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College Sports in the Carolinas
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View
from the 'ville
Friday,
August 5, 2005
By Al Myatt |
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Big Ten transplant takes
root in 'football town'
©2005 Bonesville.net
Greg Hudson faces a monumental challenge as
East Carolina's defensive coordinator. His new job description involves
fixing a unit that allowed 39.9 points per game — the highest number in
Conference USA — during a 2-9 season in 2004.
Hudson obviously likes challenges. He left a
seemingly cushy situation at Minnesota as defensive coordinator of the
Golden Gophers where there were seven starters returning on a unit that had
allowed just 22.8 points per game during a 7-5 season.
The reasons for leaving a Big Ten program for
a C-USA outpost began with Pirates coach Skip Holtz, Hudson's former Notre
Dame teammate, but they don't end there.
"It was a chance for me to improve as a coach
and make this a great program," Hudson said Thursday on the eve of preseason
practice at ECU. "If we hadn't played together at Notre Dame, I probably
wouldn't have considered it.
"It was a very difficult decision to leave
Minnesota and the Big Ten. It was hard on myself and my family, particularly
my children."
Hudson has two sons and two daughters. That
adds up to a lot of young friends left behind.
"It was a difficult time period in the
beginning of the move," Hudson said. "Sometimes you have to go with your gut
instinct, have confidence in yourself and not be afraid."
Almost eight months after his hiring and less
than a month from the season opener, Hudson has no second thoughts about his
decision.
"I'm very happy I did." he said. "It's been a
lot of fun. It's a helluva lot warmer, too."
Some other factors reassure Hudson about
relocating from the land of lakes. One was his stint at former C-USA member
Cincinnati from 1997-2000. Hudson grew up in Cincy and was a prep
All-American at famed Moeller High.
"The other thing was that I had coached in
this conference before and I had a blast," Hudson said. "I really had a lot
of fun."
College football's unrivaled position in the
sports pecking order in Greenville is another plus.
"Regardless of the title of the conference, I
knew I was coming to a place where football is THE game in town," Hudson
said. "In Minnesota, you had the Vikings, hockey, basketball and the Twins.
Then it was Gopher football."
The game in Greenville resumes at 1 p.m. on
Sept. 3 against Duke. Hudson's efforts in revamping the Pirates will be
displayed on College Sports Television from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium that
afternoon.
Hudson began his rebuilding efforts at ECU by
watching the Pirates himself.
"In our evaluations, the first thing we did
was watch tape and, regardless of scheme, we tried to find the 11 best
football players," Hudson said. "Then we evaluated how to get those 11 on
the field at the same time."
That approach has involved some position
changes and some shuffling on the depth chart. Of eight returning starters
on defense, four are in new positions and three more were supplanted on the
first unit by the end of spring ball.
Dontre Brown has moved from nose guard to
tackle, Jamar Flournoy has gone from outside linebacker to free safety, Kyle
Chase has switched from strong safety to free safety and Zach Baker has
changed from free safety to strong safety.
Linebacker Chris Moore and defensive end
Lorenza Pickett may be the only Pirates who start in their same spots in
2005.
Richard Koonce, who was shifted from defensive
end to linebacker, feels like he's back home.
"Linebacker has always been my natural
position," Koonce said. "I love playing linebacker. You get to run around
and make plays. The coaches came in and they moved me back to linebacker.
The put some bigger guys down there at D-Line. They thought I could help out
at the linebacker position."
Hudson is committed to playing four down
linemen, which will be good news to Pirate fans who have seen ECU play some
3-man front in recent seasons — without a great deal of success.
"We will use four defensive linemen in our
basic package," Hudson said. "We think we can recruit that type of player
and we think we have that type of player."
There could be more shifts on the depth chart
in the preseason as new arrivals such as tackle Brandon Setzer, lineman
Marcus Hands, linebacker Quintin Cotton and defensive back J.J. Millbrook
look to emerge after taking care of academic matters.
Setzer was involved in spring workouts but
Hudson has never seen the rest play.
"All those guys had a year off," Hudson said.
"That's what happens when you're in that situation. They've sort of been on
their own. Now they'll get back in the swing. They have reputations as good
players but we'll see how it will be at the college level."
Hudson has structured ECU's defensive
personnel in the manner of another popular Greenville pastime.
"It's like a baseball team," he said. "You
want to be strong up the middle on defense. We want athletes on the edge who
can run to the ball."
Hudson said the biggest disparities between
the Big Ten and C-USA aren't on the defensive side of the ball.
"The most glaring differences are in the
offensive line and quarterbacks," he said. "To me the biggest separation is
the level of ability at those positions."
As practice starts today, Minnesota is a
memory. Making ECU a better defensive team is Hudson's fulltime job.
"Our number one focus is taking the ability of
the players we have and putting them in position to succeed," Hudson said.
"We'll be tough and fundamentally sound."
No delay in instant replay debut
According to a C-USA source, instant replay
will be in effect for the Duke-ECU game on Sept. 3 and for all league games.
ECU is constructing a booth to accommodate a technical advisor for the
replay system on the B level of the press box at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in an
area that formerly was used by visiting sports information personnel.
Other leagues will rely on the technical
advisor (TA) to call for replays and make the final decision on video
reviews. In C-USA, the TA will determine if a replay is warranted but the
referee will make the final decision on the field. The TA will notify the
referee of a questionable call through a vibrating pager.
Plays that can be reviewed include:
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Whether or not a runner
breaks the plane of the goal line and pass completions/incompletions/interceptions
at the sideline, goal line or end line;
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Whether or not runners or
receivers are out of bounds;
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And recoveries of loose
balls with respect to boundaries.
Potential reversals include:
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Passes ruled incomplete,
complete or intercepted in the field of play or end zone;
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Touching of a forward pass
by an ineligible receiver;
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Touching of a pass by a
defensive player;
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Quarterbacks passing or
fumbling;
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Illegal forward passes and
illegal handing beyond the line of scrimmage;
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Illegal forward pass or
handing after change of possession;
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And forward or backward
passes thrown behind the line of scrimmage.
Other reviewable situations
include runners ruled not down, forward progress errors with respect to
first down, touching of kicks, number of players on the field, clock
adjustments and fourth down/try fumble plays.
Plays that will not be
reviewed include holding, offside/encroachment, pass interference, personal
fouls (i.e. late hits), illegal blocks, illegal formations, face mask,
taunting/excessive celebration, false starts, roughing the passer/kicker and
participants in fights.
Championship game 'what ifs'
C-USA will be comprised of two
six-team divisions in football for the first time in 2005 and will have a
championship game between the East and West division winners on Dec. 3 on
ESPN at a time and site to be determined.
Home field for the C-USA title
game will go to the team with the highest winning percentage against
conference opposition. Should the two division winners have the same league
records, the first tiebreaker would be head to head results. If the teams
didn't play during the season, the host site would be awarded to the team
with the highest BCS ranking.
The C-USA media guide and
website states that if the tie is not resolved at that point or if there are
multiple teams involved, "then divisional play will be examined more
closely."
Perhaps at that point, C-USA
should take a cue from "Friday Night Lights" and flip a coin. Odd man out.
Who will examine divisional
play more closely and under what criteria would seem to leave room for
potential controversy.
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02/23/2007 12:33:23 AM
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