ECU opens fourth and final week of spring football practice

GREENVILLE, N.C. - ECU opened its fourth and final week of spring workouts under the guidance of third-year head coach Scottie Montgomery and staff with a determined 100-minute session Monday afternoon on Hight Field inside the Cliff Moore Practice Complex.

The Pirates returned to action in pads after conducting their first intrasquad scrimmage of the season Saturday. Following its 12th practice Monday, ECU has just two more weekday workouts scheduled - one being a full-contact outing - before closing camp with the Purple-Gold Game at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Montgomery completed his evaluation of the action over the weekend and maintained his earlier thoughts after seeing the tape, lauding the defense's secondary play, game management by quarterbacks and offensive line improvement as a few of the biggest positives of the contest. While ECU was a little hampered from a depth standpoint because of injuries, Montgomery felt progress was made on both sides of the ball.

"We're playing at a high level and are very close on defense," Montgomery said. "I really thought Marcus (Holton) made a some great plays in the secondary, and outside of a few quarterback runs, we held the run game in check.

"Reid (Herring) and Holton (Ahlers) did a good job taking care of the football and thought Kingsley (Ifedi) stepped up in the pocket nicely. The progression we've made on the offensive line was really noticeable."

In addition to its traditional unit and special teams periods Monday, the Pirates continued to stress an up-tempo pace during four team-on-team segments that covered run, pass, reactionary and redzone situations.

ECU will be back in action Wednesday afternoon for a regularly-scheduled practice before dividing the squads into Purple & Gold units prior to Friday's outing.

NOTES: DE Kendall Futrell was cleared for "full-go" status Monday after sitting out Saturday's scrimmage because of an injury, while TE Ben Norris, RB Darius Pinnix and CB Corey Seargent all returned to work in a limited contact capacity ... PK Jake Verity was held out of practice Monday, joining DL Brandon Henderson, DB Tim Irvin, LB Ray Tillman and OL Peyton Winstead on the sidelines ... QB Reid Herring's 20-yard TD pass to WR Deondre Farrier and QB Holton Ahlers' 18-yard scoring run highlighted the redzone period for the offense which was otherwise controlled by the Pirate defense (which made stops on the remaining other 15 snaps).

ECU'S 2018 SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE

Next Workout: Wednesday, March 21 (4:30-6:15 p.m.)

Remaining Workouts: March 23, March 24 (Purple-Gold Game, 1:00 p.m.)