Pirates Eye Scrimmage, Turn In Light Workout
August 18, 2006 | Football
Aug. 18, 2006
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina Head Coach Skip Holtz put the finishing touches on his team's final preparation effort for Saturday's scrimmage with a short and light practice session Friday afternoon at the Cliff Moore Practice Complex.
Holtz indicated all levels of the Pirates' current personnel list would be utilized during the closed contest, which is tentatively scripted for a minimum of 90 to 100 plays depending on ECU's injury situation during the scrimmage.
"It'll purely be game conditions," Holtz explained. "This scrimmage will be ones-on-ones and twos-on-twos with the balls and chains out. This is the one where we hope to put our entire offense and defense together. We want to continue to stress the importance of third down and work on our physical and mental development in a game mode, which in turn, will be another important step in developing our depth chart."
Unlike Wednesday and Thursday's sessions that saw the Pirates total over 250 scrimmage plays during extended team-on-team work, East Carolina spent the majority of the helmets and shorts practice conducting mostly individual polish drills. Holtz also hoped the light practice would serve as a rejuvenating tool to recharge batteries prior to the scrimmage.
"It was a great day in shorts with a lot of running and flying around," Holtz said. "We got some of the excitement back today as guys were much more vocal out there. I'm pleased with the way they have continued to learn and work."
NOTES: Saturday's scrimmage will be followed by the 12th Annual Meet The Pirates Night, ECU's preseason football fanfest, which will begin at 6:00 p.m. (dinner) and 7:00 p.m. (fan session, autographs) at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... Senior OT Eric Graham (back) returned to work after missing Thursday's practice ... Conference USA announced Friday that two East Carolina games will be featured on Sirius Satellite Radio this season - vs. Virginia (Oct. 7, 6:00 p.m.) and vs. Southern Miss (Oct. 28, 8:00 p.m.) ... Saturday's Scrimmage Time: 2:25 p.m. - 5:10 p.m.; Season Opener: Sept. 2 vs. Navy (5:30 p.m.)
