ECU GAMEDAY: Pirates getting up to speed for road test at Old Dominion

The East Carolina football team had plenty of time for fun during its season-opening win over Norfolk State.

While the offense produced more than 500 yards, the defense was stout, too. The Pirates allowed a field goal on the opening drive, then blanked the Spartans the rest of the way in the 42-3 win. The ECU defense even outscored the Norfolk State offense as defensive back Gavin Gibson returned an interception for a touchdown.

Defensive coordinator Blake Harrell said his players had a lot to be excited about during the game, but stressed that there won’t be much time for celebrating against their next opponent.

ECU hits the road for the first time this season when it plays non-conference opponent Old Dominion at 6 p.m. on Saturday in Norfolk, Va.

The Monarchs like to move fast on offense, deploying a no-huddle attack similar to ECU’s new style. That means there won’t be much time between plays to get set on defense.

“We have to have urgency and intent and a purpose to get lined up when the ball’s down,” Harrell said. “You can’t celebrate the last play. Last week, yeah, we had a lot of energy for each other. One of us made a play, we all made a play. We had a lot of juice for each other, but this week there won’t be time for that. We got to get lined back up, got to get our cleats in the ground, get our feet set and get ready to play the next call.”

Old Dominion (0-1) caught South Carolina off guard during their Week 1 matchup as Monarchs’ receiver Isiah Paige caught a deep pass down the middle and slithered his way 72 yards for a touchdown. ODU took a three-point lead with nine minutes to play in the fourth quarter but allowed a touchdown with six minutes remaining and came up short in upsetting the Gamecocks in a 23-19 loss.

The Monarchs were toppled by South Carolina’s rushing attack which produced 174 yards and two touchdowns on 56 attempts. The Pirates didn’t run much in the opener but will likely test that route on game day.

The Pirates enter Saturday’s game with a 1-0 record for the first time since 2016. They have moved on from last season with the help of a rousing start to the new year with last week’s demolition of the Spartans.

But one game sticks out to coach Mike Houston from last season that still picks at his memory, especially so when preparing for the Pirates’ next challenge. ODU’s no-huddle, offense reminds Houston of how his team wore down last season against UTSA, a similar up-tempo team.

“Both defenses are going to be accustomed to seeing what they’re going to see on Saturday from a tempo and scheme standpoint,” Houston said. “But I challenged our guys today. Last year, the UTSA game, we lost that ballgame because we did not handle their tempo well and it’s something we’ve talked about a lot in the offseason.

“We’ve worked a lot defensively to be better against it because it cost us last year. Not just that game, but that game really sticks out because we played well enough offensively to win. So we’ve really tried to stress to (the players) this week in practice that we’ve really got to push ourselves to be ready for Saturday night because if you look at the stats, ODU went faster than we did.”

Part of the game plan for defending teams that like to move with tempo is to make stops and force the offense off schedule. Tackles for loss and forcing incompletions are the best way to do that, and it’s something the Pirates excelled at last week.

ECU recorded 17 tackles for loss totaling 50 negative yards for the Spartans. The Pirates also held the rushing attack to 43 yards on 45 attempts.

Harrell said that stunts along the defensive line helped create opportunities for tacklers to bust into the backfield, and attention to detail allowed for the dominant showing.

“We got to go back to crossing some O-linemen’s faces, so we did a better job with that as the game went on,” Harrell said. “We adjusted some things there and those angle movements came free and we hit some guys in the backfield and created some tackles for loss. We had 17 on the night which is a huge shout-out to our players and our kids for just being really locked into the game plan.”

Harrell said after practice on Wednesday that he is glad there are still a few more days in the week to prepare. Houston echoed that thought as well, noting that ODU is a large step up in the quality of opponent from what the Pirates faced in the opener.

“It’s a race against time right now,” he said. “We had two weeks to get ready for Norfolk State, and now you got a week to get ready for a far superior opponent. So it’s a race against time right now.”