ECU Hopes Defensive Changes Deliver Better Results vs Memphis
With another Wednesday practice completed, third year ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery liked much of what he saw from his team as the Pirates continue to get ready for Memphis.
Quarterback Reid Herring returned to practice while Kingsley Ifedi was out sick on Wednesday at quarterback leaving lots of reps for Holton Ahlers.
"Reid is back with us. It was good to see him back in pads today. He went all of the earlier part of practice. It was great to get him back out there. I know his teammates were happy to see him back out there. It was just good to have him back out there on the field with us," said Montgomery, "We wanted to make sure Holton got most of the later part of practice. Kingley is sick. Hopefully he will be back with us tomorrow morning and hopefully we'll have everybody available for the game."
Montgomery highlighted the biggest positives from the team's Halloween workout at Hight Field.
"Great red zone team vs show for our defense. We've been able to get down there a couple of times and hold people out, but when we've got to the five we haven't necessarily done exactly what we've needed to do. Today we did it," Montgomery told PirateIllustrated.com, "We were on our details offensively vs defense. Offensively, Holton did a good job of moving us down to the red zone and scoring, so we had a good red zone day today kind of both ways."
The passing game continues to progress with Ahlers under center as he continues his acclimation to being a starter at quarterback for ECU.
"I thought we threw it and caught it really well. We're starting to build a little better rapport with the quarterback and receivers. It looks pretty good right now," said Montgomery, "The biggest thing we've got to focus on right now is protection of him at the offensive line position. In the run game we made some strides there but we've got to see those strides on Saturday, not just on Tuesday and Wednesday."
Montgomery says his team was a lot bigger up front last year so the speed differential was a factor in the Tigers hanging 70 points on the Pirates in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium last season. David Blackwell's changes in defensive style should put ECU in a better posture this time around. How much better remains to be seen.
"The speed differential was huge last year, so we've gotten a lot faster there. I thought where we could have done a better job was in the quarterback run game - some of the spit outs last year, we didn't do as much of a good job, so we've done a lot of things to try to help us in that category and then defensively our personnel just being honest is much better."
When asked, Montgomery said he has a plan in place for Halloween which sounds like he expects his players to keep things under strict control tonight.
The Pirates host Memphis Saturday at high noon on ESPN U in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Stay tuned for continuing coverage of Memphis Week here on PirateIllustrated.com.
