ECU offense on the offensive
East Carolina may run an Air Raid system, but right now it’s the zone read that’s taking off.
With dual-threat quarterback James Summers slowly commandeering the Pirates offense, the option play has become one of their best options as ECU (3-2, 1-1 AAC) heads into its matchup with BYU (3-2) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Earlier in the season, when Blake Kemp was the lone quarterback, opposing defenses were loading up at the line of scrimmage and teeing off against the run, essentially daring him to beat them with his arm. But with Summers behind center, teams must now respect the fact that he can hand the ball off, throw it or keep it himself.
“It’s very effective,” said running back Chris Hairston, who rushed for a 34-yard touchdown on the play during ECU’s win over Southern Methodist. “It opens up a lot. The defense has to play more honest now.
“You can’t just key in on me. They don’t know if I’m getting the ball or if he’s going to keep it. It makes everything a lot more easier and opens up a lot more plays.”
Hairston should know. The senior rushed for 154 yards and four touchdowns in the Pirates season-opening win over FCS Towson, but the running game quickly ran downhill after that. East Carolina rushed for negative-13 yards against Florida and followed that up with a paltry 80 rushing yards the next week against Navy.
Heading into the third game of the year versus Virginia Tech, ECU averaged 86.3 rushing yards per game, the 125th-worst total in the FBS.
That, however, was a pre-Summers world. The junior transfer got his first significant action against the Hokies and it didn’t take long for him to make his mark. The 6-3, 210-pound Greensboro native had 169 rushing yards, the second-highest total in school history, and reached the end zone two times to lead the Pirates to a 35-28 victory.
“It keeps a defense honest and there’s a little bit of an option there,” ECU offensive coordinator Dave Nichol said of the zone read. “We can do a few things off it here and there and we have a little package of plays for it so we’re able to do that.”
The game film from the Virginia tech game amplified the effect of the zone read, and the full power of the play was put on display during the Pirates 49-23 victory over SMU.
“Against Virginia Tech we ran it and tried to open it up,” Summers said. “But I knew coming in that (SMU) had seen me running the ball a lot and they would key on me and it would open things up for the running backs.”
It certainly did. East Carolina rushed for 306 yards versus the Mustangs, the second-most during the Ruffin McNeill era. The Pirates’ ground game outgained the passing offense by 57 yards.
Summers checked into the game in the second quarter with ECU trailing 23-7, and proceeded to put on a zone read clinic. Summers engineered a sequence of touchdowns that saw him keep the ball, hand it off and pass for a touchdowns.
First, he ripped off a 27-yard TD run on a play that froze perimeter defenders for a split second because of its zone read elements.
Summers took a shotgun snap, faked the hand off to RB Anthony Scott, then followed him through the hole inside of the left tackle virtually untouched for the score. While the play may not have necessarily been a zone read, it paralyzed the right side of the defense, who had to respect the fact that Summers might come sprinting their way.
The play worked to perfection on the following touchdown as Summers opted to put the ball in Hairston’s belly and the back took it 34 yards for a score, but only before SMU’s linebackers hesitated to see who had it first.
After getting burnt on a Summers keeper and a Hairston run, the Mustangs run defense was on high alert. The perfect time to call for a zone read play-action pass. With the ball on the SMU 47-yard line, Summers faked the hand off, then took a few steps to his left, sucking the defense up, before launching the ball to a wide open Trevon Brown for an easy touchdown.
The Pirates hope it continues to be that easy versus the Cougars Saturday.
“It can be a big weapon,” Hairston said. “We just have to keep executing it. If everybody keeps doing their job and the O-line keeps blocking like they have been, they sky’s the limit.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 10:41 AM with the headline "ECU offense on the offensive."