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NC State's Thayer Thomas makes the catch against ECU's Chance Bates Saturday afternoon at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville
ECU’s Owen Daffer watches his would-be game-winning field goal float wide-right against N.C. State on Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
NC State's Thayer Thomas makes the catch against ECU's Chance Bates Saturday afternoon at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville
ECU’s Owen Daffer watches his would-be game-winning field goal float wide-right against N.C. State on Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The East Carolina football team had several days to sort through Saturday’s season-opening loss to N.C. State.
Coach Mike Houston on Tuesday said all the right things about dealing with the pain of how the game ended on a missed field goal, and how this week is all about cleaning up mistakes in order to compete in Week 2 against Old Dominion.
“I’m just really pleased with how the players responded, particularly in the second half, and just played so well down the stretch,” Houston said. “The fourth quarter, the way our kids competed, it’s just really a tough one to swallow with the way the game ended.”
Houston said he spoke with kicker Owen Daffer after the game and again on Sunday about remaining confident in the face of his missed extra point and field goal in the fourth quarter against the Wolfpack.
The Pirates’ fourth-year coach said that Daffer has proven he is a top-level kicker after going 19-of-23 on field goals a season ago, including a 54-yard game-winning kick against Navy.
He just needs to find that stroke again.
“(Daffer) took it hard because nobody wants to hit those kicks more than he does and nobody takes it harder than he does,” Houston said. “As much as fans may have been disappointed, he’s more disappointed. We’ve rallied around him. I spoke with him Saturday night after the game and spoke with him again Sunday night. The coaches spent time with him yesterday. Just watching him Sunday at practice, he’s sitting over there working on the mechanics and fundamentals and that’s all it is.”
Avery Jones took a moment to think of his answer when asked about how many hours per week he spends watching film on opposing defenses.
By the time the ECU junior was ready, he didn’t have an answer except that it was a lot.
“I watch film any time I can,” Jones said. “Any free time I have. I just have it on my phone. I look at a few plays. I’m kind of on it and off it all day.”
Jones is in his second season playing the center position, and his ability to make the correct decisions and checks at the line of scrimmage is a crucial aspect in meshing blocking protections with what the defense is showing on a given play.
As a freshman, Jones appeared in nine games, and he made eight starts at left guard in 2020. He made the full-time move to center last season, where he started 11 games snapping the football. Now, with a season of experience at the position, Jones is sure of himself and his decisions as the leader of the offensive line.
That confidence shined in the form of the offensive line not allowing a sack against a talented N.C. State defense. The performance comes after the offensive line struggled to keep defenders away from quarterback Holton Ahlers a year ago when he was sacked an average of three times per game.
“That’s something we wanted to work on from last season,” Jones said. “Giving up a lot of sacks that we feel like we shouldn’t have given up, just off the mistakes and off the things that we can control. So that was big for the O-line and big for our confidence.”
Despite a record announced attendance of 51,711, Jones said that the crowd noise inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium didn’t play a factor in the offense’s execution. The Pirates’ center said that his focus took over and he and Ahlers were able to communicate effectively in the loud environment.
“When you’re in the game, it’s kind of different,” Jones said. “You just see what’s in front of you. You don’t hear what’s around you. I’m locked in on Holton and he’s locked in on what we got going on so it’s not really hard in my opinion.
“Me and Holton, we got to kind of stay on the same type of basis, same type of knowing (what’s coming) because I kind of control where we go as an O-line and he controls that too,” Jones said. “So we kind of got to meet on the field, in that moment, and try to find it. We work together on it. If I pick out the mike (middle linebacker) and he doesn’t like it, he might change and vice versa, so it goes back and forth.”
Middle linebacker Chance Bates is new to the Pirates’ defense as a graduate transfer from Kennesaw State. It was there he spent the 2019 season under defensive coach Blake Harrell, and so when the two reunited this season with ECU, Bates proved to be a quick learner in a familiar scheme.
The familiarity helped smooth Bates’ transition, and ECU saw the results unfold with a solid defensive effort against the Wolfpack.
“I felt very comfortable,” said Bates, who made four tackles. “Since I came in this summer, I felt like I fit right in. So just feeling the energy from the stands just makes me feel like this is where I belong. Nothing’s really changed except a few wrinkles here and there.”
The ECU linebackers had a solid game on Saturday, yet three defensive backs led the team in tackles in Gerard Stringer (10), Teagan Wilk (9) and Juan Powell (6). Bates said that seeing physicality out of the defensive backs is a telling sign that the Pirates have a fearsome defense.
“It’s phenomenal,” he said. “They just let you know that our team is hungry. We’re hungry this season. And everybody’s just going to attack. We’re going to attack each and every offense that we play, and it’s just great to be a part of.”
Houston, too, noted the physicality from the defensive backs and singled out Powell who could be poised to have a breakout season.
“I thought Juan Powell looked like I hoped he’d look,” Houston said. “I’m telling you that kid, he is a competitor and a great open-field tackler so it’s really exciting to see those guys play that way.”
Ahlers had to leave the game for one snap on Saturday with what he described as a right shoulder injury.
“I just dislocated my shoulder and had to pop it back in,” Ahlers said postgame.
Instead of putting Mason Garcia into the game (Garcia is listed as the team’s backup), the Pirates had Alex Flinn run one play while Ahlers worked to get back into the game.
“It’s a deal where if it’s just one play, helmet comes off or whatever, Alex would go in and run the offense,” Houston said. “If it’s something where it’s extended or whatever, then we’ll use Mason. It’s not that we’ve made a decision towards redshirting or not redshirting.
“Certainly, I’ve had a lot of conversations with Mason and I think the world of him and have the ultimate amount of confidence in him. But I don’t want to burn a game for one snap early in the season and then look up late in the year and say, ‘Well, I wish I hadn’t done that.’ So just trying to be deliberate with how we use his eligibility and that’s what’s best for him and the program.”
ECU offensive lineman Bailey Malovic didn’t play on Saturday due to a personal issue. Malovic, a senior who suffered a serious leg injury in last season’s opener, returned to camp healthy and was projected to help out with the depth at the position.
Malovic wasn’t listed on the team’s depth chart on Tuesday and Houston said that the team is supporting Malovic through what has been a tough time for him.
“Bailey’s had some tough things personally and he’s just working through some of that,” Houston said. “We’re here to support him any way we can and just try to help him.”
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