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More true freshmen to see the field for East Carolina
By Nathan Summers, The Daily Reflector
Thursday, September 08, 2005
It was just a quick flash on Saturday afternoon, but that No. 24 in purple and gold was former Charlotte Independence 1,000-yard running back Dominique Lindsay.
However brief his glimpse of field time for East Carolina, in the bigger picture Lindsay's trot onto the field marked the beginning of the freshman's collegiate playing career, as opposed to spending the year on the scout team.
Of this year's true freshman class, Lindsay was the only member to shed his redshirt by making it onto the field against Duke, but head coach Skip Holtz said defensive back Chris Mattocks (New Bern) and defensive lineman Scotty Robinson (Salisbury) are set to take theirs off this season as well.
Holtz hopes to follow his own redshirt mantra – don't strip off the redshirt if it's going to be a waste for the player.
"Right now, he's one of our top three tailbacks (behind Chris Johnson and Brandon Fractious), and he's one snap away from being a 2," Holtz said of Lindsay, who didn't record a rush or a reception in his first appearance. "We said we could hold onto him as a 3 and just wait and see what happens, but we wanted him to get experience."
With Lindsay, there is at least some pressure to fit him in, so as to not waste this valuable year of eligibility. That will mean, ultimately, putting the ball in Lindsay's hands, which hasn't happened yet.
"We've got to make ourselves play him to get him a little bit of experience," Holtz said. "So if he has to go in, in a critical situation, he'll have some game experience."
Robinson might have joined Lindsay in making his debut against Duke, but days earlier had a screw surgically implanted in his thumb, leaving him in a large hand cast. Robinson has already been medically cleared to play, Holtz said.
The basics (again)
The Pirates are spending their off week by going through their own version of baseball's extended spring training.
Holtz admits beating Duke has a lot to do with his willingness to step back this week and reinforce all of the basics with his team before embarking on game week No. 2 in preparation for playing at Wake Forest Sept. 17. A loss against Duke would have cast a slightly different light on the extra week of practice, Holtz said.
"Sometimes, if you lose, it's kind of like getting your gums scraped coming out here to go to practice when the air has been taking out of the sail," Holtz said. "This team has had a blue-collar approach all along. They've had the approach that they're going to bring their lunch pail and get better."
With that mentality, ECU went right back into the basics of tackling, blocking and simple football positioning.
"We've had the opportunity to play a game, get a measuring stick of where we are, define some of our weaknesses and some of our strengths, instead of always going against each other," Holtz said. "We feel like our fundamentals need to get better. This is not a week to reinvent the wheel and put in a whole new offense."
Play it again
Among many firsts for Holtz Saturday was the coach's initial run-in with instant replay, being used in a trial fashion this year in Conference USA.
When wide receiver Aundrae Allison lost the football along the sideline in the first half Saturday, Holtz said he was only hoping the right call would come out of the review.
"As a conference, we made the decision to keep the call in the hands of the official on the field," Holtz said. "That's why he comes over to look at the monitor instead of putting it in a replay booth. The bottom line is to get the call done right."
Nathan Summers can be reached at (252)329-9595, or at nsummers@coxnc.com. |
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