ECU put together a solid Saturday scrimmage workout at Bagwell Field inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and afterward, new Pirate head coach Mike Houston gave his immediate assessment.
"It was a competitive scrimmage. I thought there was a lot of improvement from last week in some areas you'd hope to see some improvement. We did a much better job with presnap penalties even penalties within the play," said Houston, "We have very few flags today compared to last week so that was positive to see."
Houston said his squad has made significant improvement defensively and offensively he said it was up and down in wet conditions with a couple of fumbles and turnovers.
Hussein Howe got a majority of the work at running back on Saturday as Houston and company work to assess the backup situation behind Darius Pinnix who appears to be the odds on favorite at running back.
"We did a pretty good job defending the run today and at the same time I felt like our offensive line came off the ball and came downhill pretty good today."
The Pirates worked out in a light mist in Greenville Saturday morning.
"Challenging conditions today especially for the offense. The moisture and slick conditions on the field," Houston said, "You know, you can't control those things and you have got to be ready to thrive in those kinds of conditions. It's a great learning experience for our offensive players and really for our whole team in learning how to play in less than ideal playing conditions because chances are we're going to have a game like that this fall."
Houston said there was good and bad from his quarterbacks who at time struggled a bit but said they got better as the scrimmage went on. He was pleased with his team's work near the end of practice in the two-minute drill with the offense being able to operate and get a field goal in a situation where they were down two points. The second defense also got an interception near the end of practice.
"That was positive to see us get off the field right there." said Houston.
With three practices to go, Houston assessed the lay of the land as spring practice heads into it's final week.
"We have to get ready for next Saturday. Wednesday will be a very competitive practice but we'll probably ramp back playbook wise and just prepare for one game because we want to look crisp next Saturday," Houston told PirateIllustrated.com, "Wednesday and Friday along with film evaluation on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday will be geared toward clearing up any confusion, cobwebs and anything that will keep us from playing fast next Saturday."
Coach Houston said he hopes to have a huge crowd for next week's spring game. It should be played mostly like a normal game with two teams competing against each other and the steaks are high for the winner.
....literally.
"I look forward to the Pigskin Pigout BBQ contest and being able to meet our alums and fans so I hope it's just an enjoyable day for all of our alumni and anybody who is here to enjoy the game with us."
"As far as the game goes, we're going to have some steaks that we're going to put on the line for the game with our winners dinner the week following the game. The losing team will serve the winning team dinner. So we'll have a little bit to put on the game and we're going to play a modified regulation game.
We're going to see a four quarter game and we hope to see a highly competitive matchup," said Houston.
