There are a series of challenges for the East Carolina defense on Saturday when it comes to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan football offense.
It’s not just the scheme, or the talent. There’s uncertainty about what the Pirates will see. Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh is suspended for the first game,
as is offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. That means that Jesse Minter, the team’s defensive coordinator,
will act as interim head coach, while quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell will be stepping into the interim offensive coordinator role.
For ECU defensive coordinator Blake Harrell, while he’s looking back at Campbell’s previous experience,
he doesn’t expect to see much different in terms of style of play from the maize and blue on Saturday.
“Yeah, not much,” Harrell said. “I think, obviously, the new playcaller was at ODU. So you get back in touch a little bit with his background.
And I think actually going back (into the past further), he was the offensive coordinator at Alderson Broaddus, we played them back in, I think, 2013.
“So, the history there, it goes back a ways, but I don’t think it changes who the players are, who their identity is, or what they really want to do with football.
I think they’re gonna be who they are, and who they have been over the last couple of seasons. Which is pound the football. Obviously, they keep talking about they want to be more balanced.
So they’ve been 60-40, run-to-pass. Obviously, J.J. McCarthy is a really good quarterback and they want to be more balanced 50-50. But at the same time they’ve been very successful doing what they do.
“So we prepare for both, a little bit more passing game, but at the same time, prepare for what we see on film, what we’re gonna get into.”