Football

With the 2017 football season close to its end, the East Carolina University football team must muster up some strength in order to finish the American Athletic Conference season strong with Gardner Minshew as starting quarterback against the University of Cincinnati and the University of Memphis.

ECU (2-8, 1-5 AAC), will enter Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on “Senior Night” at noon on Saturday for its last home game of the season. The Bearcats (3-7, 1-5 AAC) sit just above the Pirates on the Eastern side of the division.

“Cincinnati is a good football team. Coach (Luke) Fickell is really playing a lot of new people,” head coach Scottie Montgomery said in his weekly press conference. “On the defensive side of the ball, they have a lot of new faces and some great talent at corner.”

The Bearcats will be starting one of the new faces Montgomery spoke about at cornerback this Saturday. Freshman defensive back Marquese Taylor will get the start after notching eight tackles and one interception against Temple University Nov. 11 and the University of Tulane Nov. 4.

The Pirates’ only home win came Oct. 21 for homecoming against non-conference opponent, Brigham Young University, 33-17. The starter at quarterback in that game was Thomas Sirk, but Minshew finished the game, leading ECU to the victory with two passing touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

“He did some really good things in the game, he threw some great balls, but we missed a couple down in the red zone.” Montgomery said of Minshew’s performance against Tulane. “Of course, it got really tight down there and it restricted what we could do.”

Minshew has suited up for every game this season, starting against James Madison University, Virginia Tech and Tulane, while waiting for his chance to lead the team in other contests when Montgomery pulls Sirk.

Following last weekend's game against Tulane, where the Pirates lost in overtime 31-24, Minshew was announced as the starter for the remainder of the season.

“I thought all-in-all he (Minshew) deserves to be the starter. He played well enough for us to win the football game and (in) no way or form did he play at a level that cost us to lose the football game,” Montgomery said. “So we feel comfortable with him moving forward.”

Cincinnati will be a force on offense with two solid running backs in Gerrid Doaks and Mike Boone, as Montgomery said the two backs do a good job at running the ball downfield, but he has also noticed improvements in his defense.

“I thought our defense gave us a chance to win this football game,” Montgomery said. “(During) the second half, our defense was stingy like they were in our last home game against BYU. When you play that well, you should have a chance to win.”

There is a long list of seniors that will be playing in their final home game at Dowdy-Ficklen come Saturday. The defense will take the biggest hit roster wise, as it will lose linebacker Jordan Williams, defensive back Bobby Fulp, defensive back Chris Love, defensive tackle Demage Bailey, linebacker Ray Tillman, defensive tackle Mike Myers and defensive back Xavier Smith. Offensively, the Pirates will say goodbye to seniors wide receiver Jimmy Williams, tight-end Stephen Baggett and, most notably, wide receiver Quay Johnson.

Monday afternoon, ECU Athletics and Johnson announced that he would miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. Johnson said via Twitter, “Having an injury sucks, but what hurts most is knowing I won't be able to fight with my brothers again... #pray4me,” then later tweeted, “God has a plan, no worries” with a praying hands emoji.

After last week’s game, and again this week, Montgomery said Johnson’s departure will be a big loss for the team, but also his future playing football.

“There’s no way we will see him. Right now, I am more concerned with how I think Quay can continue to play football,” Montgomery said. “The thing that you forget about with Quay is that you don’t talk about him as much, but he is so reliable that the small things, they automatically get done, and we missed a few small things in the overtime and also in the third quarter.”

Johnson was tackled awkwardly on a screen pass late in the second half against Tulane where he injured his leg. This season, Johnson eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in his career (1,218) and had 463 yards this season on 47 catches and three touchdowns.

As the Pirates’ offense will be without a key receiver in Johnson, the bright spot for the offensive unit will be the revived rushing attack from running backs Hussein Howe and Darius Pinnix. The two combined for 115 yards against Tulane and two touchdowns, with Howe contributing 108.

“We’ve got to continue to mesh our pass and our running game, (but) we are getting better, we are motivated to play,” Montgomery said.

This week, Howe was named to the AAC Team-of-the-Week for his performance against the Green Wave, along with freshman linebacker Aaron Ramseur.

Montgomery said he wants the fans to come back and support the seniors for Senior Night.

“The biggest thing motivating them (the team) right now is senior week, we have a lot of young guys playing, we have a lot of older players that are either injured or not playing but they want to go out and perform well for these seniors,” Montgomery said.

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