Spring Notebook No. 11 – Rushing For Depth & Balance
April 05, 2019 | Football
GREENVILLE, N.C. — One of the hallmarks of prior teams led by first-year East Carolina Head Football Coach Mike Houston has been an effective, deep and at times, dominant rushing attack.
During Houston's three seasons at James Madison, De'Rail Sims — who stayed with Houston and now is in charge of ECU's stable of ball-carriers — handled the responsibility of coaching the running backs ably. Although the Pirates have been known more for their work through the air in the recent past, Sims knows there's a rich heritage at East Carolina and that the fans appreciate an offense that can move the ball on the ground as well.
"You go back and you look at the history at ECU," said Sims, a 2010 graduate of the University of Pikeville with a double major in history and political science. "You have Earnest Byner who played here and was phenomenal, you have Chris Johnson who played here and was phenomenal.
"We as a coaching staff are built off running the football, so with everything we do there's an emphasis on running the football. It's a mindset and an attitude. There's an attitude from the time they step in the building until the time they leave of being able to be aggressive and coming downhill and running the football."
Before his three years at JMU, Sims spent three seasons at Western Carolina, where he coached a pair of all-conference selections and mentored a rushing attack that improved each fall.
In his first season with the Dukes in 2016, he guided a ground game that accounted for 4,125 yards with 18 individual 100-yard games. Eleven of those came from All-American Khalid Abdullah (1,809 yards, 22 TDs), but three other backs combined for nearly 1,600 yards and accounted for 18 more scores.
That type of depth is something Sims considers key.
"My philosophy is to come downhill on people, be physical and be hard-nosed," he said. "But you have to have three guys in college football in order to win games, in terms of from the running back position. So we like to have guys staying fresh throughout the game. If we have one workhorse, we'll saddle him up, and if we have three guys we'll give them all their share of the load."
Through 11 workouts so far this spring, no true workhorse has emerged with the Pirates, but that's not concerning for Sims, who added that each running back is making the progress he wants to see. Darius Pinnix, Hussein Howe and Trace Christian all are back and are being pushed by others as well in a program that hasn't produced a 1,000-yard rusher since the 2013 season.
"No one has really separated, but everybody is taking the steps necessary to make the jump to the next level in terms of what we want to be offensively, and that's being efficient and being able to run the ball," Sims said. "I'm looking for a smart, tough, physical player, a guy that's not selfish. He wants to block and protect the quarterback, and protect the football. And once he has the ball in his hands, become a playmaker."
"But things are going well. The kids are buying in and working hard. We're just cleaning up the finer details right now. That's the No. 1 deal, clean up the finer points, be more efficient on offense, and execution."
The leading rusher for East Carolina a year ago was quarterback Holton Ahlers, who netted 592 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games. The threat he possesses not only helps him and the Pirates in the passing game, it should prove beneficial on the ground as well.
"As long as we win football games, it doesn't matter who our leading rusher is," Sims said. "What (having a mobile quarterback) does is, now you create an extra gap for the defense to have to game plan for. That opens up things for the tailback."
The Pirates completed their 11th practice of the spring Friday morning at the Cliff Moore Practice Facility just before the rain started to fall. They will be back on Bagwell Field inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday for their second scrimmage, one week ahead of the spring game.
"We had a good, solid practice this morning," Houston said. "I told them that at 8 a.m. tomorrow when we meet as a team, they better be locked in and ready to go and they better be ready to compete. We have a lot to find out about ourselves. We have to challenge each other. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning.
"There's a lot of urgency right now. Nobody wants any part of what's been here the last couple of years. We have to change it, so there has to be some urgency."
The scrimmage will continue a progression of what East Carolina has been working on, though of course the full scheme both offensively and defensively won't be on display until the fall.
"We're going to have some different situations, obviously, as we continue to evolve," Houston said. "We have a lot more in this week than we had last week on both sides of the ball. We're going to simulate an end-of-the-game kind of deal tomorrow with a two-minute drill to finish the day."
- Joe Corley
ECU'S 2019 SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE
Next Workout: Saturday, April 6 (10-11:50 a.m.)
Remaining Workouts: April 10, April 12, April 13 (Purple-Gold Game, 1:30 p.m.)
During Houston's three seasons at James Madison, De'Rail Sims — who stayed with Houston and now is in charge of ECU's stable of ball-carriers — handled the responsibility of coaching the running backs ably. Although the Pirates have been known more for their work through the air in the recent past, Sims knows there's a rich heritage at East Carolina and that the fans appreciate an offense that can move the ball on the ground as well.
"You go back and you look at the history at ECU," said Sims, a 2010 graduate of the University of Pikeville with a double major in history and political science. "You have Earnest Byner who played here and was phenomenal, you have Chris Johnson who played here and was phenomenal.
"We as a coaching staff are built off running the football, so with everything we do there's an emphasis on running the football. It's a mindset and an attitude. There's an attitude from the time they step in the building until the time they leave of being able to be aggressive and coming downhill and running the football."
Before his three years at JMU, Sims spent three seasons at Western Carolina, where he coached a pair of all-conference selections and mentored a rushing attack that improved each fall.
In his first season with the Dukes in 2016, he guided a ground game that accounted for 4,125 yards with 18 individual 100-yard games. Eleven of those came from All-American Khalid Abdullah (1,809 yards, 22 TDs), but three other backs combined for nearly 1,600 yards and accounted for 18 more scores.
That type of depth is something Sims considers key.
"My philosophy is to come downhill on people, be physical and be hard-nosed," he said. "But you have to have three guys in college football in order to win games, in terms of from the running back position. So we like to have guys staying fresh throughout the game. If we have one workhorse, we'll saddle him up, and if we have three guys we'll give them all their share of the load."
Through 11 workouts so far this spring, no true workhorse has emerged with the Pirates, but that's not concerning for Sims, who added that each running back is making the progress he wants to see. Darius Pinnix, Hussein Howe and Trace Christian all are back and are being pushed by others as well in a program that hasn't produced a 1,000-yard rusher since the 2013 season.
"No one has really separated, but everybody is taking the steps necessary to make the jump to the next level in terms of what we want to be offensively, and that's being efficient and being able to run the ball," Sims said. "I'm looking for a smart, tough, physical player, a guy that's not selfish. He wants to block and protect the quarterback, and protect the football. And once he has the ball in his hands, become a playmaker."
"But things are going well. The kids are buying in and working hard. We're just cleaning up the finer details right now. That's the No. 1 deal, clean up the finer points, be more efficient on offense, and execution."
The leading rusher for East Carolina a year ago was quarterback Holton Ahlers, who netted 592 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games. The threat he possesses not only helps him and the Pirates in the passing game, it should prove beneficial on the ground as well.
"As long as we win football games, it doesn't matter who our leading rusher is," Sims said. "What (having a mobile quarterback) does is, now you create an extra gap for the defense to have to game plan for. That opens up things for the tailback."
The Pirates completed their 11th practice of the spring Friday morning at the Cliff Moore Practice Facility just before the rain started to fall. They will be back on Bagwell Field inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday for their second scrimmage, one week ahead of the spring game.
"We had a good, solid practice this morning," Houston said. "I told them that at 8 a.m. tomorrow when we meet as a team, they better be locked in and ready to go and they better be ready to compete. We have a lot to find out about ourselves. We have to challenge each other. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning.
"There's a lot of urgency right now. Nobody wants any part of what's been here the last couple of years. We have to change it, so there has to be some urgency."
The scrimmage will continue a progression of what East Carolina has been working on, though of course the full scheme both offensively and defensively won't be on display until the fall.
"We're going to have some different situations, obviously, as we continue to evolve," Houston said. "We have a lot more in this week than we had last week on both sides of the ball. We're going to simulate an end-of-the-game kind of deal tomorrow with a two-minute drill to finish the day."
- Joe Corley
ECU'S 2019 SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE
Next Workout: Saturday, April 6 (10-11:50 a.m.)
Remaining Workouts: April 10, April 12, April 13 (Purple-Gold Game, 1:30 p.m.)
Players Mentioned
Quarterback
/ Football
Running Back
/ Football
Running Back
/ Football
Running Back
/ FootballSaturday, April 18
Monday, April 13
Friday, April 10
Tuesday, April 07
