VIEW THE MOBILE ALPHA VERSION OF THIS SITE

Bonesville: The Authoritative Independent Voice of East Carolina
Daily News & Features from East Carolina, Conference USA and Beyond

Mobile Alpha Roundup Daily Beat Recruiting The Seasons Multimedia Historical Data Pirate Time Machine SportByte™ Weather

 

 

 

 

 
Target your ad message at thousands of ECU Pirate fans. Call 252.349.2221 for flexible options & rates.

 

 
 

 

SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
-----

Pirate Notebook No. 430
Monday, May 17, 2010

Denny O'Brien

Davis, Carden enter QB sweepstakes

By Denny O'Brien
©2010 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.

Enroll, or not to enroll. That apparently was the quandary with which quarterback signee Dominique Davis struggled after former East Carolina coach Skip Holtz departed the Pirates for South Florida.

A part-time starter at Boston College where he was an academic casualty following his freshman campaign, Davis was a mid-year signee for the Pirates after spending last season at Fort Scott Community College.

Instead of enrolling at ECU for the spring semester as was originally expected, Davis took a wait-and-see approach.

Part of the waiting game was to see who the Pirates would hire as Holtz's replacement. Many sources confirmed that Davis was also open to switching schools if the right situation had presented itself.

As a result, Davis missed spring practice, during which the Pirates installed their new Air Raid offense. In order to have any chance of seizing the top spot in the fall, the ECU staff made it clear that enrollment in the 1st summer session was in everyone's best interest.

“When you miss spring ball, you don't miss only the 15 practices and the scrimmages, you miss the meeting time,” East Carolina offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley said. “You miss the individual drill work. You miss so many things.

“Guys coming in, to be able to compete, they are going to have to be good in a hurry. They are going to have to have great summers.”

Davis finally enrolled late last week according to several athletics department sources, and he is currently listed as a “prospective student” on the ECU e-mail directory.

Another incoming gunslinger already enrolled for the summer is freshman Shane Carden from Houston. He is the first quarterback that Riley recruited specifically for his system, and the Pirates' OC is very high on Carden's potential.

But just like Davis, Carden will have to absorb the playbook quickly and emerge as a frontrunner for the position during the summer. Once fall camp begins, Riley hopes to move quickly to identify a starter.

“We're going to have about two weeks where we're going to have to really get after it in the fall and then we're going to make some decisions and start narrowing it down and focusing in on the guys who we think move the ball the best,” Riley said. “A lot of it will depend on how good of a summer these guys have, how hard they work and how many extra hours they spend in here on their own time doing what they need to do.”

Translated, a long road awaits both Davis and Carden.

For Davis, significant progress must be shown with accuracy. He completed just 46 percent of his throws during his freshman campaign at Boston College, and followed that with a 53 percent completion percentage during his lone season at Fort Scott.

Carden's accuracy numbers mimic Davis' from last season. Carden completed 52 percent of his passes during his senior season at Houston's Episcopal High School, though his touchdown-interception ration was outstanding at 17-4.

Regardless of who wins ECU's QB battle this fall, his completion percentage needs to approach 60 — not 50 — when the season commences.

Unique implementation

There is no shortage of variations of the spread offense.

Mouse Davis, considered one of the forefathers of the spread, years ago developed a pass-oriented approach known as the run-and-shoot. Rich Rodriguez demonstrated at both Clemson and West Virginia that the running game could flourish without the quarterback under center.

Today the spread offense and its many implementations are widespread across the high school and college ranks. But the version Riley learned under Mike Leach's tutelage at Texas Tech isn't one of the more commonly installed versions, and the Pirates' offensive coordinator doesn't understand why.

“To me, you would want an offense, as a head coach or AD, that has a track record like this one does,” Riley said. “ I'm not really sure yet. I think it probably is something on the horizon. In ten years, I think when you look across the major programs, you'll probably see this offense a little more than you do.

“It is a little surprising, because people love to watch it, players love to play in it, coaches love to coach it, and recruits love to come play in it. You score a lot of points. There are so many big positives to it. The offense took a program in Texas Tech that was just an average BCS program and, over the last several years, it was extremely competitive on the national scene.”

A quick glance at the NCAA statistics suggests that Riley could be on to something. Texas Tech finished fourth nationally in total offense in 2009, while Houston, which runs a similar version of the spread, finished first.

Lack of success?

Even though the spread offense is pervasive across college football, it's a system that makes many NFL scouts and executives cringe. Many even suggest its heavy reliance on shotgun and pistol formations is the primary reason for the decline in NFL-ready quarterbacks.

But Riley isn't buying it.

“That doesn't make much sense,” Riley said. “With all due respect to those guys, if they knew a little bit more about football, they would probably be coaching. That just doesn't make much sense to me.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

O'Brien: Davis, Carden enter QB sweepstakes
BVL Box Score: UCF 14, East Carolina 1
BVL Box Score: East Carolina 7, UCF 5
BVL Box Score: East Carolina 11, UCF 6
Myatt: Wiley descends from mountain to help Ruff
Bradsher: Disarray dissipates as Macy takes charge
BVL Box Score: East Carolina 7, Elon 4
Bailey: Pirates of the fairer sex hog the headlines
BVL: Weekly college baseball polls
O'Brien: ECU better prepared for next shakeup
Bailey: Holland's Mulligan

“You look at the three most dominant teams in the NFL right now — I think that most people would agree is probably the Saints, the Colts, and the Patriots — those teams are easily 70-80 percent in the shotgun. To say you can't succeed, that doesn't hold water with me. I don't understand that.”

It might be time for NFL executives to embrace it. Like it or not, the overwhelming majority of the quarterback crop is being bred in some variation of the spread.

E-mail Denny O'Brien

Denny O'Brien Archives

05/17/2010 02:26 AM

©2001-2002-2003-2004-2005-2006-2007-2008-2009-2010-2011-2012-2013 Bonesville.net. All rights reserved.
Articles, logos, graphics, photos, audio files, video files and other content originated on this site are the proprietary property of Bonesville.net.
None of the articles, logos, graphics, photos, audio files, video files or other content originated on this site may be reproduced without written permission.
This site is not affiliated with East Carolina University. View Bonesville.net's Privacy Policy. Advertising contact: 252-349-3280; Editorial contact: editor@bonesville.net; 252-444-1905.