Nelson & Dancy Ready for Their First Start for ECU This Saturday
With another practice is in the books and with just three days of preparation to go before a 6 pm Saturday season opener against Western Carolina, Tuesday proved to be another solid day of work for the Pirates.
"We're trying to make sure we nail down the details," first year ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery told PirateIllustrated.com, "It was good because you could see some of our legs came back. The physicality was pretty good. I thought we ran better today in certain drills."
Everything wasn't perfect and it never is, but things are getting closer to what Coach Mo is looking for as his team approaches game one of the Scotty Montgomery era in Greenville.
"It was one of those days where we should have been a little tighter on the details than we were at certain times. On a normal Tuesday, they just got it 24 hours ago. They've had it for a while now, so it wasn't a normal Tuesday."
The Pirates had officials on hand on Tuesday and Montgomery said he asked them to call everything tight.
"If you touch a receiver or you push off slightly, we're trying to get the flags on the ground because I want them to play with great feet, great base and do things the right way and then at the end of the day make sure we're abiding by the rules."
While it will be Phil Nelson's first game as the starter for ECU after transferring over from Rutgers after playing two years at Minnesota and he is trying to play it down and make things as normal as possible.
"We're just trying to take it day by day. No moment is too big, I'm just trying to stay calm and relaxed and just focus on our execution. That's really the big thing for us," Nelson told PirateIllustrated.com, "It's been a long time, but I'm trying to down play that aspect. I'm just trying to come out there and treat it like any other day. That's when anybody plays their best is when they don't let the moment get too big. I'm just trying to go out there and have fun with it."
For senior wide receiver Zay Jones, it always comes down to the little things and the basics. He reiterated that again on Tuesday.
"We're just trying to get the best strategy and best scheme that we can to defeat them (Western Carolina) and also for ourselves - working on the fundamentals and making sure everything is good to go as we get ready for Saturday."
Will Dancy will see his first start for ECU after transferring over from North Carolina. He is noticeably excited and fired up for the season opener this Saturday in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
"It's going great. I absolutely love it here," Dancy told PI, "Every single day I wake up and I have a great day. I haven't felt like that in like four years, so I love it. It's been a very smooth transition for me. I'm really excited. The last time I was here was in 2014. I was on the losing end of that, but it was a great environment. That is one reason why when I was looking for a school that I knew to contact ECU because I knew that environment was week in and week out."
Catch PirateIllustrated.com's complete interviews in the links below as week one coverage continues for Western Carolina Week.
SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY RECAPS TUESDAY PRACTICE & MORE
ZAY JONES IS FOCUSED ON THE LITTLE THINGS
WILL DANCY GETS HIS FIRST START AFTER TRANSFERRING FROM UNC
PHIL NELSON PREPARES FOR HIS FIRST START AT QUARTERBACK FOR ECU
