Pirates Continue Spring Drills at the Cliff Moore Complex
March 08, 2006 | Football
March 8, 2006
GREENVILLE, N.C. - A physical but inconsistent two-hour workout marked the fifth East Carolina spring practice and allowed head coach Skip Holtz and his staff to continue their evaluation period Wednesday afternoon at the Cliff Moore Practice Complex.
The session, which again emphasized traditional individual and team fundamental work, also served as the Pirates' third practice in full pads. Including Thursday's scheduled workout, ECU will have nine more days remaining that will feature contact work, including two intra-squad scrimmages and the Purple-Gold Game scheduled for April 8.
"Today was perhaps the first day this spring where we lost some of our focus," Holtz said. "I have no complaints about our work ethic but we weren't as sharp as we have been, especially on the offensive side of the ball. I think spring practice tends to have its ups and downs. If the defense plays well, you worry about the offense and vice-versa. Today was more about our defense."
Despite its struggles, one of the few offensive highlights of Wednesday's session was a productive 11-on-11 passing lane drill which involved all four quarterbacks on ECU's positional roster. While senior incumbent starter James Pinkney participated in his fair share of the snaps after a 2,773-yard performance in 2005, much of the attention for that particular position has been centered on competition for the top understudy job between sophomore Patrick Pinkney and a pair of red-shirt freshmen, Brett Clay and Rob Kass.
"I think this spring will be an important one for James in taking his game to another level, but the real competition there will be the development of a true No. 2 quarterback," Holtz added. "Those players are all going to get a lot of reps and we'll see who does the best job of putting the ball into the endzone"
Patrick Pinkney, who signed with the Pirate program in February 2004, is trying to bounce back from a nagging shoulder injury and subsequent surgery which sidelined him the entire 2005 season. As a standout at Fayetteville's Pine Forest High School, he passed for 1,658 yards and a rushed for 1,172 more during his senior campaign in 2003. Clay and Kass both enjoyed stellar prep careers at Concord's (N.C.) Robinson High School and Longwood's (Fla.) Lake Highland High School, respectively, before inking with ECU as part of Holtz' first signing class last winter.
"So far, all of them are pretty even," Holtz continued. "One guy might have an extra interception than the other guy, but then that person might have a higher completion percentage or get his reads right more consistently. I really expect the competition to continue throughout the spring."
Similar to the opening week of drills, East Carolina will work consecutive days with another session Thursday afternoon before leaving campus for the Spring Break holidays. ECU will return to its schedule Monday, March 20.
