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FOOTBALL |
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Eye patch symbolizes blind
spots |
Season openers have provided
some special moments in the
career of East Carolina
football coach Ruffin
McNeill. In his first start
at strong safety for the
Pirates at N.C. State in
1977, he made a
touchdown-saving tackle in
the final seconds of a 28-23
win. ...
More from Al Myatt... |
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FOOTBALL SPECIAL
FEATURE |
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15 Questions
for Davon Grayson |
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 Davon
Grayson (6-2, 196)
looks to rebound in
the 2014 East
Carolina football
campaign from a knee
injury that ended a
promising true
freshman season in
which he had 18
catches for 176
yards and four
touchdowns in six
games. The sophomore
outside wide
receiver is from the
talent-rich
Tidewater Virginia
area, by way of
Kings Fork High
School. ...
More from W.A.
Myatt... |
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Pictured: Devon
Grayson is back in
form after rehabbing
from an injury last
season that cut
short a spectacular
start in his
freshman campaign.
The Suffolk, VA,
product is listed as
East Carolina's
starter at the "Z"
position (outside
receiver) for
Saturday's opener
with N.C. Central .
(ECU Media Relations
photo) |
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FOOTBALL |
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'Intensity' changes for Ruff & Co. |
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The summer seems to
drag each year, unless you’re at the
beach enjoying the fun in the sun.
The East Carolina Pirates' version
of that fun in the sun comes in
August, in preparing for the
upcoming college football season.
...
More
from Brian Bailey... |
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MULTIMEDIA |
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Audio: The Brian
Bailey Show |
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  The
Brian Bailey Show
airs on Pirate Radio
1250 on Mondays at
6:30 p.m. Brian's
guest this week was
ECU offensive
coordinator Lincoln
Riley (right):
Replay
show... |
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Audio: Coach Ruff
Presser |
  ECU
coach Ruffin McNeill
addressed the media
at his inaugural
weekly press
conference of the
2014 season on
Monday (courtesy of
Pirate Radio 1250):
Select
clip... |
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FOOTBALL SPECIAL
FEATURE |
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Offensive encore ready to
roll |
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About a year ago, East
Carolina offensive
coordinator Lincoln Riley –
in our annual pow-wow that
would be better titled,
"Please coach, open up and
tell me what you really got
there" – told me several
things that played out
almost prophetically.
...
More from Ron Cherubini... |
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Photo: Fifth-year East
Carolina offensive
coordinator Lincoln Riley,
pictured along the sideline
at Southern Miss in 2012,
spoke recently with
Bonesville's Ron Cherubini
about the talent on his unit
heading into the 2014
season. (Bonesville archive
photo by Al Myatt) |
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FOOTBALL |
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Captain Carden is leaving
his mark |
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Shane Carden provides quite
a few advantages for East
Carolina. A fifth-year
senior, Carden has an
intricate understanding of
the Pirates offense. If
Lincoln Riley, ECU offensive
coordinator, doesn't feel
comfortable dialing up any
call in the playbook, he
never will. ...
More from Al Myatt... |
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OLYMPIC SPORTS |
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Pirates relish being underestimated |
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 Preseason
coaches’ polls are a rite of late
summer for fall sports, but that
doesn’t mean coaches, players or
fans have to put much stock in them.
If anything, East Carolina soccer
coach Rob Donnenwirth looks at his
team’s name, sitting at No. 8 out of
10 teams in their new American
Athletic Conference, and he is
delighted. ...
More from Bethany Bradsher... |
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By
Brett Friedlander
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
View ECU's
2014 football schedule
We’ve all heard that offense sells tickets, so it
shouldn’t come as a great surprise that earlier this week, East Carolina
– which already ranks first in attendance among programs in non-“Power
Five” conferences – announced that it has surpassed the 20,000 mark in
season ticket sales again this year.
Led by quarterback Shane Carden and wide receiver Justin
Hardy, the Pirates were among the best in the nation while averaging 468
yards and 40.2 points per game in 2013. With most of their top
playmakers returning, they figure to be just as potent in their American
Athletic Conference debut this fall.
As exciting a prospect as that might be, it’s the other
half of the aforementioned adage that has some doubting ECU’s ability to
compete with college football’s best.
Because while offense sells tickets, anyone worth his or
her salt also knows that it’s defense that wins championships. And it’s
tough to put together a championship unit when you’re forced to replace
eight of 11 starters thanks to graduation and injury.
Or so it would seem.
But while it’s an indisputable fact that coach Ruffin
McNeill and defensive coordinator Rick Smith have their work cut out for
them in filling all the holes, especially in the secondary, the category
“Starters Returning” can sometimes be deceiving.
In the case of the 2014 Pirates, there’s a lot more
veteran talent on hand than meets the eye.
“Some people don’t think we have a lot of experience, but
I think we do,” junior inside linebacker Zeek Bigger said. “We’ve got a
lot of guys that have played a lot of football and we’re all hungry. We
want to have a better season this year than we did last year.”
Bigger’s point is best illustrated by his linebacking
corps. Although technically he is the only returning starter of the
group, each of the three other positions will be manned by players that
have already been there and done that thanks to Smith’s reliance on
depth and injuries to Jeremy Grove and Kyle Tudor.
Fellow inside linebacker Brandon Williams, for example,
is a three-year letterman who recorded 69 tackles and an interception as
a reserve last season. On the outside, junior Montese Overton and senior
Maurice Falls have 56 games and 122 tackles between them.
The situation up front is a little more unsettled thanks
to a leg injury that has sidelined senior nose tackle Terry Williams for
at least Saturday’s opener against N.C. Central and the unexpected loss
of junior Terrell Stanley, who will sit out the season while recovering
from injuries suffered in a serious offseason car accident.
But even without those two, there’s still some
battle-tested talent with returning starter Crishon Rose sliding over
from end to the middle and career backups Johnathon White and Fred
Presley taking over on the outside. The ace in the hole, however, is
6-foot-1, 300-pound N.C. State transfer K’Hadree Hooker, who despite
never having taken a college snap, has impressed his teammates with his
strength and quickness during practice last season and preseason camp.
His addition is emblematic of a new wave of defenders,
which also includes outside linebacker Dayon Pratt and inside linebacker
Devaris Brunson, who make up in athleticism what they lack in actual
game experience.
“We have a lot more speed on the field this year,”
Brandon Williams said.
“Everybody at every position is just an athlete,” Falls
added. “You can’t label anyone as a defensive end or defensive tackle,
it’s just athlete, athlete, athlete across the entire defense. This year
is going to be a big year.”
How big a year will ultimately depend on the development
of a secondary that head coach McNeill proclaimed is a “reload”
situation rather than a rebuild.
“I think we’ve done a good job recruiting the kids who
fit there,” McNeill said. “Coach Smith is one of the best secondary
coaches I’ve been around. I like the way the secondary is competing.”
One thing that will help a unit that features only two
players with extensive resumes – corners Detric Allen and Josh Hawkins –
is the front seven’s ability to pressure the quarterback. The quicker
the opposition has to get rid of the ball, the less time ECU’s defensive
backs have to cover their man.
But let’s face it, the Pirates don’t have to be the
reincarnation of the 1985 Chicago Bears for the team to be successful.
With Carden, Hardy and so many other offensive weapons putting fans in
the seats at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, ECU’s defense need only be a little
better than average to complete the old football adage and give its team
a realistic chance at winning a championship.
