Big Plays Highlight First East Carolina Scrimmage
April 01, 2005 | Football
Spring Notebook No. 9
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Big plays highlighted East Carolina's first intra-squad spring scrimmage Friday afternoon in what first-year head coach Skip Holtz termed a developmental environment at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The controlled contest, which featured game officials and was played in a steady rain, consisted of 11 10-play possessions which were split up into six first-and-10 plays and four third-and-six snaps.
"Overall, I thought it was a good scrimmage, Holtz said. "We ran 110 plays, 80 of those with the chains. The purpose of today was to evaluate individuals and not the team as a whole, yet there was some good hitting from the defensive side of the ball.
"The team's attitude was excellent and I'm encouraged by the progress we made out here today."
Although the scrimmage opened with a 28-yard completion from junior quarterback Kort Shankweiler to junior wide receiver Aundrae Allison, the Pirates' offensive unit also featured a steady rushing attack. Junior receiver/tailback Robert Tillman picked up the longest gain of the game, picking up 44 yards on a reverse play while sophomore tailback Chris Johnson contributed 15- and 17-yard gains. Red-shirt freshman quarterback Davon Drew opened his initial series in impressive fashion with a 35-yard run.
"I was encouraged with what I saw out here today from our offensive line," Holtz added. "Those five guys really showed me something by making big holes for the running backs as well as on their pass protection. They have come a long way in a short time."
Defensively, ECU forced five turnovers on three fumble recoveries and a pair of interceptions. Junior cornerback Erode Jean and freshman walk-on cornerback Jeffrey Billings picked off passes while senior linebacker Richard Koonce, senior linebacker Chris Moore and senior safety Pierre Parker recovered fumbles, the latter returning his 36 yards for a touchdown late during the session.
Drew and Shankweiler handled the majority of the repetitions at the quarterback position Friday, each engineering the Pirates' offensive efforts which also featured a few option plays, shovel passes and reverses.
"Both made good plays and mistakes as well," Holtz explained. "We hope to have a new two-deep chart after watching tape Monday and we'll go from there. I'm not going to give one guy the starting job if I don't think he has earned it, and that goes for all positions, not just the quarterback."
