Backfield full of depth

By Ronnie Woodward East Carolinian

August 22, 2007

Greenville, NC (CSTV U-WIRE) -- Since Skip Holtz arrived in Greenville, he has had James Pinkney, Aundrae Allison and a reliable passing game to depend on.

But now, the record-setting duo of Pinkney and Allison is gone and Holtz will have to turn to a talented group of running backs to carry the load offensively.

"We have great depth at running back...and that will be a true asset to this offense and will take a lot of pressure off of me," said ECU sophomore quarterback Rob Kass, who will be making his first career start Sept. 1 against Virginia Tech

ECU's rushing attack was inconsistent last season, finishing ninth in C-USA in rushing offense with 115.5 yards per game.

"Those guys might not have the amazing stats from a year ago, but I feel confident that this year the running game is something were going to rely on," the Pirates' young quarterback said. "When its third-and-one in the fourth quarter, I have full confidence that they will stick their head in there and get the first down."

Holtz said earlier this month that running back is the deepest position on the Pirates' offense and six backs will be competing during fall practice for playing time.

ECU running backs coach Junior Smith believes the depth at the position can create mismatches for opposing defenses.

"With the depth at running back, we're going to try to get more than one of those guys on the field at the same time," said Smith, who is ECU's all-time leading rusher with 3,745 career rushing yards from 1991-1994. "Maybe have one in the backfield, have them blocking for each other, then throw a swing pass out the backfield to one of them as well. We want to use their talents in one-on-one match-ups with linebackers and get all of them involved as much as possible."

Someone who has flourished in such a role is senior Chris Johnson, who is listed as the Pirates' starting running back. The speedy Johnson had a team-best 972 all-purpose yards as a running back, wide receiver and kick returner last season.

"I'll be a running back mainly but we still have plays in the playbook where I can be moved to a slot receiver," Johnson said of his role in this year's offense.

Johnson has displayed playmaking ability throughout his career, including a 96-yard kick return last season and an 86-yard run against Wake Forest as a freshman, which ranks as the seventh longest run in ECU history and second longest by an ECU freshman. Without Pinkney and Allison, Johnson believes he can showcase his explosiveness even more this season.

"I'm looking to be more of a playmaker this year, but I made plays even when they [Pinkney and Allison] were here," said Johnson. "There's really not much pressure for me to step up and be a playmaker because I've been doing it since my freshman year."

Pinkney ended his career as ECU's all-time leader in completions (687), career attempts (1,189), 200-yard passing games (23) and consecutive starts at quarterback (38).

Kass is taking over for Pinkney, and a better rushing attack could benefit the young quarterback.

"We feel like the running game has to be better," said Johnson. "Pinkney has been here for the last three or four years and this will the first season in awhile with a new quarterback, so we have to run the ball better to take some of the pressure off the quarterback."

The big plays that usually came from the Pirates' quarterback and wide receivers in years past could come more from the talented backfield that ECU will display this fall.

"We need our running backs to make big plays so the offense isn't on the field for so long sometimes, we need some long runs where we can break a tackle and score that way," said Smith.

Holtz believes that his past offenses have relied on Pinkney and Allison because of the lack of depth at certain positions.

"If you look at this offense the past couple of years, it has relied very heavily on just a couple of players because we didn't have a lot of depth," he said. "When Aundrae [Allison] came here, we didn't have another player of his talent so we moved him all over the field and made him the primary target because we feel like we didn't have the quality depth.

"But now after being in this program for three years, one of the most exciting things about this team and the biggest difference in this football team than the one of three years ago is the depth that's here right now."

With the inexperience at quarterback and wide receiver, the ECU rushing attack will have to be improved in 2007.

"For us to achieve our goals of being a top-25 team, a conference champion and return to a bowl game we're going to have to establish a consistent, dominant running game," said Smith.