One of the big cogs in the machine for ECU's defense this season is 6-0, 230 pound Athlon preseason All-AAC linebacker Jordan Williams.

Last season Williams played in all twelve games and started in five. He had a team high 77 tackles, 35 of which were solo stops. That also included four tackles in the offensive backfield.

Williams hopes to pick up where he left off on Saturday against the defending FCS national champion Dukes and this time he will do so as one of the defensive co-captains for the Pirates. He talked about what that means to him.

"I means a lot. That's surreal. It's something that you're really not going to take for granted when you're 26 or 30 years old that you get to lead a group of men your age so it's good right now, but it still hasn't kicked in yet," Williams told PirateIllustrated.com.

Over his 33 career games at ECU, Williams has made 15 starts and is credited with 163 tackles. 81 of those have been solo stops to go along with three sacks, one fumble recovery and an interception.

The Dukes are no pushover and ECU has to be on their game from the outset if they want to pick up their first win of the season this Saturday night.

"They have the offensive coordinator that was the receivers coach here (Donnie Kirkpatrick), they try to get guys to try to tackle in space. That's one thing I saw on film. They try to get people to make open field tackles and we're just going to have to get guys down."

Williams breaks down the latest, recaps this year's fall camp and what he feels ECU will need to do in order to get off to a successful start in this JMU Week audio interview here on PirateIllustrated.com.

JORDAN WILLIAMS BRINGS THE LATEST ON PI COMING INTO GAME ONE