GREENVILLE — Morning showers forced the Pirates to move their scrimmage from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium to the team’s practice field, but the real storm came afterwards when first-year defense coordinator Rick Smith brought the thunder down on his unit for not showing enough intensity.
“I saw a bunch of guys flat. I saw a bunch of guys assuming that they were good and they got their butt bit,” Smith said. “It’s their job to get themselves ready to play mentally. They did not get ready to play mentally. Focus wins and I don’t think we were focused.”
Only two weeks away from their season opener against Old Dominion, the Pirates defense shined in their first scrimmage of fall camp but Smith called Saturday’s effort “alarming.”
The Pirates still have position battles going on, most notably at starting boundary corner, and Smith said that at first glance nobody improved their stock.
“You’re calling plays and trying to watch everybody, so I’m not sure. Just walking off the field I don’t think the corners played well,” Smith said. “As a defense we didn’t tackle well. So, if your corners don’t play well in man coverage and you don’t tackle well that’s not a good day.”
The Pirates defense forced two fumbles and recovered one and was led by Jeremy Grove and Cameron White who had four tackles each, while Reese Speight had three tackles and a sack.
Head coach Ruffin McNeill added a little sunshine by saying he was pleased with the pace of the scrimmage and the way his players substituted, which was somewhat of an issue in last week’s scrimmage.
Offensively, the Pirates bounced back from a subpar performance last Saturday as sophomore RB Cory Hunter continued to open eyes and rushed for a team-high 35 yards and a score on five carries.
Former Washington QB Jimmy Williams, who is attempting to walk-on to the team as a receiver, shined on Saturday as he caught two passes for 24 yards, with one of them being a 14-yard TD pass from Kurt Benkert on a slant pattern.
“Coached moved me to the outside position for the play and I had a three-step slant and I saw the safety come down so I knew I didn’t have to run too tight to the quarterback,” Williams said. “So I stuck it and ran to the middle and I was right there in the hole where there was no safety. The other safety was late coming over from the other side so it ended up being a touchdown.”
Sophomore Bryce Williams led all pass catchers with four receptions for 43 yards, while freshman Isaiah Jones grabbed three passes for 30 yards and a score.
Quarterback Shane Carden completed his first seven passes to end the day going 9-12 for 106 yards and a TD pass.
Last week offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley criticized the skill position players for their lack of execution, but on Saturday he credited their performance.
“We executed pretty well,” Riley said. “I thought all three groups had some really good drives. We had some nice runs and we caught the ball much better.
“We had some adversities with penalties and turnovers and we were able to respond after those and come back and get some first downs. … We just executed better. We were more focused. The skill guys played much better, the line was pretty steady again.”