Defense, Field Goals Highlight Scrimmage
August 16, 2003 | Football
With about 300 fans in attendance at the last open practice of the 2003 preseason, the Pirates covered a variety of situations in their second scrimmage. After running a 120-play scrimmage on Wednesday, today's session was abbreviated to under 100 plays and lasted just over 90 minutes.
Fans on hand hoping to see the battle for starting quarterback duties first-hand were disappointed as Desmond Robinson, who is vying with fellow junior Paul Troth for the role, sat out the scrimmage with a minor leg injury. The move was precautionary in nature and Robinson would have been available to play if it had been a real-game situation, according to ECU officials.
Troth, who started today, and redshirt freshman James Pinkney took the majority of snaps. Troth completed 7-of-20 for 86 yards while Pinkney was 6-of-13 for 93 yards and two touchdown passes. Patrick Dosh, a transfer from Florida who is ineligible to play in 2003, also saw limited action.
A good portion of the practice was spent on goalline situations and field goal kicking. Five ECU kickers battling for a job attempted 16 field goals, all from 38 yards or longer. The group made seven of those.
"That was a lot of progress from Wednesday," first-year head coach John Thompson said. "Our execution was better, but we obviously have to complete more passes. Our offense stuck it in in goalline situations, and our defense came back and did some real good things. We probably set a record for kicks in a scrimmage, but got a great evaluation. We wanted to put all those guys under the gun. We'll go back and really study all of that and we hope to find a kicker out of it."
The Pirate defense had several big plays, including eight sacks on the afternoon. Sophomore linebacker Chris Moore led the unit with two sacks and two additional tackles for losses. Senior safety Travis Heath and senior linebacker Kent Nealy each forced a fumble.
"I think the defense really made a lot of strides," Thompson said. "I didn't see a lot of mistakes. Their enthusiasm was better. After going through 10 days of nothing but grind on them, they still had a little life and made some plays. Our tackling needs to be a little bit better," he added.
Redshirt freshman Ryan Dougherty solidified his hold on the starting punter duties as he boomed punts of 58 and 43 yards.
One day after the announcement that All-Conference USA running back Art Brown would miss the season with a knee injury, the Pirate running game focused on true freshman Robert Tillman today. Tillman averaged 6.3 yards per carry, with 12 attempts for 76 yards to lead all rushers. Junior college tranfer Kevin Fain had 28 yards on 10 attempts, although most of his carries were in goalline situations, while senior Dominique Hatcher carried 10 times for 17 yards. Junior Marvin Townes, who rushed for 304 yards last year, sat out again today but is expected back next week.
"Tillman's got a lot of moves and he's gaining weight. He's a really talented guy," Thompson said. "Fain was down on the goalline and just powdering some people. That's what we need; we need some guys to step up."
An off-day on Sunday will see the Pirates check out of the local hotel that has been team headquarters for the first 10 days of the preseason and move back into their dormitories and apartments. Team meetings are also scheduled on Sunday. They will return to the practice fields on Monday for another two-a-day schedule.
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Individual Statistics
RUSHING -- Tillman 12-76, Fain 10-28, Leach 5-26, Hatcher 10-17, Veal 24, Pender 1-2, Dempsey 1-2, Pinkney 5-(-5), Dosh 3-(-6), Troth 7-(-34).
PASSING -- Pinkney 6-13-0 93, Troth 7-20-0 86, Dosh 2-2-0 1.
RECEIVING -- Bowling 2-47, Copper 2-31, Rios 2-22, Fox 2-21, Roach 2-17, Bland 1-14, Harris 1-13, Hatcher 2-7, Howard 1-5.
FIELD GOALS MADE -- Broadwell 42 42, Rauch 42 46, Baglio 42, Ijjas 38, Steinbacher 38.
FIELD GOALS MISSED -- Ijjas 45 42 46, Steinbacher 48 45, Rauch 42, Baglio 38 45, Broadwell 45.
