Spring Notebook No. 8 – Familiar Line Of Communication

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Heading into the first scrimmage of the spring Saturday morning on Bagwell Field inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, offensive line coach Steve Shankweiler's goals are similar to those of the entire East Carolina coaching staff.

With eight practices under their belts, he wants to see how his players have retained what they've been taught. Shankweiler is the program's third offensive line coach in as many years, and he knows that retention of what the coaching staff is trying to teach is key.

"The biggest thing we're all looking for is execution without the coaches standing behind you," he said. "You've got to remember, let's say you have a certain protection called — that might be something completely different than they had a year ago, either in terminology or execution or both. After eight days, what have you retained? The game belongs to the players. Will they be able to go out and function at a high level without someone helping?"

So far, Shankweiler has been pleased with what he's seen. He knows the Pirates had their issues in the trenches last fall — for example, ECU averaged just 129.7 rushing yards per game as a team, a figure admittedly inflated a little by a 415-yard effort against Connecticut in mid-November — but he also stressed that the past has no bearing on the present.

"This is a really good group of kids," Shankweiler said. "They're trying to buy in to a new way of teaching, a new language, and they're working extremely hard. But these kids have also been through a difficult period of years. The way things are taught, the way things are stressed, the language spoken, all that can be different. We're trying to get them comfortable, and they're all responding well.

"I really don't care about what happened last year. The way you establish the run is a team concept, and the reality is you're going to need all 11 players involved. The run game is all based on putting the defense in a conflict of responsibilities."

Back for a fourth stint with the Pirates — he served from 1987-91 under Art Baker and Bill Lewis, from 1998-2002 under Steve Logan and from 2005-09 under Skip Holtz — Shankweiler is very familiar with ECU. He's also been a part of some of ECU's best teams, including the 1991 team that finished 11-1 after beating NC State in the Peach Bowl, the 1999 team that finished 9-3, and the back-to-back Conference USA champion teams in 2008 and 2009. In all, Shankweiler has helped the Pirates rack up a combined 101 victories and been a part of seven bowl appearances in 15 collective seasons at ECU.

Overall, Shankweiler has more than 40 years of coaching experience, including 36 at the Division I level and 20 as an offensive coordinator.

He joined coach Mike Houston's staff at James Madison University a year ago. With the Dukes, he coached a pair of all-conference linemen for an offense that averaged 33.9 points and 406.9 yards per game, while ranking in the top 20 nationally in completion percentage (second/67.4 percent), first down offense (eighth/279), third-down percentage (13th/45.6 percent) and scoring offense (18th/33.9 points per game).

"We think we have a good plan for what we're trying to do here," Shankweiler said. "It'll take time for the kids to be comfortable with it, but once they do we'll be OK."

Another part of Shankweiler's comfort level with coming back to East Carolina is the competition in the American. Cincinnati, Memphis, South Florida, Houston, SMU, UCF, Tulane and Tulsa were rivals of the Pirates in Conference USA. Going back to his first tenure with ECU when it was an independent, the Pirates also had several games against Cincinnati, Temple, Memphis, UCF and Tulane, only falling to the Owls in 1990.

"I look at it like this: Those are basically the same schools we used to play in Conference USA," he said. "Our expectation is we'll be on par with them in a short amount of time. We're tickled to death to be able to play them. I know where they came from and where we came from."

The Pirates finalized preparations for the program's initial full intra-squad contest of the spring with a 90-minute shell workout Friday afternoon in pleasant seasonal temperatures at the Cliff Moore Practice Facility. The afternoon session was the Pirates' first after opening the spring with seven morning outings.

"We had a pretty energized practice today," Houston said. "We worked on a lot of different situations special teams wise and on a lot of small things to get ready for tomorrow, which will be our first major evaluation of our team going against each other. I'm excited. In fact, I'll be very disappointed if we don't come out and really compete and go at each other at a high level. I can't wait to get started!"

- Joe Corley

NOTES:
Saturday's scrimmage will also feature an officiating crew from the American Athletic Conference and is expected to consist of approximately 70-80 plays, which will include situational work (third down, live special teams, etc.) … ECU closed Friday's on-field action with a 20-minute team session that was highlighted offensively by 23 and 21-yard completions by quarterbacks Holton Ahlers and Reid Herring, respectively … On defense, ILB Xavier Smith penetrated the backfield on a pair of occasions to net tackles for lost yardage … Former Georgia and Miami (Fla.) head coach Mark Richt, who traveled to Greenville to speak at ECU's Coaches Clinic later Friday night, directly addressed the Pirates with a motivational message immediately following the workout … Richt served on Bill Lewis' East Carolina staff as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 1989.

ECU'S 2019 SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE
Next Workout: Saturday, March 30 (10-11:30 a.m.)
Remaining Workouts: April 1, April 3, April 6 (scrimmage), April 8, April 10, April 13 (Purple-Gold Game, 1:30 p.m.)

Spring Notebook No. 8 – Familiar Line Of Communication

Players Mentioned

Holton Ahlers

Reid Herring

Xavier Smith

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