Pirates Open Third Week Of Spring Drills
March 29, 2005 | Football
Spring Notebook No. 7
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Greeted by near-perfect weather conditions, East Carolina opened its third week of the spring practice period with a two-hour workout at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Tuesday afternoon.
After suffering their second postponement of the spring because of rain and unplayable practice field conditions Monday, the Pirates adjusted their agenda this week with a make-up session Tuesday, a regularly-scheduled practice Wednesday and the program's first intra-squad scrimmage Friday afternoon.
"It wasn't our best effort," said head coach Skip Holtz. "This was the halfway point and a day where seniors have to step up. There were some impressive individual efforts, but as a team, it was a struggle."
After establishing ECU's first internal depth chart after last Friday's workout, Holtz and his staff began the process of implementing the offensive and defensive packages with the Pirates' first and second units experiencing the majority of the action.
Redshirt freshman Davon Drew took the bulk of the repetitions at quarterback Tuesday, perhaps earning the Pirates' early pre-scrimmage nod as the current front-runner for the vacated signal-caller position ahead of Patrick Pinkney, Kort Shankweiler and Josh Vogelbach.
"Davon's done the best job of protecting the football so far and deserves this opportunity," Holtz explained. "As a whole, the depth chart is still in the preliminary stage. The two-deep will probably change after every scrimmage, and honestly, only really matters after we have a chance to see people in those game-like situations. We, as a staff and program, needed a starting point after six practices, which is why we developed it (initial depth chart) over the weekend. After the first scrimmage, I'm confident it will become more publicly defined."
Despite the sluggish team effort, Holtz again complimented the individual work of Richard Koonce and Jamar Flournoy on the defensive side of the ball while praising the talents of running backs Robert Tillman and Chris Johnson.
"There was a lot of pressure from our defense today, which probably played a role with some of our struggles on offense," Holtz added. "All parts started moving at a quick pace but we've got to learn how to handle that."
