Bonesville Mobile Alpha Rev. 2.1a*
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Great Scott! 4-star RB set to enroll Recruiting Class of 2015 Thumbnail Sketches... By
Sammy Batten 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.'' PAGE UPDATED 01/18/15 12:33 AM. |
