recruited by the previous coaching
staff in a time when he had never given a thought to ECU. Now a faithful
Pirate, he marvels at the closeness of the defensive players, at their unity
of purpose.
“I’ve enjoyed watching us become close as a
group of friends and play together and learn together,” Slate said.
Their next step could be a stint as giant
killers, if the Pirates can find a chink in West Virginia’s armor this
weekend. The Mountaineers, ranked 4th in the U.S., come to campus without
even playing a close game yet in their 3-0 season. So there is plenty to
intimidate in this scenario, but Slate also sees the WVU game as an outing
with exceptional potential to jump-start the program.
“It’s really just one of the greatest
opportunities I think we as a team have had in four years,” Slate said.
“It’s the type of stuff you dream about as a kid: A fourth-ranked team
coming into your place, sold out, on national television. It’s stuff you
literally dream about.”
While the players are dreaming Mountaineer
dreams, Holtz is trying to tamp down their emotion and their anticipation so
that they won’t be exhausted by kickoff time on Saturday, he said. He let
them out of Wednesday’s practice 20 minutes early because he sensed that
they were tired, he said. Now he and his players just need to sidestep the
hype until it’s time to line up across from West Virginia on Saturday and
prove whether bright spots like the defensive line truly have staying power.
“I just think we need to stay focused on what
our role in this is,” Holtz said. “We’re not spectators in this thing.”
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02/23/2007 01:13:18 AM |
