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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
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By Brian Bailey
Sports Anchor of WNCT-TV 9 |
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Fans not the only ones looking forward to
Saturday
©2003 Bonesville.net
East Carolina will conduct a couple of more practices this week to prepare
for Saturday’s return of the Spring Game.
Coach John Thompson and his staff were to prepare a rough draft on
Monday to choose up teams for the game. The coach says it’s important to
get the players excited about playing the game.
I know that the Pirate faithful are excited about Saturday, and they're
not alone in that enthusiasm.
“Now that you bring it up, I’m looking forward to it,” Thompson said.
“I’ve been just so into this thing. I know it’s going to be a big, big deal.
I’m absolutely looking forward to it.”
Physical spring
East Carolina Coach John Thompson enjoys putting his team through
physical workouts. Saturday’s scrimmage certainly wasn’t a thing of beauty,
but Thompson is finding out which players on this team really want to play
football.
“We’ve put these guys through an awful lot over the last three weeks,”
Thompson said on Saturday. “With the exception of the first three, which the
NCAA says we have to go in shorts, they have all been physical. Today was
the most physical and this group has really responded.
“There are a lot of good things going on,” Thompson continued. “We get
frustrated at times but that’s ball. If everything was really good, then we
wouldn’t need to practice. We’ve still got plenty of work to do.”
It’s taken a while, but I’ve finally found something that John Thompson
and Steve Logan have in common. Both have similar feelings about the
quarterback position, that it’s really just one of eleven positions on the
offense.
“Whether it’s offense, whether it’s defense, whatever position — be it
quarterback, running back, receiver — we are just looking for guys to
compete and get better,” Thompson said. “We aren’t looking for who’s keeping
their position. We are looking for who’s competing and who’s getting better.
"Paul (Troth) is competing and getting better. Desmond (Robinson) is
competing and getting better. That’s a situation that we’re not spending a
lot of time on right now; we’re just trying to get them better."
No longer just a blocking back
I asked Coach Thompson if there was one player that really stood out this
spring. Thompson didn’t hesitate with his answer.
“Vonta Leach has had a great spring,” Thompson said. “He’s had big runs
and blocking and he can do so many things. He is so valuable on special
teams. You just love his personality and how he competes everyday.”
Leach was pretty much just a blocking back last season. This year,
though, after an impressive spring carrying the football, Leach will find
himself playing a bigger role in the offensive package.
Resurgence of the fade
The fade route is apparently back in the Pirates' offensive arsenal.
Paul Troth hooked up with Terrance Copper on a couple of nice plays for
touchdowns on the fade route on Saturday.
“I love that pass,” Paul Troth said. “We look for the corner to come up
and we know that Terrance can beat any back one on one. He’s just had a
great spring and he’s catching everything that is thrown his way.”
If Copper needs any advice on how to run the fade, he’s got Larry
Shannon, one of ECU's all-time greatest receivers, at practice everyday.
Shannon, whose NFL career was cut short by injuries, is a graduate assistant
coach on Thompson’s staff. It just so happens that his bread and butter was
the fade route to the corner of the end zone.
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02/23/2007 01:25:08 AM
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