By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — The Pirates are not scheduled to play their season opener until Sunday, but the games started a bit early when East Carolina’s first-year coach Ruffin McNeill held his first weekly in-season press conference on Monday without declaring a starting quarterback.
McNeill showed the moves that made him a nimble defensive back during his playing days with the Pirates as he danced and dodged around the press’s persistent QB questions.
Entering training camp, East Carolina has had a tight battle for the starting signal-caller position between sophomore walk-on Brad Wornick, redshirt freshman Rio Johnson and junior transfer Dominique Davis.
Since the beginning of camp, Wornick and Davis have risen to the top of the depth chart and appear to be neck-and-neck leading up to this Sunday’s season opener against Conference USA foe Tulsa (2 p.m.) in Greenville.
When asked if McNeill and his staff have decided internally who the QB will be and have just not made it public the coach responded by saying, “One thing about me is we don’t hide things from you guys. We haven’t tried to trick (anyone). They’re battling. … There is nothing we are trying to hide, those guys are battling every day.”
McNeill went on to praise each of the three quarterbacks, and said that the narrowed down battle between the walk-on sophomore who never played a snap in college and the junior transfer from Fort Scott Community College has been great all summer.
“If you had a chance to watch the film you would see one guy in 7-on-7 just complete great throws, then the next guy do the same thing. It’s been a back-and-forth battle. Competition is what I want. … It might come right down to the wire, and if it does it does. If it doesn’t we’ll let you know.”
McNeill said that each QB has his own strengths.
“Brad’s advantage comes from being around (offensive coordinator) Lincoln (Riley) this spring and going through spring practice and the initial teachings and introduction of the package,” McNeill said. “Dom (who enrolled later and missed spring practice) has experience behind his belt having played in a championship game and having led Fort Scot (CC) to an 11-1 record. Dom is athletic and very bright, and very smart, and has caught on well. He understands the offense too. … Dom has experience and is athletic … But don’t think that Brad’s not, Brad was a 1,000-yard rusher for his high school football team.”
While each passer has athleticism, McNeill is looking to see which has the best mentality.
“One thing we do is we put them under a lot of pressure blitz-wise, (defensive coordinator) Brian (Mitchell) blitzes like every play and both of them stay poised,” McNeill said. “I would say the development (is what we are looking for). Keep being poised, keep making the correct reads and both have done that.
“In this offense we may huddle once or twice in game but not much, this offense will be run from the quarterback. He will have a lot to do with it. After Lincoln makes the call he has a lot options to get us into the best play.”
McNeill also said he and his staff place a heavy emphasis on intangibles such as leadership and the ability to keep the team focused after a good or bad play. The first-year coach also said that he would prefer one quarterback to start instead of a platoon situation.
“Initially what you want is that guy to stay in there and get most of the reps and get most of the live reps in a game,” McNeill said. “This year in this offense is the first time we have ever had a rotation unless a quarterback got banged up. We played three quarterbacks and all three did well, but you hope to have one guy and let him lead it.”
McNeill would not say if there was a front-runner in the race or not.
Other notables on the first depth chart of the season was the absence of junior wideout Darryl Freeney, who emerged as one of the Pirates’ top receiving threats late last season. East Carolina will start four receivers and Freeney’s name is not listed on any of the two or in some cases three-deep rotation.
McNeill said that Freeney’s status is not related to anything off the field. The only place Freeney’s name is listed is as a possible punt returner along with Dwayne Harris, both of whom are behind Travis Simmons.
Slated to start at those four receiver spots are junior transfer Lance Lewis at the X position, Michael Bowman (H), Dwayne Harris (inside receiver/Y) and Joe Womack (outside receiver/Z).
Expect backups like Dayon Arrington, Mike Price, Jeremy Davis, Torrence Hunt and Andrew Bodenheimer to get some snaps and stay in the mix for a starting spot throughout the year.
As of now, sophomore center Dalton Fields is slated to start at center because of an injury to junior Will Towery.
On the D-line, freshman defensive end Matt Milner and freshman nose tackle Jimmy Booth will get the starting nod and be joined at the line by senior DT Josh Smith and sophomore DE Marke Powell.
Wes Pittman will be the starting strongside LB, while Dustin Lineback is set to start on the strongside. Due to an undisclosed injury to Steve Spence, Melvin Patterson is lined up to get the starting nod at middle linebacker.
The secondary played out as most expected with Emanuel Davis and Travis Simmons returning to start at the corner spots, while Derek Blacknall (FS) and Bradley Jacobs (SS) will play the safety positions.
In a bit of a surprise, junior transfer Michael Barbour topped Ben Ryan and will be ECU’s starting placekicker. Ryan beat out freshman Matt Millisor for the top punting position.
McNeill said Ryan has punting experience and has looked good in practice and that he feels comfortable with Barbour kicking field goals as far as 40-47 yards.