What the ECU football spring game taught us

The East Carolina University football team concluded its spring practice session with its annual Purple-Gold game on Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Here are some takeaways from the what the Pirates’ offense and defense showed.

The first thing is the offense has a lot of potential at skill positions. The wide receiver, running back and quarterback positions all have plenty of talent for head coach Scottie Montgomery and offensive coordinator Tony Petersen to work with. These spots all have opportunities to produce as a group.

At wide receiver, senior receiver Trevon Brown appears poised to be the next in a line of ECU receivers to have a breakout season. Brown had a big spring game, catching nine passes for 169 yards. He could also be seen on the sideline frequently giving advice to his quarterbacks and fellow receivers. If the rest of the receivers can hold their own in the offense, much like redshirt freshman Duce Fuller did with five catches and 114 yards on Saturday, then it could help the offense tremendously.

The running back spot featured the player of the game on Saturday, as freshman Trace Christian ran for 97 yards and scored all three of the Gold team’s touchdowns. Christian ran through defenders all day and looks like a potential key contributor this season. Production like that from a freshman at a spot also featuring junior Hussein Howe will be huge for the Pirates. That doesn’t even mention now freshman Darius Pinnix and senior Anthony Scott yet, who Montgomery reminded everyone didn’t even play in the spring game. This group, much like the receivers, can produce by committee.

The quarterback group is no exception either. Reid Herring looks to be running away with the starting spot, but it is realistic that we could see freshman Holton Ahlers on the field at some point this season too. Ahlers has impressed coaches all spring, and Peterson said that Ahlers is “heading that way” when talking about potentially playing this season. Even Kingsley Ifedi, who only threw six pass attempts but made smart plays, could see time on the field this season.

"Offensively, we have a couple of guys that can flat out throw the ball. We split up all our skill today and I look over and there is Blake Proehl, Leroy Henley, Darius Pinnix, Anthony Scott and all those guys on the sideline (injured), so now you start to feel like our talent level is where it needs to be. It's a good feeling and that is probably the biggest takeaway."

On the other side of the ball, the defense under new defensive coordinator David Blackwell is very impressive and energetic. All spring long there has been talk about the energy Blackwell has brought with him, and it was on full display. The Gold team, coached by Blackwell, held Purple to only 19 yards rushing and swarmed the ball all day. The Purple team had the defensive player of the day however, when junior defensive back Devon Sutton forced a fumble with a big tackle, and junior linebacker Cole Nigro picked it up and took it 30 yards for a touchdown. Junior defensive back Colby Gore won Defensive MVP along with Special Teams MVP on the day. The defense looks much more engaged, and is tackling much better than in recent memory.

Coach Montgomery certainly agreed when talking about the tackle from Sutton that forced a fumble.

"That was a big hit," Montgomery said. "I haven't seen many of those since I have been here. We tackled much better today than we have tackled in a long time, especially in the open field."

The spring looked good for the Pirates, but they will still need to prove themselves come Sept. 1 against North Carolina A&T.