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Tony Petersen Fast Whipping the ECU Offensive Game Into Shape

East Carolina offensive coordinator Tony Petersen expects to have his offense ready for game one against N.C. A&T.
East Carolina offensive coordinator Tony Petersen expects to have his offense ready for game one against N.C. A&T. (PirateIllustrated.com photo)

Tony Petersen continues to improved every year as an offensive coordinator. The former Marshall quarterback came over from Louisiana Tech where he worked with former ECU head coach Skip Holtz and he brings a wealth of knowledge to the fold.

Finding the right blend of run and pass could prove to be the key for the ECU offense this season and Petersen came out of Saturday's first scrimmage and Tuesday's followup practice at Hight Field in good spirits.

"The running backs have been coming along good. We feel like we have four guys who we could play with. They've had a solid camp so far and they're doing well," Petersen said on Tuesday.

"They didn't get a ton of yards on Saturday. We made more yards in the passing game and our defense is playing better. They're stopping the run up front on the d-line. Especially when they go with their two's against our two's and we might not get a bunch of yards there but we still have a goal to rush the football," said Petersen.

"We want to get four yards a carry as an average. The quarterbacks will be part of that. When you look at a scrimmage and the quarterbacks are in green, that kind of eliminates that quarterback run game but overall we were happy with Saturday's scrimmage."

The play of Reid Herring both throwing and running the football has been encouraging for the ECU staff. Holton Ahlers has stepped right in as a true freshman and picked up the offense. But a big surprise has been the play of Kingsley Ifedi who had a solid day at the office in Saturday's scrimmage and that is an encouraging sign for Petersen.

"One of those two guys has got to be our backup. They're both young quarterbacks and I've told them both that we're not good enough to be solid backups to where if somebody went in that we're good enough to win football games," Petersen said, "So Kingsley has really improved and is getting a lot better. Holton is still learning. Both are just young right there and they're getting better every day."

With two weeks remaining before game one against A&T rolls around is deciding who is going to be on the field overall.

"We've got to solidify who we're playing with up front. We've got to make sure we're getting all of the right reps with the right guys with the quarterbacks and we've got to start cutting down on mental errors, tackles for losses, penalties and just the little things. We've just got to clean everything up."

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