ECU Completes Second Workout, Hosts Its Annual Media Day
August 03, 2013 | Football
Aug. 3, 2013
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Media Day Highlights and Interviews
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Less than 24 hours after conducting its first official fall practice, East Carolina returned to the Cliff Moore Practice Complex Saturday morning for a two-and-half hour workout.
The Pirates spent the period in shorts and helmets before entering the next stage of preparation by putting on shoulder pads Sunday. The team will conduct its first practice in full gear Tuesday afternoon.
Today's primary focus centered on addressing execution, fundamentals and timing elements. Two of the longest periods were the skeleton drills (20 minutes) and a team-on-team segment (25) against the scout squad.
During the early afternoon, ECU held its annual media day event with approximately 30 members of eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia newspaper, radio and television outlets gathered inside the Murphy Center to conduct player and coach interviews.
Twenty-three players were requested, while ECU Director of Athletics Jeff Compher spoke to the media prior to McNeill's annual preseason state-of-the-team address. McNeill followed with a question and answer session that included the following selected comments:
Opening Statement:
"We're excited to be here. Each year for us, and me personally, and I know I speak for all of our coaches, when I say how exciting it is to start each season, how exciting it is to get around your kids, to get around your players. For me, it's getting around our coaches as well in our staff meetings and preparing for the season.
"I was asked about some of our opponents and how we start preparing for them. We start the minute we finish spring recruiting. But then we have a break where we have some vacation blended in there and then we come back and everything starts again. That's when the excitement starts for me with getting around our coaching staff. I'm very fortunate to have a great group of men and women who work in our office and I'm fortunate to have a great group of men that I work with each day. They don't work for me - we work together. We do it as a group and as a team, just like we ask our team to. So I was excited about getting around to watch them from summer. We challenged them to attack the summer, attack the process, mentally, physically and they've done that. (Strength and Conditioning) Coach (Jeff) Connors and his staff have done a magnificent job with the cooperation and the embracing of our players with offseason conditioning. Coach Connors is one of the most demanding strength coaches I've been around and when we reported, Coach (Athletics Director Jeff) Compher was there, at the 6:30 conditioning test. Coach (John) Wiley, my assistant head coach, mentioned that our kids attacked the test. That was great to see and I hope they continue to do that in practice. I'm very proud of our group.
"We've only been in shorts and helmets and I know there's not much you can tell, as far as the physical part of the team without having the shoulder pads and full gear on. But the first two days, for me, I'm very pleased with where we are.
"One of the strengths of our team will be our team chemistry. I mentioned experience in my earlier comments, but the team chemistry that we have will be the key. It was beginning to develop with last year's group through the season and the way we finished as a group if we didn't have strong chemistry, we would not have finished the way we did. It carried over to the offseason. The first phase with Coach Connors went great and when we finished with the spring, you could tell that chemistry was there. After speaking with Coach Connors at one of our first staff meetings, he just echoed and reemphasized that it was not only there but it was continuing to get stronger.
"Our leadership core is another thing I'm very happy about. It's a large leadership core. It's one of the largest we've had here to help lead our team. Whereas we don't have to worry about finding leaders, they're already there. They will not let us have a bad practice or a bad day of work and that's really gratifying to see.
"At East Carolina, in my opinion, expectations have always been high. That's the standard. That's why players and coaches have chosen to come here. We have a target on our back an will get everybody's best shot. Every team I've coached here, we've always gotten our opponents best shot when you watch them on film. So the expectations are welcomed. They're appreciated. But for us it's a standard here, that's what we expect. We expect to contend and to compete for championships. I've said that since the day I received the blessing of being the head coach here. The most important thing, in my opinion is to keep a vision goal at hand and understand it. But understanding the daily process is what I think this team has learned. Understanding how to attack each day, each rep, each period of practice, and each offseason workout with Coach Connors, and engage work in film study by attacking that process is the key. That leadership core I mentioned earlier makes me very confident in accomplishing that. The days are running into each other. I had to ask what day this was already - `I think it's Saturday, right?' That's how it gets, that's the fun part, where you don't know what day it is because you're here. It's football time. Our wives know it. Our children know it. My girls are home right now visiting me and they know I'll be home when I get home. That's how it is. We love you and they know it. They're football kids, wives and football families. It's an exciting time of the year for us as coaches. Especially to have the group of kids we have here.
"I think some of the keys are making sure we maintain our mental toughness and physical toughness. Be a smart football team week to week by doing a great job with ball security and takeaways defensively. Making sure we never neglect execution and fundamentals on all three sides of the football. I'm looking forward to it. In spring and these earlier days the kids have attacked that process."
On being picked to win the Conference USA East Division:
"It's always been expected here. Even when I go back to my playing days, when I was 18, 19 years old, it was expected to win here at East Carolina. When I came in as head coach, because of the success from before, the bar was always high. I think that's why the players have chosen to come here. They come into Dowdy-Ficklen and they see it packed every weekend and they understand the excitement generated from our entire athletic program, not just football. Expectations have always been high. I think having a leadership core and the team chemistry and I think age and having the ability to handle that and understanding this is why I like this group. They understand the vision and the goal, but the most important part is understanding the day-to-day process. Work and focus of attacking that process and this group understands that. So it's not a weight. It's a vision and a goal and very appreciated, but we know it only counts at the end of the year, not right now. Our kids have handled it great. They've practiced with great tempo, I've asked, we've asked them to practice smart and with confidence and they've done that."
On the Defense:
"You always want to improve in every aspect. The fundamental improvement will be there, it's already happened. You can see that from spring to right now. They play extremely hard. (Defensive Coordinator) Rick (Smith) and the staff demand execution of defensive scheme or thought process going into a game. Rick and the staff emphasize turnovers and taking the ball away to give our offense extra possessions. The average possession is 14 for an offense so he tries to make sure he adds two or three more possessions for (Offensive Coordinator) Lincoln (Riley). All of those expectations, the kids have grasped from Rick his staff and I like the way they've attacked and embraced it."
Camp Notes:
A total of six players projected to compete for depth chart inclusion are expected to miss preseason camp because of injuries ... In addition to sophomore TE Chris Cacciola (left shoulder) and redshirt freshmen ILB Drayvon Fairley (left knee) and OL Ryan Revia (lower back), newcomers TE Darren Dowdell (left lower leg), OL Christian Matau (right knee) and DB Xavier Smith (lower back) are sidelined and currently participating in rehabilitation work ... ECU Sports Medicine personnel indicated that Cacciola could possibly be in a position to return before camp closes, albeit in the late stages if at all.
Sunday's Practice Time: 8:45 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Season Opener: Aug. 31 vs. Old Dominion (7 p.m.)
