East Carolina is struggling this season, But, they have some elements to their team that will cause the Hokies problems. Defensively, they scheme in a very similar manner to Delaware. They switch back and forth between a 30-odd front (nose and two five techniques) and a 40 front (the three down guys slide weak and a stand up linebacker aligns to the strong side on the line of scrimmage). Against West Virginia, their linebackers played deep and ran in space to the football. This makes it tough for the offensive line to get to the second level. DE Kiante Anderson (No. 96) is their most disruptive player on film. They look much more long and lean than the stout squatty ECU defensive linemen that have caused problems in the past.
Against WVU, ECU also played a bunch of the soft zone that we saw Delaware use. Will Grier was more assertive than Josh Jackson was against Delaware fitting the ball into the seams of coverage. Similar to Jackson's touchdown to Cam Phillips against man coverage, East Carolina's defensive backs — FS Korrin Wiggins (No. 15) and CB Chris Love (No. 35) — could not handle the West Virginia receivers in man-to-man coverage.
Offensively, they still have familiar names at wide receiver and concepts that give the Hokies fits. When the Hokies show press man, they will check to rub routes. When the Hokies show zone and quarters coverage, ECU will slant/post their outside guy and run a fade from the slot and force VT's inside secondary guys to make plays with their back to the ball. Wide receivers Davon Grayson (No. 85), Jimmy Williams (No. 81), and Trevon Brown (No. 88) have a history of making plays against the Hokies. Grayson and Brown are also big bodies at 6'2" tall.
ECU's defeats are misleading. They aren't finishing drives, but their offense has generated 300+ yards passing a game and have only 4 fewer first downs than their opponents. Quarterback Thomas Sirk (No. 10) has beaten the Hokies as a quarterback before. However, he and his backup, Gardner Minshew, are both completing less than 54% of their passes. Sirk in particular was missing open receivers before West Virginia pulled away from the Pirates. Their offensive line wasn't much help either, as the Mountaineers generated tons of pressure.
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