In-Depth Monday, October 20, 2014 ----- By Ron Cherubini

Zeek Bigger Class: Junior Position: ILB Hometown: Gastonia High School: Ashbrook

Zeek Bigger (44) and fellow linebacker Montese Overton go airborne after a fourth down stop against Southern Miss last season. (Bonesville archive photo by W.A. Myatt)

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By Ron Cherubini
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

While East Carolina may not be known as Linebacker U, there should be no mistaking the quality of players that have come through the program at the position. From greats like Harold Randolph, Danny Kepley, George Koonce, Vinson Smith, Robert Jones, Morris Foreman, Jeff Kerr, Mark Libiano, Chris Moore, Pernell Griffin, Quentin Cotton, Pierre Bell and Nick Johnson all the way through to Jeremy Grove, plenty of superior linebackers have donned the purple and gold.

Last year, after injuries sent Grove to the sideline, then-sophomore Zeek Bigger stepped into the lineup. Anyone who had been following the program knew that Bigger was a player pressing on the starters, ready to get his playing time. When he stepped into the line-up, everyone who watched just knew. We all knew the next name going up on that list.

Watching the Pirates' active Mike linebacker flying around the field conjures up the awe-inspiring play of another charismatic No. 44 who dominated the middle of the ECU defense during the here-to-now pinnacle of Pirate football in 1991.

It is hard not see Bigger in the context of former consensus All-America, first-round NLF draft pick, NFL Pro Bowler, and three-time Super Bowl Champion Robert Jones. Like Bigger, Jones burst onto the Pirate scene as a sophomore, wedging his way into a starting role which he then turned into memorable junior and senior season campaigns. He was the consummate inside backer and the country knew it.

Bigger wears that number well, and his style, well, there are similarities. Jones was a sure, sure tackler who had near premonition-like abilities in reading a play and feeling the flow to the ball. And when he got there, the ball carriers knew it. Text book tackling with a splash of ummphhhh added to each finish. He was the unquestioned leader and heartbeat for a team that fueled off his passion.

Bigger, who is among the nation’s top-10 tacklers, averages double-digit tackles a game. And he makes those tackles in impressive fashion, quick-reading a guard to blow up the back in the hole, slicing through a wedge of linemen to cancel out a screen in the backfield, and even the old-fashioned way of running over the blocker through the ball carrier to the ground behind him.

“When I watch Zeek play, what I see is that he is one of those guys who gets better every game,” said Jones. “He has a nose for the ball and great instincts.

“One thing from when I played, I remember, was that once the ball was snapped, I didn’t care who was in the way, they were not going to stop me from getting to the ball. I see a lot of that in Zeek. He is on play after play. He hustles. When a guy with talent like he has works that hard every play, he is a guy that makes a defense better."

Right now, the big difference between Jones and Bigger is that wall between accomplishment and potential, where, right now, Jones sits well beyond the line where potential meets history. Bigger is currently scratching on history’s door.

Jones, in all honesty, would love nothing better than to see Bigger’s name rewrite the conversation for the Pirates faithful.

“I hope someday that Zeek is remembered more than me, and I think you understand what I mean when I say that,” said Jones. “In 1991, we made a name for ourselves and kind of opened the door for the program to get the recognition it deserved then, and I have told this to (Jones' son, ECU receiver) Isaiah as well — that I want him to make his own name and for people to forget about me and remember him.

“For Zeek, it is about going out there and being the best he can become. This team has a chance… they can be the team that everyone remembers rather than the Peach Bowl team. I gave a talk to the team when Skip (Holtz) was there along the same lines. I remember telling them the same thing. I told them, ‘If you are tired of hearing about the Peach Bowl team, then go out there and change the highlight for the program. Make new history.”

Jones sees some of that in not only this ECU team, but specifically in Bigger in a position that calls for leadership by example.

“Zeek is a great player and will get better with this coaching staff,” said Jones. “I would say to Zeek, ‘Keep working like you are and please, erase my name with your name.’ It won’t change the history, but it will bring the focus on this team and its spot in ECU’s history.”

While the comparisons to Jones are nice to make, ECU Coach Ruffin McNeill cautioned that Bigger is not yet ready to be placed in that conversation. But McNeill will acknowledge there is a lot to say about his star backer.

“I think of Zeek… when I see (him), I think of (him) as (him),” said McNeill. “Every linebacker is different. Linebacker is a position that they have instinct and you can tell them anything and they still make plays. Each plays the position differently. Zeek is different in his style and how he plays and so is Brandon (Williams) and Ray Tillman, Joe Carter, Jeremy Grove and Kyle Tudor.

“The ability to make plays separates the really good ones that have played.”

Jones agrees wholeheartedly with Coach McNeill on that point and went a little further.

“To me, the ingredients necessary to make plays, to be such a good tackler, are determination and persistence with consistency,” said Jones. “It seems like either it is in you or it is not. When Zeek runs to the football, there is no doubt in his mind that he is going to make the tackle. You can see that. In his mind, he has already won the battle.

"You hear coaches talk about the game being mostly mental and it sounds like coach talk, but it really is such a mental game. I always tell Isaiah to envision yourself doing what you are supposed to do before every play. Zeek has that vision of what he needs to do and if a player has that, he can be very good (at tackling). There is nothing distracting him, no minor injuries, the crowd, nothing. And that has nothing to do with your vertical, or your bench press, or your squat, or your 40 time. It is all about determination and persistence, the will to make plays. I see that in Zeek.”

McNeill is steadfast in his assessment that what it takes to be a big-time linebacker in today’s era is significantly different that even 15 years ago in many ways.

“Then you look at outside and inside (positions),” said McNeill. “So those guys really feed off each other very well. They have their own distinct style. These guys now really have to be able to play on space and on air. These guys years ago not as much. But now with three receivers, Zeek has to play in space just like a DB does, but then he has to come back in the box. As far as being versatile, being able to play in the box and play in space and he can do both.”

To continue the comparison, Jones was a bit larger then Bigger and perhaps Bigger’s speed is a little better, but what they share is that they are both classic finishers. These men know how to tackle guys where they meet them. And they share another trait that all the greats do.

“Robert and Zeek in leadership,” said McNeill, referencing an area where he sees the strongest comparison. “Robert also went to the next level with his play, but now Robert is an even better man and husband than you can imagine. He is a great dad, one of the best parents. He and Maneesha are two of the best parents that I have ever had to deal with. Coming from a hall of famer, Super Bowl champion multiple times, coming from the greatest team to ever play at East Carolina, he and Maneesha have blessed us with great kids.

“Zeek has the potential to be that and I am anxious to see where he ends up when it’s all said and done.”

Bigger, whose love for the game shines through the haze of physical bashing on the field, feels that leadership is a natural trait that can become more pronounced if worked on. And for Bigger – who like Jones was not heavily recruited – inner drive has created the player on the field.

“When the coaches were recruiting me, I told them if they would just give me a chance, I would prove to them that it was the right choice, to take a chance one me,” said Bigger. “I have always played and practiced, like it is the last time I will ever get to play this game, because, you never know — it could be. So, I push and I push and I think it has always been part of my personality. I think my teammates see it and appreciate it.”

On the field, Bigger is animated. You can hear his excitement, his love for this game comes through. It is contagious and it is full-on his personality.

“This is game is so much fun. I try to be a happy guy out there, and when I am with my (teammates) on the field, it’s like being out with your friends at a club having a great time,” said Bigger. “This is a game that is fun to play and I think the guys see that I just love playing football and it gives them energy, gets them excited too. If I am a leader, then that is how I lead.”

Where Bigger has emerged as the larger-than-life face of the 'D,' he joked about the amount of attention he has garnered this year. ”There are actually people waiting to interview me sometimes," he said. He is serious about working to make sure that the defense is considered more than a sideshow for the marquee offense that tears through opponents.

This is where he deflects the credit but takes on the role of pushing work ethic and doing things the right way the first time and every time. He makes so many tackles because it is his assignment made easier by a ton of other guys.

“Each of us has a job and we each have to do our job exactly as it is supposed to be done,” said Bigger. “You know, Coach (John) Wiley has us practice tackling, reading, reacting, hitting, every day. We have to execute it each time out. We are all well-prepared. It is not just me, it is all of us on every play.”

That ability to take coaching and apply lessons learned from other moments to new and evolving situations and to do so in a leading fashion could be what makes Bigger “special.”

“Belief in himself. Also ability to be coached,” said McNeill. “John Wiley is one of the best coaches around, not just a linebacker coach, but overall. Zeek can receive coaching and then take the coaching onto the field during the game, and if there is an adjustment needed, he has the ability to abstractly make that adjustment without physically having to go through the adjustment.

“For example, we can say ‘Hey Zeek, we came into the game wanting to do A this way but because of what they are doing, we have to go to B. Now we haven’t done B but can you do it?’ Zeek is able to do that and the great ones can.”

Right now, without a doubt, the Pirates No. 44 legacy belongs to Robert Jones. But Bigger is making a case.

“Robert is one of the best of all-time,” said McNeill. “I hope when Zeek finishes playing he will be considered as that.”

Jones thinks that physically, Bigger has the tools to play at the next level, but spelled out the reality for NFL hopefuls.

“Things have changed a lot in the way the NFL assesses players,” said Jones. “It used to be that if you could play, nothing else really mattered and they would find you. But today, being at East Carolina can make it difficult for a player and what I mean is that ECU still does not get the respect it deserves as a program.

“When I was senior, we lost our opener to Illinois and then went on and beat Syracuse in the Dome, and then Pitt came to us and we beat them and South Carolina came in and we beat them and a very good Southern Miss team, we beat them.

"We beat them all and, yes, it was great that we were ranked No. 9 but that was too low. Even then, during that year, we were fighting for respect. I feel like this team is ranked too low right now. We are better than No. 18 right now. Today, in the NFL, part of it is the respect that a school gets that has more to do with draft positioning than what the player can do.

“So, for Zeek, if he can keep doing what he is doing and the team can keep winning, then there is a very strong shot for him. If the team is not noteworthy, because of the respect factor, then it comes down to 40 times and bench presses. It is weird how the evaluation process works now.

"You have a lot of people out there saying that Eli Manning is a better quarterback than Peyton because Eli has two Super Bowls. But everyone should know, that Eli is nowhere near the quarterback Peyton is. Zeek has the ability to play at the next level because of his heart and his work ethic and his belief that he will succeed.”

Right now, as a junior, Bigger is grinding on, having fun and hoping his hard work keeps taking him to new heights.

“I hope (Pirate fans will remember me). It would really be a great honor,” said Bigger. “I am happy to be here on this football team at East Carolina. I am having fun and keep working at my job and, hopefully, someday I will be one of those guys (held in such high regard).”