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Great Scott! 4-star RB set to enroll
By
Sammy Batten
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Recruiting Class of 2015 Thumbnail Sketches...
The second time around seems to have
been a charm for the East Carolina Pirates when it comes to Derrell
Scott.
ECU was one of the first schools to
offer a scholarship not long after Scott's 2011 sophomore season in
which he rushed 179 times for 1,807 yards and 22 touchdowns in helping
powerhouse Havelock High School to the state 3-A championship.
Two additional state titles, more
than 4,000 yards and 65 touchdowns later, the consensus four-star
running back opted to play for Tennessee following his senior season at
Havelock. But after an injury-plagued freshman year in which he appeared
in just two games, Scott decided to transfer to another school.
East Carolina is apparently the next
destination for the 5-foot-11, 194-pounder, although the Pirates haven't
made any official announcement. He'll have three years of eligibility
with the Pirates after sitting out the 2015 season per NCAA transfer
rules.
“I have not been asked to add that
particular young man to the roster at this point,'' ECU sports
information director Tom McClellan said when asked Wednesday if Scott
had joined the Pirate football program. McClellan noted that classes for
the spring semester at ECU began last Monday.
However, Havelock coach Jim Bob
Bryant, who has a degree from ECU, did confirm Scott's plans to enroll
for the spring semester.
“He's going to East Carolina,''
Bryant said Wednesday evening. “He's going to enroll and will be able to
participate in spring practice, but he'll have to sit out next season
due to the transfer.''
Scott couldn't have gotten much
closer to his hometown than ECU, which is just over and hour's drive
southeast from campus in Greenville.
It was there in 2010 that Scott began
a rare four-year run as a starter for Havelock's varsity football team,
playing running back, wide receiver and defensive back for the Rams as a
freshman.
“We haven't started a lot of freshmen
in our program since I've been here,'' Bryant told me during Scott's
recruitment. “But Derrell stepped right in there on a team that had been
to the Eastern finals two years in a row, and started both ways.''
Scott rushed for 500 yards and six
touchdowns, had 250 yards receiving and made 32 tackles and five
interceptions during that rookie season.
But the best was yet to come for the
son of a former U.S. Marine. Scott would collect 6,145 yards and 87
touchdowns rushing in a prep career capped by an MVP performance in the
state 3-A finals. He had scoring runs of 51, 20 and 96 yards en route to
a 209-yard rushing effort in leading Havelock to a 21-13 triumph against
Concord.
By the state championship game, Scott
had already been courted by most of the major-college programs in the
country. He had more than 20 scholarships offers before trimming that
list to a top eight of Florida, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio
State, South Carolina and South Florida. A month after the state title
game, Scott announced his intention to play for Tennessee, picking the
Volunteers over the Gamecocks.
Here was my personal evaluation of
Scott at the time he signed with Tennessee in February 2014:
“Scott is a back in the mold of
former UNC tailback Gio Bernard. He has superb cutback ability in the
open field that often leaves defenders grasping for air. While he may
not have the fastest 40-yard dash time, he rarely, if ever, gets caught
from behind. But what really separates Scott, and makes him even more
valuable in these days of the spread offense, is his ability to catch
the ball out of the backfield. Scott also has potential to become a
great kick return man.”
But as good as a healthy Scott could
be, an injured one failed to make much of an impact last season at
Tennessee. A foot injury suffered during preseason camp in August slowed
and kept him on the sidelines until the sixth game of the season against
UT Chattanooga. Scott gained 42 yards on nine carries against the Mocs
in his college debut.
Scott carried the ball two times for
minus-2 yards in the following game against Mississippi, but a hand
injury that required him to wear a hard cast kept him out the rest of
the season.
When Tennessee began practices for
its TaxSlayer Bowl appearance in December, Coach Butch Jones announced
that Scott was going to transfer.
Bryant said Scott's decision to leave
Tennessee had more to do with being homesick rather than any issues he
had with the Volunteers.
“The big thing for him was he wanted
to get closer to home and closer to his family,'' Bryant said. “That was
pretty much it.''
Michael Clark, a regional recruiting
analyst for Scout.com, has been watching Scott since his freshman year
at Havelock. Clark calls Scott “a huge pickup'' for ECU.
“He's a fantastic player, and an even
better kid,'' Clark said. “He graduated from Havelock with close to a
4.0 gpa. He's a high character kid who embodies everything that is right
about high school athletes as far as being a student-athlete.
“And, of course, he's a special
player. Players like Derrell Scott don't come along every day. There are
not many guys with his explosiveness and quickness. He makes you want to
keep rewinding his highlight video because of the way he makes people
miss. He's physically strong and obviously fits with what East Carolina
likes to do with their short passing game as well as the zone runs out
of the shotgun. I don't think they've had a running back like him in a
long time.''
Scott will be the second prominent
running back transfer to join the ECU program.
Chris Mangus, of graduate of Raleigh's Broughton High School,
informed the Pirates last September of his intentions to transfer in
from Virginia Tech. He will be eligible next fall after sitting out the
2014 season.
The Pirates are also expected to sign
one of the state's top high school running back prospects next month in
Shawn Furlow of South Central High in Winterville.
While Scott sits out next season,
Furlow and Mangus will join a stable of running backs at ECU that will
include seniors Chris Hairston and Cory Hunter, and sophomores Marquez
Grayson and Anthony Scott.
Bryant said Scott won't be bothered
by the competition for playing time once he's eligible in 2016.
“He's a competitor,'' Bryant said.
“If it were up to him, I'm sure he'd be ready to compete for playing
time next year.''
Scott isn't the only Havelock product
East Carolina has been pursuing. The Rams' dynamic 5-foot-4 all-purpose
back Matthew Boykin received a scholarship offer from the Pirates even
before his stellar senior year in which he rushed for 593 yards and 12
touchdowns, caught 66 passes for 1,252 yards and 16 scores and tallied
over 400 yards in kick returns.
Bryant said Boykin will likely enroll
instead at a junior college next fall, and he believes the Pirates will
still recruit him again in two years.
“I don't see why not,'' Bryant said.
“He's a heck of a football player regardless of how big he is. He is
lightning in a bottle. The (UNC) guy who recruits our area said he
reminds him of (Ryan) Switzer (UNC's receiver/punt returner).''
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01/16/2015 01:45 PM |
