Courtesy of Tom McClellan ECU SID….
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Pirates Continue Drills at the Cliff Moore Complex
EAST CAROLINA SPRING NOTEBOOK NO. 6
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Head coach Ruffin McNeill and his East Carolina football program
continued
its spring schedule Wednesday afternoon with another two-hour workout. The session,
conducted in shells inside the Cliff Moore Practice Complex, was the Pirates’ sixth
overall and fourth in full pads.
Wednesday’s practice also kept preparation efforts on course for ECU’s first
intra-squad scrimmage of the spring, which is scheduled for Saturday morning at
Dowdy-Ficklen
Stadium.
“I thought things went well today,” McNeill said. “The defense is really flying
around the ball and we’ve been able to add to our packages. Up front, I really like
our depth
and the progress that has been made. As a group, their attention to detail and
physical condition have allowed us to get a little farther along at this point than
maybe we’ve been in the past.”
While the Pirates completed the workout with their customary 11-on-11 team session,
Wednesday’s 40-play, 26-minute period featured a heavy dose of situational work with
quarterbacks
Brad Wornick, Shane Carden and Cody Keith getting their respective turns in the
rotation.
However, the ECU defense enjoyed a decisive upper hand by forcing three turnovers
and recording three sacks. End Lee Pegues, nose tackle Michael Brooks and outside
linebacker
Derrell Johnson each penetrated the backfield during the early stages of the
period, while fellow outside linebackers Montese Overton and Maurice Falls picked
off passes on consecutive plays. Free safety Lamar Ivey also recovered a Pegues
strip to account
for the final takeaway.
Offensively, the trio of quarterbacks combined on 16-of-24 passing for 107 yards.
Keith, who was 6-of-8 for a unit-best 51 yards, tossed the longest completion of the
day
when he connected with outside receiver Andrew Bodenheimer for a 19-yard gain.
After an off-day Thursday, East Carolina will return to work Friday beginning at
3:30 p.m. before closing its second week of action with Saturday’s scrimmage.
NOTES: Sophomore DE Chrishon Rose (day-to-day) remained sidelined with an ankle
injury … McNeill
announced the addition of placekicker Connor Torruella, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound
freshman from Garner, N.C., to the Pirates’ spring roster Wednesday.
EAST CAROLINA’S 2012 SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE
Next Workout: Friday, March 30 (3:30-5:50 p.m.)
Remaining Workouts: March 31 (scrimmage), April 2, April 4, April 6, April 7
(scrimmage), April
9, April 11 and April 14 (Purple-Gold Game, 2:30 p.m.)