Opponent Watch 2018: ECU

East Carolina QB Gardner Minshew withdraws from school for family matter

Minshew, who transferred to ECU from Northwest Mississippi Community College, was 174-304 passing for 2,140 yards, 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He was 52-68 passing for 463 yards and two touchdowns in a November loss to Houston. The 52 completions were an American Athletic Conference record.

https://twitter.com/brucefeldmancfb/status/968918719089881088?s=21

Wow - didn’t see that coming. We sure they didn’t mean UAB? :slight_smile:

He has no chance at the NFL and he wants to be a coach. This is a great opportunity to get his feet wet and be in effect a player coach.

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And Minshew decommits from Alabama and commits to Washington State:

Grad transfer Gardner Minshew chooses Washington State over Alabama Newburgh Gazette http://newburghgazette.com/2018/03/21/grad-transfer-gardner-minshew-chooses-washington-state-over/

Minshew will be eligible immediately at Washington State. But Minshew is bound for Washington State, telling Sports Illustrated’s Bruce Feldman on Tuesday that, “This is an opportunity to compete for a (starting) job on a very good team”. On the field, I feel like I’m accurate and I make good decisions. Instead he figures to be WSU’s starter, thus allowing incoming freshman Cammon Cooper to redshirt. Hilinski died because of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in January.

shows you how much I know.:rofl:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/college-football-rankings/os-sp-college-football-rankings-east-carolina-20180430-story.html

Outlook: Montgomery and his staff have worked hard to restock the roster, adding several highly ranked recruits in the past two classes. If the defense can improve and the team stays injury-free, there’s potential to pick up more wins.

http://wnct.com/2018/03/08/ecu-athletic-director-jeff-compher-to-accept-buyout-resign/

But in 2015, Compher fired then football coach Ruffin McNeill.

Since then, the Pirates have won just six football games in two years, and the 2016-2017 season was among the worst athletic years in ECU history.

Following the historically bad year, Compher was given a five-year extension in late June, angering some fans.

The contract was supposed to run through April 2023.

Now, just nine months after that contract extension was signed, he will be bought out of his contract.

East Carolina Pirates
Head coach: Montgomery (6-18, third year)

2017 record and S&P+ ranking: 3-9 (123rd)

Projected 2018 record and S&P+ ranking: 3-9 (125th)

Five key points:

Montgomery’s first two seasons in Greenville have been … trying. The offense took a step forward last fall, but the defense fell off a cliff.

The defense has almost no choice but to rebound a bit, and Montgomery made an inspired coordinator hire in former ECU player and awesome Jacksonville State DC David Blackwell.

The secondary … might have some play-making potential?

The passing game is retooling with a new QB and mostly new set of starting WRs. But 1,000-yard receiver Trevon Brown does return.

The schedule is not particularly forgiving. S&P+ only gives the Pirates a better than 26 percent chance of winning in three games.

“The Pirates are currently ranked first in the American Athletic Conference and in the top 50 nationally with five three-star verbal commitments for the 2019 class, three more than any other team in the same league.”

https://247sports.com/college/east-carolina/Article/Belief-system-keeping-ECU-rolling-in-recruiting-despite-on-field-results-118110563

2019 Commits
https://247sports.com/college/east-carolina/Season/2019-Football/Commits

Another great pick up.
"Standout three-star wide receiver C.J. Johnson announced his verbal commitment to the Pirates on Thursday afternoon at Conley High School, choosing ECU over North Carolina. Along with the Pirates and Tar Heels, Johnson also had offers from NC State, North Carolina and Virginia Tech… join his former teammate and one-time star Conley quarterback Holton Ahlers, who’s already enrolled at ECU as a true freshman. Ahlers signed with the Pirates over offers from Florida, Georgia, Oregon State and many others as part of the 2018 class. "

https://247sports.com/college/east-carolina/Article/2019-WR-CJ-Johnson-commits-to-ECU-118290697

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Among them are an entertaining wide-open offense with a playbook full of trick plays and an athletic defense constantly running to the ball.

In order to make the latter happen, Montgomery brought in Blackwell from Jacksonville State — where he built the Gamecocks’ defense into the best among FCS programs. He then moved the start of spring practice up to February to give the Pirates more time to learn the new system and get stronger in the weight room.

With more experience under its belt, ECU will strive to get back to the post-season in 2018. Here’s what you need to know before the Pirates take the field.

Staton orders ECU athletics audit
http://www.reflector.com/News/2018/08/10/Staton-orders-ECU-athletics-audit.html

ECU Chancellor Cecil Staton has requested an independent audit of the university’s athletic department in hopes of putting to rest continuing concerns raised about the financial health of the Pirates’ sports program.

https://twitter.com/C_Austin_Cox/status/1039148422601822209

Looks like it will get walloped by Hurricane Florence. Looks to be on the dirty side.

With school not reopening again until mid-week and a game in Tampa on Saturday, Montgomery has chosen to keep his team in Florida rather than disrupt it any more by trying to return to Greenville. The Pirates have been practicing at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports and will travel to USF on Friday.

It’s an experience the coach called “a great team building situation.”

After ranking 129th nationally out of 129 FBS programs a year ago in scoring defense, total defense and tackles for loss, the Pirates are currently 10th in TFLs, 24th in total defense and 62nd in scoring defense after their first three games, allowing an average of 20 fewer points than they did in 2017.

The architect of that transformation is first-year coordinator David Blackwell, who returned to his alma mater after earning a reputation for a being a fixer of broken defenses at the FCS level. His unit at Jacksonville State ranked No. 1 in its division over the past four seasons.

https://twitter.com/Joseph_Duarte/status/1046791386484428807

We’ll be on CBSSports for this one

CBSS, thank you YouTube TV

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