Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
United Bank Playbook: ECU Preview
September 06, 2017 03:19 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is seeking victory No. 1 this weekend in its 2017 home opener against East Carolina at Milan Puskar Stadium.
The Pirates (0-1) are also seeking their first win of 2017 under second-year coach Scottie Montgomery, who posted a 3-9 record during his first season in Greenville in 2016.
Montgomery, a former wide receiver at Duke, most recently coordinated Duke's offense for David Cutcliffe and also spent three seasons on Mike Tomlin's staff with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a wide receivers coach.
Last Saturday, the Pirates lost their season opener to James Madison, 34-14, as the defending FCS champion Dukes limited the Pirates to just 70 yards rushing and a pair of second half scores.
Meanwhile, James Madison scored 27 second-half points by using a punishing ground game that churned out 410 yards, led by Cardon Johnson's game-high 265.
"James Madison hit some big plays where guys got out of their fits, which I would expect to be corrected this week from East Carolina coming in," West Virginia offensive coordinator Jake Spavital noted.
East Carolina's success moving the football came through the air with Duke graduate transfer Thomas Sirk completing 21-of-35 passes for 210 yards and a pair of interceptions. Gardner Minshew started, completing seven-of-18 passes for 82 yards.
ECU's top pass-catching targets were Davon Grayson, a 6-foot-2-inch, 187-pound senior, and Deondre Farrier, a 6-foot-1-inch, 185-pound sophomore, who caught seven balls each.
"They have guys. They always have," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.
Defensively, inside linebacker Jordan Williams, a 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pounder, led the Pirates with 14 tackles. Kiante Anderson, a 6-foot-4-inch, 243-pound senior defensive end, was ECU's most disruptive defender last Saturday with a sack and 2 ½ tackles for losses.
The Pirates employ a multiple look on offense, led by former Marshall quarterback Tony Petersen as their coordinator, while Kenwick Thompson's ECU defense uses a multiple 4-2-5 scheme.
"We're trying to figure out who they are," Holgorsen noted. "I'm trying to figure out what exactly they do on defense, because they do a lot of different stuff.
"They have some really good-looking guys running around everywhere," he added.
The Mountaineers are playing catch up with a short week of preparation following last Sunday night's 31-24 loss to 21st-ranked Virginia Tech.
West Virginia led Tech 7-3 late in the second quarter and tied the Hokies three times, 10-10, 17-17 and 24-24, before Tech scored the go-ahead touchdown with 6:30 left in the game. Following a missed Virginia Tech field goal with 1:55 remaining, West Virginia drove from its 20 to the Hokie 15 with enough time to take two shots into the end zone to tie the game.
Wednesday Sound
WVU missed its first opportunity to tie the game when David Sills V was unable to come up with Will Grier's pass in the end zone with two seconds showing on the clock. West Virginia's last chance was unsuccessful as well, when Grier's pass intended for Gary Jennings Jr. in the corner of the end zone fell incomplete.
"It came down to the last play; they made the play; we didn't," Holgorsen said. "That's unfortunate, but what are we going to do about it? We're not going to hang our heads; we're going to go back home and get started (on preparing for East Carolina)."
Grier, making his Mountaineer debut after transferring from Florida a year and a half ago, completed 31-of-53 passes for 371 yards and three touchdowns.
Jennings Jr. was his top target, grabbing 13 for 189 yards and a touchdown, including a 60-yarder in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 24.
Sills V had two TD receptions and finished the game with nine catches for 94 yards. The receiver corps will be bolstered by the return of sophomore speedster Marcus Simms, held out of the opener for a violation of team rules.
"He'll be ready to roll," Holgorsen said. "He has that speed factor."
Senior Justin Crawford led the WVU ground attack with 106 yards on just 13 attempts; Grier carried 11 times for 52 yards.
Defensively, senior Hakeem Bailey led the Mountaineers with eight tackles, including two tackles for losses, from his cornerback spot.
Middle linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton was credited with eight total stops and one TFL.
West Virginia limited Virginia Tech to just a three-of-15 success rate on third down and forced six three-and-out possessions for the Hokies on Sunday night.
Holgorsen said Tuesday 55 out of the 80 players who traveled to Landover, Maryland, got into the game against Virginia Tech.
"In a tight game, 55 is quite a bit. So, we'll take that and say, 'This guy needs to play a little more and this guy needs to play a little bit less. I didn't like what I saw out of this guy, let's try that guy who had zero snaps,'" Holgorsen said. "There's probably another 15 guys that we probably could have played but just didn't feel comfortable playing them in a tight game."
Perhaps that opportunity will come this Saturday.
This year's meeting will be the 22nd time these two teams have met on the gridiron, and the 14th in Morgantown. ECU has lost all 13 times it has been the road team, the last coming in 2009.
However, there have been some recent nail biters in Morgantown, including a one-point decision in 1996, a seven-point verdict in 1997 and a five-point game in 2005.
"My experience with ECU is back when Skip Holtz was there when I was at Houston," Holgorsen said. "We had some wars back in 2008 and 2009, which is about the same time that West Virginia was playing East Carolina and had some wars with East Carolina. They've been known to take out Power 5 schools left and right as we well know.
"It happened at West Virginia, I believe, back in 2008. It was about the same year they took out Virginia Tech and North Carolina. They've done it consistently throughout their program," Holgorsen added.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's radio coverage will begin with the Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 8:30 a.m. leading into game coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 11 a.m. on stations throughout West Virginia on online via WVUsports.com and the mobile app WVU Gameday.
Saturday's Gold Rush Game, presented by Dan Ryan Builders, will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on FS2.
The Pirates (0-1) are also seeking their first win of 2017 under second-year coach Scottie Montgomery, who posted a 3-9 record during his first season in Greenville in 2016.
Montgomery, a former wide receiver at Duke, most recently coordinated Duke's offense for David Cutcliffe and also spent three seasons on Mike Tomlin's staff with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a wide receivers coach.
Last Saturday, the Pirates lost their season opener to James Madison, 34-14, as the defending FCS champion Dukes limited the Pirates to just 70 yards rushing and a pair of second half scores.
Meanwhile, James Madison scored 27 second-half points by using a punishing ground game that churned out 410 yards, led by Cardon Johnson's game-high 265.
"James Madison hit some big plays where guys got out of their fits, which I would expect to be corrected this week from East Carolina coming in," West Virginia offensive coordinator Jake Spavital noted.
East Carolina's success moving the football came through the air with Duke graduate transfer Thomas Sirk completing 21-of-35 passes for 210 yards and a pair of interceptions. Gardner Minshew started, completing seven-of-18 passes for 82 yards.
ECU's top pass-catching targets were Davon Grayson, a 6-foot-2-inch, 187-pound senior, and Deondre Farrier, a 6-foot-1-inch, 185-pound sophomore, who caught seven balls each.
"They have guys. They always have," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.
Defensively, inside linebacker Jordan Williams, a 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pounder, led the Pirates with 14 tackles. Kiante Anderson, a 6-foot-4-inch, 243-pound senior defensive end, was ECU's most disruptive defender last Saturday with a sack and 2 ½ tackles for losses.
The Pirates employ a multiple look on offense, led by former Marshall quarterback Tony Petersen as their coordinator, while Kenwick Thompson's ECU defense uses a multiple 4-2-5 scheme.
"We're trying to figure out who they are," Holgorsen noted. "I'm trying to figure out what exactly they do on defense, because they do a lot of different stuff.
"They have some really good-looking guys running around everywhere," he added.
The Mountaineers are playing catch up with a short week of preparation following last Sunday night's 31-24 loss to 21st-ranked Virginia Tech.
West Virginia led Tech 7-3 late in the second quarter and tied the Hokies three times, 10-10, 17-17 and 24-24, before Tech scored the go-ahead touchdown with 6:30 left in the game. Following a missed Virginia Tech field goal with 1:55 remaining, West Virginia drove from its 20 to the Hokie 15 with enough time to take two shots into the end zone to tie the game.
Wednesday Sound
WVU missed its first opportunity to tie the game when David Sills V was unable to come up with Will Grier's pass in the end zone with two seconds showing on the clock. West Virginia's last chance was unsuccessful as well, when Grier's pass intended for Gary Jennings Jr. in the corner of the end zone fell incomplete.
"It came down to the last play; they made the play; we didn't," Holgorsen said. "That's unfortunate, but what are we going to do about it? We're not going to hang our heads; we're going to go back home and get started (on preparing for East Carolina)."
Grier, making his Mountaineer debut after transferring from Florida a year and a half ago, completed 31-of-53 passes for 371 yards and three touchdowns.
Jennings Jr. was his top target, grabbing 13 for 189 yards and a touchdown, including a 60-yarder in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 24.
Sills V had two TD receptions and finished the game with nine catches for 94 yards. The receiver corps will be bolstered by the return of sophomore speedster Marcus Simms, held out of the opener for a violation of team rules.
"He'll be ready to roll," Holgorsen said. "He has that speed factor."
Senior Justin Crawford led the WVU ground attack with 106 yards on just 13 attempts; Grier carried 11 times for 52 yards.
Defensively, senior Hakeem Bailey led the Mountaineers with eight tackles, including two tackles for losses, from his cornerback spot.
Middle linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton was credited with eight total stops and one TFL.
West Virginia limited Virginia Tech to just a three-of-15 success rate on third down and forced six three-and-out possessions for the Hokies on Sunday night.
Holgorsen said Tuesday 55 out of the 80 players who traveled to Landover, Maryland, got into the game against Virginia Tech.
"In a tight game, 55 is quite a bit. So, we'll take that and say, 'This guy needs to play a little more and this guy needs to play a little bit less. I didn't like what I saw out of this guy, let's try that guy who had zero snaps,'" Holgorsen said. "There's probably another 15 guys that we probably could have played but just didn't feel comfortable playing them in a tight game."
Perhaps that opportunity will come this Saturday.
This year's meeting will be the 22nd time these two teams have met on the gridiron, and the 14th in Morgantown. ECU has lost all 13 times it has been the road team, the last coming in 2009.
However, there have been some recent nail biters in Morgantown, including a one-point decision in 1996, a seven-point verdict in 1997 and a five-point game in 2005.
"My experience with ECU is back when Skip Holtz was there when I was at Houston," Holgorsen said. "We had some wars back in 2008 and 2009, which is about the same time that West Virginia was playing East Carolina and had some wars with East Carolina. They've been known to take out Power 5 schools left and right as we well know.
"It happened at West Virginia, I believe, back in 2008. It was about the same year they took out Virginia Tech and North Carolina. They've done it consistently throughout their program," Holgorsen added.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's radio coverage will begin with the Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 8:30 a.m. leading into game coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 11 a.m. on stations throughout West Virginia on online via WVUsports.com and the mobile app WVU Gameday.
Saturday's Gold Rush Game, presented by Dan Ryan Builders, will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on FS2.
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