ECU football needs to improve its defense. Pirates hope Kendall Futrell will help
Scottie Montgomery spoke glowingly of Kendall Futrell early in fall camp. East Carolina’s head coach sounded as if he had added a 5-star prospect that transferred in from recruiting heavyweights Alabama, Clemson or Ohio State.
“Two days into camp, what I’ll say is we’ve got a big-time player at defensive end,” Montgomery said. “Kendall Futrell is dominating. As Coach C (strength coach Jeff Connors) said, he was the freak of the off-season. Our defensive scheme is putting him into position where he can be very successful, and that has directly turned our corners into being more effective on the perimeter.”
Well, there is a yes and no as to whether Futrell is an addition.
No, because the junior, who was 3-star recruit out of Winterville’s South Central High, is entering his third year in Greenville.
Yes, because he’s healthy, stronger and most of all standing up as a “bandit” defensive end in new defensive coordinator David Blackwell’s 4-2-5 scheme. Futrell says his weight is up to 235 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame. A year ago, he was a 225-pounder playing with his hand in the dirt while giving way to offensive tackles 60 pounds and more.
Futrell feels like a different player, if not new, which is what East Carolina requires to improve upon last year’s defense that ranked last among 129 Division schools in both yards (541.7 per game) and points (45.1). His opportunity was on display in the second fall camp scrimmage Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. He recorded two sacks for three yards and a tackle for a loss for three yards.
“Kendall Futrell is one of the toughest guys we’ve had to protect against in a long time,” Montgomery said after the scrimmage.
In nine games last year, he had only one sack and three tackles for a loss while missing three with a hamstring injury. As a true freshman he had only a half-sack while missing five with a lingering illness.
“I definitely like standing up,” Futrell said. “This is a lot better than trying to bull rush bigger linemen. This year I can use my speed to my advantage.”
East Carolina, which opens at home against North Carolina A&T on Sept. 1, is coming off back-to-back 3-9 seasons. But Futrell said the Pirates have been optimistic since learning about Blackwell’s Jacksonville State success the past four years. His units ranked among the top 10 in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Futrell’s eyes lit up at “bandit” as the right fit for him and Blackwell said he had a hint Futrell was a good match when he interviewed for the vacant defensive coordinator job.
“After Coach Mo and I talked in December,” said Blackwell, “one of the things he said was he liked how we played guys on the edges and he thought we have some guys that fit that.”
In spring drills, sophomore Chance Purvis (6-4, 232) of Meridian, Miss., emerged as the other starting defensive end. Two backups are senior Nate Harvey (6-1, 225) of Knightdale by way of Georgia Military College and senior Mike Swift (6-3, 246) from Apex.
Futrell missing eight games his first two seasons combined with the new defense provided off-season motivation. He hit the weight room and also benefited from the Pirate Club’s funding of an improved training table.
“You can lift a ton of weight, but you still got to eat,” Futrell said. “This is a good weight for me. This is the fastest, strongest and most explosive I’ve ever been. I can’t wait for Sept. 1.”
SCRIMMAGE NOTES
Montgomery all but named redshirt sophomore quarterback Reid Herring the starter for the opener following his play in the situational scrimmage.
The Millbrook High grad was No. 1 coming out of spring ball, but Montgomery noted the competition with redshirt freshman Kingsley Ifedi and true freshman Holton Ahlers was still open entering fall camp.
“He has separated himself,” Montgomery said. “We’ll look at the tape, but one thing that has really separated him is time in the system. He gets us out of bad plays. He has that ability to stop tackles for losses with his mind as a third-year player. There is no question he has a great arm, but he does a good job of getting us out of bad plays.”
Herring finished 10-of-20 for 190 yards with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Blake Proehl and 9-yarder to Deondre Farrier. The toss high in the right corner of the end zone was out of textbook. The 6-1 Proehl went up over the defensive back to pull down the ball.
Herring finished with nine first downs to go with the two scores, Ifedi six first downs with a TD and field goal and Ahlers three first downs and no scores.