With classes beginning at East Carolina, fall football practice moved to the afternoon on Tuesday after taking Monday off to begin classes.
"After Saturday we had some lightning and stuff on Sunday. We couldn't get the entire practice in. Monday is our day off, the kids started classes on Monday so today was the first day to get back out there," said ECU head coach Mike Houston afterward.
The defense got the better of it in Saturday's first scrimmage, forcing several turnovers which happens sometimes in early scrimmages. Tuesday the offense came out with renewed determination.
"The offense came out and practiced really well today. Still a little sloppy, still got a way to go conditioning wise but it was good to see some of the big play ability that I didn't see on Saturday," said Houston, "The team speed has improved quite a bit from last year. Some of it is personnel and some of it is development. Some of it is knowing the system going into year two offensively but it was pleasant to see some of the big plays made on the offensive side out there. I thought the defense responded the latter part of practice and competed really well."
"It went about like how I thought it was going to go. The defense has been sitting around telling the offense how they kicked their butt on Saturday so the offense had to listen to it for the last three days," Houston stated, "The first drill we did was Pod work with the O-line and defensive line and the first snap one of our O-linemen pancakes one of our D-lineman and then I knew exactly what kind of day it was going to be."
"The resounding thing the players voiced to me at the end of practice is they want to play. I told them that as long as that is the consensus in that locker room , we're going to fight like hell to make sure we have a ballgame here sometime here in September."
Houston answered questions from the press and PirateIllustrated.com was there to bring it to you in it's entirety.