Quarterbacks Primed For Opportunity

GREENVILLE, N.C. – It's safe to say offensive coordinator Tony Petersen likes what he sees when he looks at ECU's quarterback position in 2018.

Even though the top three have attempted only a combined one pass at the collegiate level, all are players that were brought in by Petersen.

Starter Reid Herring is in his third year under Petersen's tutelage, Holton Ahlers enrolled early and has been in the quarterbacks' room with the Pirates since January, and Kingsley Ifedi has made improvements in leaps and bounds since joining the program last year.

"We have a starting quarterback who can compete at the highest level in our conference, so I'm very happy there," Petersen said. "I'm very happy with my next two quarterbacks. They're just young, so they're making young quarterback decisions right now. What I've got to get them to do is get to a point where their bad plays aren't as bad. We just need to keep getting reps so they can get closer to that level where Reid's at."

Herring, who completed his only pass a year ago for a 20-yard touchdown to Trevon Brown in a victory over Cincinnati, is mobile and has a strong arm, but his biggest attribute is his mind and familiarity with the system. He keeps mistakes and bad plays to a minimum.

Part of head coach Scottie Montgomery's first recruiting class, Herring redshirted and took the majority of snaps on the scout team in 2016. He had a very good spring in 2017 and moved to third on the depth chart. In this year's Purple-Gold Game, he kept moving up the chart by going 12-for-20 for 191 yards and converting five-of-nine third-down plays.

Herring continued to separate himself during fall camp, and enters the season as the clear No. 1.

"He's better than anybody that's played here since I've been here," Petersen said. "He knows the system better than anybody because he's been in it the longest, and he has the most talented wide receivers as an overall group than anybody has had. He has it upstairs. I expect to see him play like he practices, and if he does that then people are going to see a really good quarterback."

Going into his sophomore season, Herring is continuing to do what he always has – work hard. With Ahlers and Ifedi behind him, that's something he has to do.

"There's been a lot of excitement building up during this offseason," Herring said. "I got a lot more reps, a lot more work in the playbook and in the film room to get me ready. I have great guys behind me pushing me, so I have to stay focused each and every day to get better."

Having grown up in Greenville, Ahlers has been an ECU fan as long as he can remember. He said the adjustment to the speed of college ball wasn't too difficult, but the size of players at this level is quite a bit different than in high school. He dominated at the prep level, finishing his career third all-time in North Carolina in passing yardage (11,198), second in total offense (14,784), third in touchdowns responsible for (201) and passing touchdowns (145), and fifth in pass completions (670) and sixth in passes attempted (1,157).

Ahlers said he has had little trouble adjusting to ECU's system. In the spring he completed 22-of-36 passes for 302 yards and a touchdown in two scrimmages, then in the Purple-Gold Game was 12-of-18 for 205 yards.

"It's a lot of RPO stuff that I kind of ran in high school," Ahlers said. "As long as I study a lot and stay in the playbook, I'll be fine with it. I love learning and I love football. I love to watch film.

"I'm confident in Reid. He's our starter. But when my time comes I'm going to be ready. Kingsley and I have talked about it, and we're going to be the most prepared backups in the nation. Whenever either of our names are called, we'll be ready."

The coaching staff has raved about the progress Ifedi has made in the last year. At 6-foot-3, he came to ECU weighing 195 pounds, but he has put on about 25 pounds of muscle in strength and conditioning coach Jeff Connors' program. His speed has always been an asset, and now his arm is showing significant signs of improvement, too.

During Ifedi's senior year in high school, he rushed for 1,092 yards and 17 touchdowns and passed for 4,052 yards and 47 more scores. In the 2018 Purple-Gold Game he was four-for-six for 90 yards.

"I've just locked in," Ifedi said. "I took what coach Petersen and coach Montgomery had to tell me, and I took that in the offseason and kept working it and working it. They put me in a great position to come out here and do my thing this fall."

The main message Petersen and Montgomery had for Ifedi was to play to his strengths.

"Don't try to play like somebody I'm not," Ifedi said. "Don't try to make the perfect throw. Do the best with what God has given me, and that's what I've been doing."

Regardless of who's taking snaps, they all have the benefit of an improving offensive line, and advancing running game that averaged 4.8 yards per rush in the second scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday, and one of the nation's top receiving corps.

"It's a great feeling to be able to throw the ball up anywhere and know they'll go get it for you," Herring said. "We have a lot of dynamic people that play out there on the edge for us."

"The rapport between Holton, Kingsley and Reid with the receivers is probably as good as we've had here," Montgomery said. "As long as we can protect them, which we've done a good job of by being innovative in our protection schemes, we'll be OK."

The Pirates had a good passing game a year ago, and this season the entire offense looks to be more balanced.

"You would always like to be better up front," Petersen said. "That's the part of offense that takes the longest, and we're trying to develop that. We have to get those starting five first, but we're getting close. We have four running backs that we can play that all know our system and know what to do. That's huge to have that depth. And we have some tight ends we can put in to help us block and get some play-action passes. We have to wait and see on Saturdays what happens in games, but I'm excited about it."

- Joe Corley

Players Mentioned

Holton Ahlers

Trevon Brown

Reid Herring

Kingsley Ifedi

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