Scottie Montgomery's First Practice at East Carolina is a Success
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Day one of spring football practice for first year East Carolina head coach Scottie Montgomery went off without a hitch at Hight Field on Wednesday. The intensity level among the highest seen at an ECU practice in quite a while as the new staff made it a point to bring their A-game from the outset.
Montgomery announced that six players will miss the spring workouts because of injuries and subsequent rehabilitation. They include ILB Devaris Brunson (knee), ILB Drayvon Fairley (knee), DB Bobby Fulp (shoulder), WR Isaiah Jones (shoulder), OLB Dayon Pratt (back), DB Travon Simmons (shoulder) Marquez Grayson, whose dismissal from the program was announced during Tuesday's press conference, takes some of the depth away from the running back corp.
Montgomery removed the redshirt from freshman OL Darius Anderson from the Pirates' roster for a violation of team rules. Senior James Summers, who started four games at quarterback for ECU last season, took reps at the wide receiver position on Wednesday. That was his first since the early stages of fall camp last year when he was eventually moved to quarterback. Senior Philip Nelson and junior Kurt Benkert shared the majority of snaps under center on Wednesday. Benkert’s return to action was the first since suffering a season-ending knee injury on August 25th.
Benkert talked about getting back after a the better part of a season away from on field action.
“It just felt great. Six months, seven months out of this is really a long time, so it was fun to get out there,” Benkert told PirateIllustrated.com, “It’s still sore sometimes but I’m getting comfortable and I’m definitely getting to the point where I don’t have to think before I make a cut. That was the hardest part to get over. Physically I feel great, it’s just mentally having to get over that hump.”
Benkert says he’s been at the job of learning the new offensive system since Coach Petersen got to town and says he’s spent a lot of time with wide receivers coach Phil McGeoghen in preparation for the first day of practice.
“I’ve been competing since I got here so it’s always been an audition. At this place you’re always competing for you job. That’s just how it is here."
“I thought the energy was exceptional. I cannot say enough about our coaches and the detail they set up for this practice. It’s not easy to practice the way we practice, going from drill to drill, no walking - running, the quality control from our assistants, I thought the practice was as good as it possibly could be on day one,” Montgomery said after his first practice as a head coach at East Carolina. It’s not where it’s going to be but it was really good. They go as we go and we’re competing against ourself. The next time we hit the field we’re competing against ourselves from this time.”
Montgomery was fired up and had to hold some of the excitement back with it being his first time leading an entire program.
“I am trying to hold it down. It’s hard. I don’t hold it down when I’m on the field. I’m from drill to drill and I’m everywhere. Tonight I’m probably not going to get to sleep until 2 or 3’oclock because it comes from our players and it comes from guys who want to work hard and it comes from our staff. I couldn’t say enough about who they are as people because it’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy. I love where we are right now from an injury standpoint and our coaches are coaching really, really hard,” said the first year Pirate head coach.
New Pirate coordinators Kenwick Thompson and Tony Petersen led the new group of assistant coaches along with strength and conditioning coach Jeff Connors with Montgomery chiming in with both instruction, intensity and encouragement.
“We’re really proud of the guys and their effort. We tried to set some standards as far as how guys run to the football. We felt like the heat put us in a good position to test ourselves. Many times, this time of the year you don’t get an opportunity to do that,” Thompson told PirateIllustrated.com, "The elements brought an added incentive for guys to be able to push themselves to see if they can keep their technique under pressure. We thought for the first day it was good.
Quarterbacks Kurt Benkert, Philip Nelson and John Jacobs led five quarterbacks looking to make their presence known on what was the hottest day of 2016 thus far with temperatures soaring into the high 80’s for the late afternoon workout.
Petersen was analytical and low key in his practice approach as he began the work of just teaching the day in, day out quarterback drills that this ECU team will employ all spring and likely again this fall when this new group of Pirate coaches and players take the field for season one of the Montgomery era.
“The main thing is we’ve got to get the offense taught. We’ve got to get everybody comfortable. We’ve got to develop the two quarterbacks now and get them ready and develop the offensive line. Everybody’s got to learn what they’re doing. They’ve got to learn what we want out of it and how we want it taught,” Peterson said, “Today was the first day and you could tell it was the first day. The fifth day will look a whole lot different, the tenth and the fifteenth day - summer so it’s kind of a progression. It’s going to take some time but we’ve got some great kids out there. Unbelievable effort and they’re giving us everything they’ve got. We’ve just got to learn the offense.”
“What I want to do is move up and down the field and score a bunch of touchdowns. I think at times it will look pretty wide open and at times it may be a little more run. It will depend on who we’re playing and how we’re doing, but we’re going to have the capability of doing both."
The action was brisk as the different position groups moved in and out various stations at a fever pitch. The overall speed of practice was brisk and the intensity level was extremely high.
Pirates will suit up again on Friday for the second of two non-contact workouts to open spring camp. We’ll have more then.
PirateIllustrated.com caught up with Coach Montgomery after practice along with both coordinators Kenwick Thompson and Tony Petersen and quarterback Kurt Benkert for the very latest as we open our spring camp coverage. That along with some early PI-TV highlight video and PI Photos from Hight Field. Catch complete PI-TV interviews over on PI Premium for member subscriber partners.
