ECU Football Practice Heats Up For First Monday
Fall practice moved into week two with the team's last day in shells before moving to full gear on Tuesday.
Temperatures were back up into the 80's again after a cool, mostly wet first week of work.
Fundamentals and installation were the focus as the Pirate coaching staff worked on everything from blocking kicks to snapping the football to getting the offensive line properly aligned and much more.
Afterward Mike Houston talked about the morning workout on Monday along with offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick and defensive coordinator Blake Harrell.
Houston's team got their first taste of hot weather the third year ECU head coach says it's just what the doctor ordered.
"We got our first welcome to eastern North Carolina day today. We had some heat and humidity which is good. We need it, we need a lot of it. We didn't have any last week and it hit them pretty good today ," said Houston, "It was another challenge, another teaching moment."
"I thought we did some good things today and thought we had some guys who struggled with that heat and humidity all of the sudden. The practice was very uptempo. There is a lot of running. There isn't a lot of standing around out there. We're going to play ourselves into shape and into being able handle the elements because it's going to be humid in Charlotte for the opener and will be hot for the kickoff in Dowdy-Ficklen. We need this weather so it is a good thing."
Houston says the mind will give out long before the body does, so being able to push though hot practices is the first step toward successful endeavors on game day.
"The biggest thing that has evolved is I'm not having to chase them as much as I did the first year. We didn't have much get-up in us when I got here in terms of hustle and edge and fire in our belly. We didn't have a lot of that," Houston told PirateIllustrated.com.
"We've got that. We've got some young guys who have to learn because they're still new to the program, but the experienced, returning guys - they know what is expected and they know when the ball is snapped, they know what we expect as far as how we play, so that's the big thing tomorrow. I told them I want to see it from the get. From the very first snap, I want to see us play tomorrow the way we plan on playing September 2nd."
For articulate offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick, his group will need to be at their best if ECU is to be successful early in the season. That may be the key to the season is getting off to a good start.
"One of the best things so far of the camp so far is our pass protection has been pretty good and that's one of the hardest things to do in college football is to pass protect," said Kirkpatrick who likes the physical development of Bailey Malovic at tackle and Avery Jones at center," When Jones came, we knew he could play guard or center. He is very smart and understands the game. He is just so quick, yet he is so strong he is going to make us a lot better. We think Avery is an all-conference type center."
Kirkpatrick hopes to be able to advance into installing more stuff offensively so that ECU can do more things offensively and create more nightmares for opposing defenses.
"Right now we really install our entire offense with the exception of maybe a few special situations in five days. It's been like drinking water though a fire hose," Kirkpatrick told PirateIllustrated.com, "Then you compound that with Coach Harrell is installing all of the defense in five days as well so it's eleven on eleven and there's multiple ways that things could happen. All the different fronts, all the different plays, you have to block them different every day. It causes some mistakes but the way we teach it, then you should be good for the rest of the season."
"Having so many more offensive linemen back has really helped. We've got some younger guys at some of the receivers, minus C.J., Audie and Snead, that we've got to get them up to speed, so we can only go as fast as they can learn."
The same holds true at quarterback where Holton Ahlers knows what to do but getting the other inexperienced quarterbacks to absorb vast amounts of offense is more of a challenge.
"We're going to try to be as wide open as we can be," said Kirkpatrick, "The main thing though is to keep the main thing the main thing and that's win the game. If it's a game like Cincinnati you have to open it up a bit more. If it's a game like Temple, you can be a little more conservative than I'd like to be, but you've got to go out there and try to win the game."
Second year ECU defensive coordinator Blake Harrell says he is looking to have fewer defensive busts and more clean overall efforts from the ECU defense this fall.
"We do a little cut up on our side of the ball that we call the good, the bad and the ugly. The green dot, the red dot and you certainly have some good, some bad and some ugly ," said Harrell, "But overall, you have more depth that we've had in the past. Year two of a defense is kind of nice because kids know where to line up so you're ahead of some things there. We've got to continue build that depth, toughness and mentality that we can't be giving up the ugly, we can't be giving up the bad. We have to be sure to have green dot, good plays every snap and make sure we get um' on the ground."
He hopes to be able to deliver the kind of defensive presentation that Harrell is known for and that's a lot of movement, shiftiness and confusion for opposing offenses.
"Today we had a run period vs pressure. We're not that far along in camp so I just called it movement, but that's kind of who we are and who we want to be," Harrell told PI, "We want to be attacking, aggressive, get after you type of defense - whether we have to use pressures and movements and blitzes to do that or whether we can just play our base defense and do that. We have to have some balance and be able to do both."
Harrell is looking for big things from several guys, but one in particular is defensive back Gerard Stringer who has spent time out last season due to injury over the course of his career, but is big play guy who could be a real big piece if ECU's defense this fall.
"Gerard started a bunch of games two years ago. He has been very impressive so far and he's really making Jireh Wilson compete and Jireh is pushing him to make him better so I think we've got iron sharpening iron there," said Harrell, "And other guys whether it's Aaron Ramseur stepping up and coming along, D'Angelo McKinnie inside and doing a good job, Warren Saba and Juan Powell in the back. All of those guys I expect to do that, but Gerard has been kind of the biggest - a good surprise in a good way and really pushing and playing at a first team level right now."
On the edge, names to watch include Jeremy Lewis, Chad Stephens, Xavier Smith, Rick D'Abreu and Manny Hickman. Inside, Elijah Morris and D'Angelo McKinnie have been solid according to Harrell. Guys like Xavier McIver, D'Ante Smith and J'vian McCray are still developing but could evolve into key cogs in the defensive machine eventually for the Pirates.
"We've got to turn it up from where we are right now. We've got to keep coming along and making a lot of improvements," Harrell told PirateIllustrated.com, "I feel we can be better than we were last year and we have to. We have no choice. If we want to win ballgames, we have to be a better defense. We've got to be more consistent and we've got to stop the run."
"If you look at game one, two and three - if you stop the run, you have a chance to win those ballgames. Those guys on the other side of the ball are making us do that right now and they've got some guys who can stick it up in there. We have to respond and make sure we're doing a good job defending the run. That's where it all starts as we talk about each and every week."
Catch the coach's First Monday comments in their entirety here on PirateIllustrated.com as coverage of the 2021 fall football camp continues.
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