Spirit Of The East: Surrounded By Great People

By Joe Corley
ECUPirates.com

At the end of last season, virtually all FBS college football teams began the search for a 10^th on-field assistant coach, a position that had been approved by the NCAA the previous April and would take effect Jan. 9, 2018.

ECU's search didn't take long, and it resulted in the hiring of a familiar face both from his playing days and his time previously as an assistant with the Pirates. On Dec. 15, less than three weeks after ECU's final game, Coach Scottie Montgomery announced that Kirk Doll would be returning, saying in part that "surrounding yourself with quality people who offer a tremendous amount of experience like Kirk is a critical component of success."

Doll, who is the special teams coordinator, certainly knows a lot about success. He brought some intangibles with him that he learned as a Pirate, things that have helped him along the way in a nearly 40-year coaching career that reads almost like a map to excellence both at the college and professional levels. He has worked for and with some of the biggest names in college football, including Nick Saban, John Cooper and Lou Holtz, just to name a few. He has been around success at the highest level, including the 2003 LSU team that beat Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship Game. From 2004-06 he was with the Denver Broncos, with the Broncos reaching the 2005 AFC Championship Game.

Having been back on the job at ECU a little more than six months now, and with the opener Sept. 1 at home against North Carolina A&T about six weeks away, Doll is full of optimism, and perhaps more importantly, is sharing some of the wisdom he has picked up along the way.

"There are so many things that go into a season," he said. "A lot of that's already been done, and some is still in progress. I think everyday when you get up, you've got to have a positive attitude if you want to improve.

"I'm so excited about this team in particular simply because of what I saw in the offseason and spring practice. In the spring everybody's excited early, then you get about one-third of the way through and it gets stale. This team practiced hard every day and got better every day. They're resilient and have a great work ethic."

From 2012-15, Doll coached running backs and special teams for the Pirates. Under his guidance, Vintavious Cooper rushed for more than 1,000 yards in both 2012 and '13, becoming the first ECU back to do so since Junior Smith in 1993 and '94. Among the accomplishments on special teams, the Pirates were 120^th(last) nationally in net punting in 2011, but improved to 55^th in Doll's first season. In 2015, the punt coverage squad was 10^th nationally, surrendering just 3.3 yards per return.

Doll's hiring freed up Shannon Moore to concentrate more on the tight ends and his role as recruiting coordinator. Typically in the past, a special teams coordinator also had responsibilities with another position group.

"You would always feel kind of like you weren't doing enough at one end, whether it's with special teams or with your position," Doll said. "This does give you enough time, but it's kind of unusual, too. It's an adjustment."

Coming back to ECU, where he helped the Pirates to three bowl appearances in four years from 2012-15, wasn't much of an adjustment, though. Doll feels a deep loyalty to the school. A native of Wichita, Kan., Doll played at the junior college level coming out of high school. He then was recruited by "three or four schools," but said the decision to come to ECU in 1971 was an easy one. Immediately, he saw that being a Pirate is a special thing.

"It was different than the other places I went," he said. "It was the student body and all the people I got to meet. I enjoyed the quality of people and knew this was a good opportunity for me."

Doll was a defensive end on the team that started 1-5 and finished 4-6 in 1971 under Coach Sonny Randle before winning the Southern Conference and going 9-2 overall in 1972.

"That was an interesting group of people," Doll said. "What we did was, we bought into what the coaches wanted. We got through some adverse times, fought through that, and that helped lead us on to better things."

That 1972 team broke a string of four consecutive losing seasons for ECU. Times were tough, but the Pirates pulled together.

"You're going to have some good times and some that aren't so good," said Doll, who was inducted into the Wichita Hall of Fame and Museum in 2015. "If you're part of a family, you're going to do what you can to help rectify things. To me, the best way to do that is to try to get the situation fixed. Mike McGee had a losing season (3-8 in 1970), Randle came in and had a losing season, then it went off. If wouldn't have if people had backed off and not given full effort.

"How society has become, everything has to be done right now. In some cases, it's a process and it takes time. It did for us back in 1971. There's a reason why things happen. It's important to consider you're part of the ECU family."

That family bond is a big reason why Doll, who graduated from ECU in 1973 and then earned a second undergraduate degree from Wichita State in 1977, jumped at the chance to return to Greenville.

"The university has done so much for me. I'm a better person because I went to East Carolina," he said. "I had great instructors and was surrounded by great people. They are still people who are very important in my life. You might not have talked to someone for 30 years, but if you're in need, they're very giving people. I feel the same way about them. My closest friends are the ones I played with, but there are people out of the student body I had contact with who I'm very close with, too.

"It can be easy to give up, but one of the great traits about being at East Carolina is that you just know you're going to persevere and overcome because that's part of being a Pirate. I feel so obligated to the university. I want to give the best I can to East Carolina."

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