Spring Football Notebook No. 12
April 02, 2007 | Football
April 2, 2007
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina officially began its fifth week of spring workouts under the guidance of third-year head coach Skip Holtz and staff with a two-hour session Monday afternoon on Hight Field inside the Cliff Moore Practice Complex.
The Pirates returned to action in full pads after conducting their second intra-squad scrimmage of the season Friday afternoon. After turning in its 12th practice of the spring period Monday, ECU has just two more workouts scheduled before closing camp with the Purple-Gold Game April 14.
After Wednesday's session, which will include a partial scrimmage at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, East Carolina will take a long weekend off in observance of Good Friday and Easter before finishing its in-week slate seven days later.
"At this stage of the spring, we simply can't get enough team work in," Holtz said after having a chance to review film of the scrimmage. "While I thought the physical part of it was there, we're now at the point where you look for execution, decision-making skills and people who consistently make plays and perhaps rise above others out there."
After opening Monday's session with its traditional individual and seven-on-seven drills, ECU quickly moved to an extended team segment and spent the remainder of practice in an 11-on-11 scrimmage mode with an emphasis on the passing game that featured limited or first-hit contact only. In addition, Holtz also spent time covering situational tendencies again such as down and distance utilizing running backs, tight ends and wide receivers all as first-option pass catchers.
"I thought our running backs did some good things during the first two scrimmages," Holtz added. "Now we'll shift our focus more toward our passing game over the final two weeks and see how we progress both offensively and defensively."
