ECU Successfully Completes Day One of Fall Football Practice
With the first game of the 2017 college football season against James Madison just a month away, East Carolina opened their fall camp Thursday afternoon under comfortable, temperate and cloudy conditions at the Cliff Moore Practice Complex.
East Carolina returns 12 of 22 positional starters. That includes six players on both offense and defense among 50 returning lettermen from last year’s squad.
Heading into this season, three ECU players are on preseason watch lists including wide receiver Davon Grayson (Wuerffel Trophy), center Garrett McGhin (Rimington Trophy) and wide receiver Jimmy Williams (Biletnikoff Award).
Several transfers have made their way to Greenville this fall to bolster ECU's overall talent level including the biggest name on the list, Thomas Sirk at quarterback who comes over from Duke. He is expected to vie for the starting job along with Gardner Minshew who returns after gaining a great deal of experience last season.
Another important piece of the puzzle is Auburn defensive back transfer Tim Irvin. Irvin is the nephew of former Miami Hurricane and Dallas Cowboy great Michael Irvin and established himself as a leader during spring practice at safety.
Transfer punter Austin Barnes from Eastern Michigan along with defensive back Korrin Wiggins from Clemson were cleared to practice on Thursday. Montgomery says he was extremely impressed with Barnes in his first practice. Clemson transfer running back Tyshon Dye along with Minnesota defensive end transfer Gaelin Elmore are also ready to go for the Pirates.
Scottie Montgomery hopes to improve on last year's 3-9 season and he outlined some of his main objectives for this year's fall camp as well as the upcoming season ahead.
"I thought it was a good day. One thing we've noticed is that we've added a good bit of depth to the team but we've also added a lot of talent. That's where the coaching staff and administration has allowed us to be able to do," Montgomery told PirateIllustrated.com after Thursday's first practice of the season, "What the players have added is a lot of classwork and book work that we don't know a whole lot about until we get here. It's day one, but it's the kind of day one that you have to have when you talk about being a good football team."
Montgomery outlined what he said are his two main objectives during this year's fall camp.
"The first thing we've got to do is build team chemistry. A lot of people think team chemistry is formed on the field, but now when we leave the field at the dinner table, at home are among all of the places they truly build their team chemistry so that's one objective," said Montgomery, "The second objective is we've got to get better fundamentally. It's not technique wise. If you go back, we didn't block well, we didn't tackle well. We've got to get better at that and the talent will help that. There's no question about it."
The second year ECU head coach also said that wide receiver Trevon Brown is academically eligible to play but still has yet to be cleared physically to return to practice after suffering a neck injury. Coach Mo is hoping that happens soon.
The Pirates open the season at home against FCS national champion James Madison on September 2. Game time is set for at 6 p.m.
Catch Coach Montgomery's Post Practice Comments in their entirety from Thursday along with a PI Premium Photo Gallery for member subscribers as PI coverage of ECU fall camp begins.
