Scouting East Carolina

The Pack crushed the Pirates 58-3 at Carter-Finley Stadium to end the 2018 regular season in a game put together because both colleges lost contests due to Hurricane Florence earlier in the season. The two teams meet again at 12 p.m. Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium to open the 2019 season.

Here is a full scouting report on East Carolina.

Five East Carolina Players To Watch

Sophomore quarterback Holton Ahlers — The Greenville native came down to NC State and ECU during the recruiting process and stayed home to play for the Pirates. His father is the public address announcer for East Carolina home games. The 6-3, 235-pounder replaced Reid Herring during last season and started five games before getting hurt prior to the NC State contest. He completed 127 of 263 passes for 1,785 yards with 12 touchdowns and three interceptions in 10 appearances. The physical runner added 119 carries for 592 yards and six scores. He threw for a career-high 449 yards and three touchdowns in a 59-41 loss versus Memphis.

Senior defensive end Kendall Futrell — ECU must replace the 14.5 sacks lost due to the departure of defensive end Nate Harvey, and Futrell will be relied on to help with that. The 6-2, 226-pounder started all but one game last year and tallied 34 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, four sacks, five passes batted down and 11 quarterback hurries. He was named second-team preseason All-AAC by Phil Steele’s 2019 College Football Preview.

Junior free safety Davondre Robinson — The 6-0, 201-pound Robinson collected 77 tackles — second on the team — and one forced fumble in 12 games (10 starts) in 2018. Athlon named him third-team All-AAC in the preseason. He had a career-high 12 tackles against both Memphis and Tulane last year.

Junior left tackle D’Ante Smith — The 6-4, 289-pound Smith started every game last year, but with Ahlers a lefty he is not protecting the blind side. His partner at left guard, massive 342-pound senior Cortez Herrin, also started all 12 games in 2018. ECU will lean on that left side of the line for short-yardage runs. Athlon picked Smith second-team All-AAC and Phil Steele’s had him third team in the preseason. He has 17 career starts in 19 games, and was one of the four team captains last year.

Junior kicker Jake Verity — The first-team All-AAC performer in 2018 made 19 of 21 field goals with a long of 52 yards, and connected on 27 of 28 extra points. He has made 36 of 48 field goals in his 26-game career, and has only missed two extra points on 69 attempts. He made the game-winning 38-yard field goal with 46 seconds left to top Old Dominion in 2018.

What To Watch From East Carolina

1. Holton Ahlers playing the role of Tim Tebow. When NC State recruited Ahlers out of Greenville (N.C.) D.H. Conley High, there was some playing similarities with former Florida Gators great Tim Tebow. Obviously, Tebow was a college legend and it’s a safe assumption that Ahlers won’t reach that level of stardom, but they are both left-handed, physical runners and aren’t the prettiest throwers in the world.

Ahlers’ running ability is what carved out his role with the Pirates prior to taking over the starting job. He ended up rushing for at least 45 yards in all but two games he played in last year, with a season-high 130 and a touchdown on 12 carries in a win over UConn.

What will be interesting to see is how much does new head coach Mike Houston turn Ahlers loose. He threw 53 times and had 27 carries against Central Florida, but 80 touches seems completely unrealistic Saturday against NC State. It might end up being more in the 45 range.

James Madison quarterback Ben DiNucci, a Pittsburgh transfer, had 27 passing attempts and 14 carries while being an effective game manager against NC State last year for Houston, who coached at JMU prior to accepting the ECU job in December.

2. Improved rush defense, perhaps. The last time NC State saw East Carolina's defense, the Wolfpack piled up 38 carries for 234 yards and four touchdowns. Not that ECU could stop the pass either. NCSU quarterback Ryan Finley tossed for 409 yards and three scores.

NC State running back Reggie Gallaspy Jr. had a field day, including sprinting 86 yards for a big run, en route to a career-high 220 yards. NCSU and Gallaspy were held in check by Houston's James Madison defense though earlier in the year. The Wolfpack only had 83 rushing yards on 29 carries and a touchdown that afternoon.

Opposing teams rushed for 169.8 yards per game against East Carolina in 2018. Can a coach make that much of a difference? We’ll see.

3. Who will fill the wide receiver void? Big-play wide receivers have been featured in the East Carolina offense over the last decade. It started with Dwayne Harris, who peaked with 101 catches for 1,123 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2010, and Lance Lewis was right behind him with 89 receptions for 1,116 yards and 14 scores that season.

Up next was Justin Hardy, who had three straight 1,000-yard seasons, including 121 catches for 1,494 yards and 10 scores in 2014. Zay Jones took things to a whole new level, culminating with 158 receptions for 1,746 yards and eight touchdowns in 2016.

ECU’s star receiver last year was Trevon Brown, who had 74 catches for 1,123 yards and nine scores.

Ahlers is going to toss the football around, but who will catch it? Senior Deondre Farrier is the top returning receiver with 30 catches for 372 yards and two touchdowns in seven games.

Three Keys To The Game

1. Pride factor: There is no question that a perfect storm came together in last year’s 58-3 NC State victory. Head coach Scottie Montgomery was fired earlier in the week and quarterback Holton Ahlers was out with an injury. Add to that the Pirates' season was already in disarray, hence the firing of Montgomery.

Whatever NC State wanted to accomplish they did, and then added some spice to the contest with center Garrett Bradbury rushing for a touchdown and linebacker Germaine Pratt given the chance to field a punt.

New ECU head coach Mike Houston has gone on record that it won’t be a 58-3 game this Saturday. Some of the names have changed, but it’s easy to see East Carolina wanting to show some extra pride Saturday.

2. Dominate the first quarter: East Carolina has started fast in first quarters in the past against NC State. NCSU should come out running the football, eating up some clock and let new redshirt sophomore quarterback Matthew McKay ease himself into the game.

East Carolina couldn’t stop the NC State running game at all last year, and while Reggie Gallaspy Jr. has exhausted his eligibility, a cadre of backs will try to make it happen again for the Wolfpack. Sophomore Ricky Person Jr., redshirt freshman Trent Pennix, and freshmen Zonovan Knight and Jordan Houston will all get chances running the football for NC State.

Plus, McKay has decent wheels himself and can make something happen.

3. Reshuffled offensive line: NC State’s offensive lines the last few years have been good at protecting quarterback Ryan Finley, a drop-back passer. The line has three experienced players in redshirt junior right tackle Justin Witt, junior right guard Joshua Fedd-Jackson and redshirt junior left guard Joe Sculthorpe.

All eyes will be on fifth-year senior left tackle Emanuel McGirt Jr. and redshirt sophomore center Grant Gibson. Both were Rivals.com four-star recruits, but McGirt has had a string of injuries, and Gibson was actually a defensive tackle prospect who made the move to center last year.

ECU has an undersized defensive line. Its two-deep on the four-man front averages just more than 254 pounds, with the biggest coming in at 279 pounds.

Three East Carolina Numbers Of Note

5 Interceptions by the East Carolina defense last year, which was complemented by just six fumble recoveries.

11 Punts that John Young had against NC State last year for a 40.2 average. ECU kept Young busy on the season, with the junior booting the ball 71 times for an average of 40.5 yards.

266 Consecutive games that East Carolina’s offense has scored. The shutout streak is tied for ninth in the country with Oklahoma. It narrowly avoided having that snapped with a 46-yard field goal as time expired against NC State.

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