Pirates prep for second scrimmage

Published in Sports on August 19, 2005 2:09 PM

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GREENVILLE -- The Pirates continued preparations for their second intra-squad scrimmage of preseason camp with a spirited three-hour practice in shells Thursday at the Cliff Moore Practice Complex.

After a light fine-tuning session this afternoon, East Carolina will head over to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday afternoon to engage in perhaps its most important internal test of the young season which will determine the preseason depth chart heading into game-plan mode for the season opener against Duke.

"There's a progression with everything we've done so far," said head coach Skip Holtz. "We started with individual work, moved to small groups, then to situational drills, and today, our goal was simply to move the ball up and down the field trying to get our team ready to play a game."

The Pirates opened their workout with blitz packages and offensive line drills before spending the remainder of the practice conducting 11-on-11 ball movement. ECU capped off the session, held under comfortable breezy conditions, with its standard two-minute, hurry-up session which resulted in a pair of second series stops by the defensive unit.

Only 15 days remain before ECU's opener against the Blue Devils and Holtz maintains the belief that realizing success lies much deeper than executing plays on offense and defense.

"We'll find out where we are as a team against Duke, but the key will be how we handle adversity," Holtz explained. "The question is how we are going to respond if we give up a big play or a touchdown. You hope the offense comes back on the field and gets a quick score. More importantly down the road, is how we will respond after the Duke game itself regardless of the outcome."

ECU Sports Information