ECU gaining ground at Spring practice

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on March 27, 2008 2:33 PM

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GREENVILLE -- East Carolina officially passed the midway point of its spring football practice period Wednesday with a two-hour, full-pads workout inside the Cliff Moore Practice Complex.

The session capped preparations for the Pirates' first intra-squad scrimmage scheduled for today. Coach Skip Holtz and his team has just seven workouts remaining, including the annual Purple-Gold spring game on April 12.

"The effort and enthusiasm level was much higher today," said Holtz. "I was proud to see everyone bounce back after struggling on Monday. I think we're a little further along (progress) than we normally would be, but that's really a result of the number of returners and the amount of experience we have with us this spring.

"We haven't been in this position since we've been here."

East Carolina worked on various sets and schemes with different roster matchup designations. For the second straight practice, the Pirates primarily conducted a heavy dose of team-on-team work, carrying out several 11-on-11 drills which featured different variables in ECU's rushing and passing attack before ending the session with various situational, down-and-distance and two-minute segments.

Holtz indicated that the scrimmage, scripted for over 100 snaps, consisted of a series of numbered-play possessions for each unit and concluded with a set of goal line drills. All levels of the Pirates' current personnel chart is expected to experience action for evaluation and game-tape purposes.

"We'll regulate it (scrimmage) to ensure everyone gets an equal look so we'll have an opportunity to come out of it with a two-deep," said Holtz. "It will be another physical test day of sorts to see how far we are mentally and fundamentally with coaches on the sideline.

"We'll play it like a game to hopefully get them familiar with certain situations."