Fall Drills Begin For Gridiron Pirates
August 07, 2003 | Football
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Preseason practice for East Carolina University's football team officially opened on Thursday morning as 84 returning players hit the gridiron for Head Coach John Thompson's first ECU fall camp.In a separate practice session, nearly two dozen newcomers had for their first taste of collegiate drills on Thursday afternoon at the Cliff Moore Practice Facility.
Both groups of Pirates covered about 90 minutes of on-field instruction, capped by a session of "gasser" sprint drills.
"When you compare where we were on March 28 [last day of spring practice], this was a great start. However, compared to where we need to be on September 1, we're a long way from getting in the mode of being ready to play," said Thompson, who was named ECU's head coach on December 20, 2002. "Some of our practice was good and we executed very well, but we finished sloppy. You could really tell how much better we got this summer -- these guys have studied the playbook and done a lot of work on their own. I don't think we had nearly as many execution busts as we did halfway through spring practice. But we've got to get in shape and finish a lot tougher than we did today."
Also on Thursday, two significant personnel transactions were announced as Thompson added freshman wide receiver Bobby Good to the Pirate roster while sophomore defensive back Reicko Jones was declared ineligible for 2003.
Good, who initially signed with Memphis for 2003, was granted his release from the Tigers in order to play for ECU, where his uncle, Rick Stockstill, is the offensive coordinator. Good, 6-0, 170, is a product of Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, Fla., where he was a first team 2-A all-state selection as a defensive back in 2002. He was an All-Orange County pick as a receiver and played in the Georgia-Florida All-Star Game.
Jones played extensively at cornerback as a true freshman last season and made 10 starts. He had 43 total tackles and six pass breakups.
All 105 Pirate players officially reported to campus on Wednesday and checked into a local hotel which will house the team for the first 10 days of camp. In the first team dinner of the 2003 preseason, Thompson announced that senior wide receiver Richard Hourigan, who made the team as a walk-on in 2000 and has lettered in each of the last two seasons, has been awarded a full scholarship. Hourigan, a native of Cary, N.C., had 19 receptions for 197 yards and one touchdown last year.
The remainder of Thursday's itinerary was filled with meetings and testing and was scheduled to conclude with a team meeting addressed by Bill Curry, ESPN college football analyst and Thompson's former boss at the University of Alabama.
The team's first full-squad practice is scheduled for Friday afternoon with the annual preseason Media Day on the agenda for Saturday.
