ECU quarterback Reid Herring finally gets to play for Pirates coach Scottie Montgomery
Scottie Montgomery long hoped to coach Reid Herring, but the former Duke offensive coordinator didn’t expect the Millbrook High alum would be his starting quarterback as East Carolina’s head coach.
“I recruited Reid at Duke; we recruited him hard,” Montgomery said. “We thought he’d make his decision a little bit later, but once he made his decision to commit early to East Carolina, I had such a level of respect for their coaches we didn’t keep recruiting him. We don’t do tactics some other schools do.
“But as soon as I got this job, the first person I called was Reid. We were laughing. He knew I had recruited him hard.”
Herring, a redshirt sophomore, will make his first career start for the Pirates’ third-year coach against North Carolina A&T at 6 p.m. Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The Montgomery-Herring tandem developed in Greenville rather than Durham once former ECU coach Ruffin McNeill, who was popular and an alumnus, was fired on Dec. 4, 2015, following a slip from three straight bowl trips to a 5-7 record.
Herring had verbally committed to ECU on April 9, 2015, the spring of his junior year, but McNeill’s dismissal happened well before the Feb. 3, 2016 national letter-of-intent signing day. Herring wondered about his future until the Pirates hired Montgomery on Dec. 13, 2015.
“I loved Ruff; he was a great dude,” Herring said. “When he got let go I didn’t know what was going to happen. But when they hired Coach Mo, I was excited. I had that connection with him through the recruiting process, so I was 100 percent ready to go.”
Herring redshirted in 2016 and saw few snaps in 2017, although he completed his only pass attempt -- a 20-yard touchdown to Trevon Brown, a returning All-American Athletic Conference second-team choice, in the 48-20 win over Cincinnati.
In the 2018 spring drills, the 6-foot-3, 197-pounder emerged as the No. 1 QB over redshirt freshman Kingsley Ifedi and true freshman Holton Ahlers, who enrolled in January. Herring locked down the job in fall camp with his third-year knowledge of the playbook and ability to avoid tackles for losses.
“We’ve got a great offensive line, but if things breakdown I’m pretty good at getting out of there quickly,” he said. “I like being in the pocket, but if I have to run I believe in my ability to do it.”
OPENING NIGHT NOTES
--- N.C. A&T (1-0) won its 13th straight game last week in new head coach Sam Washington’s debut. The Aggies, a Football Championship Subdivision member ranked No. 14 in the preseason, upset No. 6 Jacksonville State 20-17 in the Guardian FCS Kickoff in Montgomery, Ala.
--- Sophomore TE Ben Norris’ career may be over after his latest concussion in fall camp. True freshman D’Angelo McKinnie (6-4, 235), who was recruited as a defensive lineman out of Southwest Onslow in Kenansville, is listed as the starter.
--- Montgomery’s third-year stamp on 2018 includes 13 starters from his three recruiting classes and 29 of the 44 on the two-deep depth chart.
The offensive starters are Herring, McKinnie, redshirt freshman WR Blake Proehl (son of retired 17-year NFL WR Ricky Proehl), true junior LT D’Ante Smith, true junior LG Cortez Herrin and true sophomore C John Spellacy.
Seven defensive starters are true junior DE Kendall Futrell, true junior NT Alex Turner, true junior DT Jalen Price, true sophomore LB Bruce Bivins, redshirt sophomore LB Aaron Ramseur, true freshman FS Nolan Johnson and true junior CB Colby Gore.
This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 11:37 AM.