Spring Notebook No. 10 – The Forefront Of Success
April 03, 2019 | Football
GREENVILLE, N.C. — A proven coach and recruiter whose resume is littered with all-conference honorees, league titles and a pair of FCS national championships, Jeff Hanson brings considerable gravitas to his role as defensive line coach at East Carolina.
A coaching veteran of more than 40 years, Hanson also brings a steadying influence to a position group that now is under its fourth coach in as many seasons.
"It's going well," said Hanson, a Richmond graduate whose national titles came with the Spiders in 2008 and James Madison in 2016. "We have to learn the different things that we're trying to teach them. There are some guys who are very committed right now and are great players, and there are some guys who just don't understand right now. When we get them all on the same page, we'll be fine."
The Pirates are looking to continue a trend of improvement on defense. For example, led by players such as Nate Harvey (14.5), Alex Turner (4.0) and Kendall Futrell (4.0), they had 34 sacks a year ago, more than tripling the total of 11 from 2017.
Turner is back on the line and Futrell is expected to be back at end this fall, along with players such as Jalen Price, Chance Purvis, Michael Swift and Chandon Hickerson. They give Hanson a solid nucleus with which to work as ECU installs what head coach Mike Houston termed "an all-new scheme" defensively.
"They're hearing a lot of different points of view," Hanson said. "Everybody teaches things a little differently, so it's a learning process for those guys. As long as they go full-speed, work hard and study and evaluate what we're going against, they'll be OK.
"I expect them to adapt to what I want to do. I can tell on a couple of different things it's a little bit new, but for the base things it's basically all the same, just the verbiage is a little bit different, that's all."
Hanson came to East Carolina with Houston from JMU, where he played a key role in developing an elite defense. He produced seven all-conference players in three years with the Dukes, including the national defensive player of the year (Andrew Ankrah) in 2017. They had the nation's top defense in four statistical categories (scoring, interceptions, pass efficiency and turnovers forced) that season.
Much of Hanson's coaching career came at Richmond, where he was on the staff from 1971-79, 1989-2006 and 2008-09. Others stops were at Marshall (1980-81), Lamar (1982-83), Southwest Texas State (1983-85), West Texas State (1987-88), VMI (2007), Virginia (2010-12), JMU (2013), Ferrum (2014) and Virginia State (2015).
He was also the recruiting coordinator during his time at Virginia, where he put together classes ranked in the top 30 nationally in 2011 and 2012.
"I'm trying to establish a relationship with (the players) that basically the thing they need to understand is I'm in the business not just to win on Saturday, but I care about my players," Hanson said. "I care about character development, I care about personal development, and I care that when they leave our program they have a chance to be very successful in life.
"That's what I'm all about, and that's what I'll teach these guys. The wins and losses will take care of themselves if you can teach them how to be successful in whatever they want to do. That's why I'm in the business."
Of course, the main goal of any football team is to earn victories, something Hanson said also has to be learned.
"Really, the big thing is they have to understand what it takes to win and what you have to do to win," he said. "That's what we're trying to teach right now, and they're accepting of that because they want to win.
"The players have been good. I love these guys. They're good kids, they just don't know. They're 18- to 21-year-old kids who really don't know, and that's why we're here, to help them understand what it takes to get where they want to be."
The Pirates worked out well and with a bit of a heightened purpose on a cool, sunny Wednesday morning at the Cliff Moore Practice Facility.
"We only get 15 (workouts in the spring), and we're 10 practices in," Houston said. "These next five practices are critical. On spring game Saturday (April 13), I want our fans and our alumni to leave here knowing that we have a shot, having hope. And we have to, it's too important. We're in a critical time right now with a lot of urgency."
The coaching staff was busy the last three days evaluating the film from the first scrimmage last Saturday.
"We have to clean up some of our penalty issues we had," Houston said. "We did have three turnovers on offense. That's great on defense because there were a couple of outstanding plays to force those turnovers, but we have to have better ball security on offense. Also with execution on both sides of the ball, we have to look better (in the second scrimmage Saturday). Again, we've made strides, we're better, but we're not where we want to be."
- Joe Corley
NOTES:
Houston announced Wednesday that junior DT Raequan Purvis' playing career has come to an end due to medical reasons … The former Plymouth (N.C.) High School standout had played in 19 overall games (six starts) for the Pirates and tallied 23 tackles, 4.0 TFLs, one pass breakup and one quarterback pressure since being elevated to ECU's active roster as a redshirt freshman in 2017.
ECU'S 2019 SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE
Next Workout: Friday, April 5 (8-10 a.m.)
Remaining Workouts: April 6 (scrimmage), April 10, April 12, April 13 (Purple-Gold Game, 1:30 p.m.)
A coaching veteran of more than 40 years, Hanson also brings a steadying influence to a position group that now is under its fourth coach in as many seasons.
"It's going well," said Hanson, a Richmond graduate whose national titles came with the Spiders in 2008 and James Madison in 2016. "We have to learn the different things that we're trying to teach them. There are some guys who are very committed right now and are great players, and there are some guys who just don't understand right now. When we get them all on the same page, we'll be fine."
The Pirates are looking to continue a trend of improvement on defense. For example, led by players such as Nate Harvey (14.5), Alex Turner (4.0) and Kendall Futrell (4.0), they had 34 sacks a year ago, more than tripling the total of 11 from 2017.
Turner is back on the line and Futrell is expected to be back at end this fall, along with players such as Jalen Price, Chance Purvis, Michael Swift and Chandon Hickerson. They give Hanson a solid nucleus with which to work as ECU installs what head coach Mike Houston termed "an all-new scheme" defensively.
"They're hearing a lot of different points of view," Hanson said. "Everybody teaches things a little differently, so it's a learning process for those guys. As long as they go full-speed, work hard and study and evaluate what we're going against, they'll be OK.
"I expect them to adapt to what I want to do. I can tell on a couple of different things it's a little bit new, but for the base things it's basically all the same, just the verbiage is a little bit different, that's all."
Hanson came to East Carolina with Houston from JMU, where he played a key role in developing an elite defense. He produced seven all-conference players in three years with the Dukes, including the national defensive player of the year (Andrew Ankrah) in 2017. They had the nation's top defense in four statistical categories (scoring, interceptions, pass efficiency and turnovers forced) that season.
Much of Hanson's coaching career came at Richmond, where he was on the staff from 1971-79, 1989-2006 and 2008-09. Others stops were at Marshall (1980-81), Lamar (1982-83), Southwest Texas State (1983-85), West Texas State (1987-88), VMI (2007), Virginia (2010-12), JMU (2013), Ferrum (2014) and Virginia State (2015).
He was also the recruiting coordinator during his time at Virginia, where he put together classes ranked in the top 30 nationally in 2011 and 2012.
"I'm trying to establish a relationship with (the players) that basically the thing they need to understand is I'm in the business not just to win on Saturday, but I care about my players," Hanson said. "I care about character development, I care about personal development, and I care that when they leave our program they have a chance to be very successful in life.
"That's what I'm all about, and that's what I'll teach these guys. The wins and losses will take care of themselves if you can teach them how to be successful in whatever they want to do. That's why I'm in the business."
Of course, the main goal of any football team is to earn victories, something Hanson said also has to be learned.
"Really, the big thing is they have to understand what it takes to win and what you have to do to win," he said. "That's what we're trying to teach right now, and they're accepting of that because they want to win.
"The players have been good. I love these guys. They're good kids, they just don't know. They're 18- to 21-year-old kids who really don't know, and that's why we're here, to help them understand what it takes to get where they want to be."
The Pirates worked out well and with a bit of a heightened purpose on a cool, sunny Wednesday morning at the Cliff Moore Practice Facility.
"We only get 15 (workouts in the spring), and we're 10 practices in," Houston said. "These next five practices are critical. On spring game Saturday (April 13), I want our fans and our alumni to leave here knowing that we have a shot, having hope. And we have to, it's too important. We're in a critical time right now with a lot of urgency."
The coaching staff was busy the last three days evaluating the film from the first scrimmage last Saturday.
"We have to clean up some of our penalty issues we had," Houston said. "We did have three turnovers on offense. That's great on defense because there were a couple of outstanding plays to force those turnovers, but we have to have better ball security on offense. Also with execution on both sides of the ball, we have to look better (in the second scrimmage Saturday). Again, we've made strides, we're better, but we're not where we want to be."
- Joe Corley
NOTES:
Houston announced Wednesday that junior DT Raequan Purvis' playing career has come to an end due to medical reasons … The former Plymouth (N.C.) High School standout had played in 19 overall games (six starts) for the Pirates and tallied 23 tackles, 4.0 TFLs, one pass breakup and one quarterback pressure since being elevated to ECU's active roster as a redshirt freshman in 2017.
ECU'S 2019 SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE
Next Workout: Friday, April 5 (8-10 a.m.)
Remaining Workouts: April 6 (scrimmage), April 10, April 12, April 13 (Purple-Gold Game, 1:30 p.m.)
Players Mentioned
Defensive Line
/ Football
Defensive End
/ Football
Defensive Line
/ Football
Defensive Line
/ Football
Defensive Line
/ Football
Defensive Tackle
/ Football
Defensive Line
/ Football
Defensive Line
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