After the better part of a small tropical storm rolled through Greenville early on Tuesday, ECU resumed preparations for game one against James Madison in windy, misty and cool conditions in the low 70's in Greenville.
With game day fast approaching, time is of the essence and a top loaded schedule, second year Pirate head coach Scottie Montgomery wants to get off to a fast start.
"It was a good practice today. We're really focused right now. I can tell, there isn't a lot of conversation going on right now outside of football conversation which is what we need at this point," Montgomery told PirateIllustrated.com, "We got a little bit of a boost from getting Trevon (Brown) back in the mix on offense and then defensively I thought we did a really good job of running to the football. All and all we're practicing pretty good right now. We've got to continue to grow toward Saturday."
ECU comes in relatively healthy, all things considered, a trend that he hopes continues into Saturday. Coach Montgomery talked about some of the things that gets his attention when he looks at tape of James Madison.
"They play tight games really well and when they had the chance to blow the doors off some teams they did it. They stepped on the throat of some teams and I thought they did a good job using special teams and using defense to get some good drive starters," the second year ECU head coach said, "Especially later on in the playoffs, I thought they had some good field position and overall how hard they play with one another."
Montgomery says his team had a quality live session on Tuesday and he expects to use three and maybe even four running backs when the Pirates host the Dukes this week.
"You can't become a second year starter until you start the first year and we're looking forward to seeing if these guys are ready and we believe that they are. I'd like to see three and potentially four. More than likely it will be four."
Game time is 6 o'clock Saturday night for the season and home opener for ECU when the ECU takes on James Madison. PirateIllustrated.com was there on Tuesday to bring you Coach Montgomery's audio comments in their entirety. Stay tuned all week as PI coverage of week one continues.
