East Carolina’s 2014 season came to an emphatic thud with a 28-20 loss to Florida in the Birmingham Bowl.After wins over North Carolina and Virginia Tech, pollsters, fans, and the Pirate Nation all believed this was the “It” team among the Group of Five conferences, and the soon-to-be American Athletic Conference champion in its first season in the conference.
After falling in four of their last six games to finish 8-5, the Pirates now have to replace pieces from one of the most decorated senior classes in ECU history. Admits the talent walking away by graduation, head coach Ruffin McNeill has the cupboard full of young talent ready to step up, and step in to new starting roles this offseason as they look for a shot at rewriting their own ECU records.
Here are a few of the primary issues ECU must address this offseason.
1. Plug In a New Quarterback
You simply don’t replace your school’s all-time leader in passing yards (11,991), touchdown passes (86), and competitions (1,024) — not to mention the defending AAC Offensive Player of the Year and a guy with 26-13 record as a starter.
McNeill and offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley* will look to plug-in a new starting quarterback in the offseason, not find Shane Carden’s heir apparent, although Pirate fans hope the new signal caller eventually replaces Carden’s productivity.
Four quarterbacks, each with little to no playing experience, will battle in the spring for the right to lead Riley’s Air Raid offense; the same system he ran as an assistant at Texas Tech, where each season produced a 3,000-plus-yard passer, no matter who played quarterback.
Carden’s backup in 2014, rising sophomore Kurt Benkert is the current favorite to win the starting job, but his ascension to No.1 is far from set in stone. Benkert went 8-for-10 for 58 yards in ’14 – minimal stats that give coaches little to draw upon – and was named Carden’s backup for 2014 because 2013 backup QB Cody Keith sat out this past season to recover from elbow surgery. Now Keith is back to good health, and he, along with junior-college transfer Blake Kemp, will make Benkert have to earn every snap with the first-team.
In a recent story from The Charlotte Observer, Riley said that Keith and Benkert are similar players (both are 6-foot-3 and over 200 pounds), but Benkert is more mobile and comes across as more fiery in the huddle – which might insinuate that Riley feels Benkert might be the better leader between the two QBs.
ECU won’t be looking for Shane Carden’s replacement this offseason – school record-breakers don’t announce themselves in offseason practice; the next quarterback needs to time to write his own story. But a plug-in guy should still put up massive numbers in Riley’s pass-happy offense.
2. Sew Up the Secondary
ECU’s inconsistencies in pass defense were epitomized in the regular season finale against UCF, when Knights quarterback Justin Holmon launched a 51-yard Hail Mary that became the miraculous game-winning score to secure a 32-30 win.
Two ECU defenders locked in a prevent fan allowed 6-foot-3 Breshad Perriman to cross in front of them and snag Holmon’s prayer to win the game for UCF. It was the only Hail Mary touchdown the Pirates surrendered in 2014, but ECU’s secondary handed out long pass completions to opposing offenses all season.
Opposing QBs threw for 3,322 yards and 20 touchdowns against the Pirates secondary in 2014. The defense gave up 89 passing plays of 30 or more yards – only Tulsa’s secondary allowed more in the AAC.
ECU returns one of the AAC’s best corners in senior Josh Hawkins (11 pass breakups and five interceptions in ’14) and safeties Terrell Richardson and Dominique Lennon.
Defensive coordinator and secondary coach Rick Smith must devise better coverage schemes in the offseason that will put his players in better position to defend deep passes. Having the AAC’s leading tackler in ‘14, Zeek Bigger, return at linebacker should facilitate a solid pass rush that will, hopefully, aid ECU’s pass defense.
3. Find Ways to Replace the Departing Production on Offense
Shane Carden isn’t the only record-breaking player who won’t return in 2015. NCAA receptions-leader wide receiver Justin Hardy is graduating his talents to the NFL, and the Pirates No.2 receiver last season, Cam Worthy, is also graduating.
Hardy and Worthy combined for 2,510 yards receiving with 14 touchdowns and each averaged at least 12 yards per catch. Last season’s lead running back Breon Allen is also departing, taking another 869 yards and eight touchdowns off the field for 2015. Senior Chris Hairston (528 yards rushing and two touchdowns in ’14) should fill-in nicely for the departing Allen.
Replacing Hardy is like trying to replace Carden; it’s not going to happen in one offseason. The front runner, however, is No.7 Isaiah Jones who had over 800 yards receiving this past year and accounted for five TDs. Not eye-popping stats that match Hardy’s immense production, but good enough to land Jones as one of the top seven pass catchers in the AAC, according to total receiving yards by player.
In an Air Raid system, replacing production is actually the least of problems for an offensive coordinator. ECU OC Lincoln Riley knows his offense will produce another 1,000 yard receiver and 3,000 yard passer. What he doesn’t know yet, and probably won’t know till Week 1 of next season, is how his new plug-ins react as starters instead of backups. Will they rise to the challenge, or crumble under the pressure? Coaches have all offseason to find out.
*Lincoln Riley was named Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator late Monday night.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
