ECU ‘got a great amount of intel’ on USC from Deke Adams
First-year East Carolina football coach Scottie Montgomery previews Saturday’s 4 p.m. game at South Carolina.
On South Carolina:
“We’re going into a big-time SEC environment against a big-time SEC school with a big-time SEC coach and some big-time SEC talent. We are looking forward to the challenge of going on the road with our guys. We’ve done everything to prepare them. One of the reasons we went to Charlotte to practice was to go through every detail from getting off the bus, the details of practices and playing and all that. We’ll be prepared when game time gets here.”
On South Carolina’s defense:
“This will be another physical battle. They are extremely talented at the defensive line position. What they have at defensive end is extremely athletic. It’s an SEC-talented team. They’re anchored at linebacker by great players. (Chris) Lammons at corner presents a challenge for us because he can truly cover and he’s physical. Usually you get one – a cover guy that’s not physical or a physical specimen that can’t really stay close to receivers, so we’ll be challenged at that position. I’ve got so much respect for Coach (Travaris) Robinson and Coach (Will) Muschamp. They’ve been doing it together a long time. They know each other. Communication won’t be a problem with them. They know how to motivate players. I went down to visit them when they were all at Florida because of an offensive coach they had, Kurt Roper, who is one of the sharpest guys I’ve been in a meeting room with.”
On ECU defensive line coach Deke Adams’ familiarity under the same title at South Carolina for three years:
“We had a personnel meeting with Deke on both sides of the ball where I sat in, and I got my notes from that personnel meeting. He knows a lot about those kids. He knows what they play for, how they play and what positions that they feel more comfortable at, so we got a great amount of intel from Deke. We’re really happy he’s on our staff.”
On South Carolina’s offense:
“Offensively, they’re blessed to have, once again, it seems like every week we have to prepare for two quarterbacks. It presents a challenge. I’m very familiar with Brandon McIlwain from Newtown (Pa.). We recruited him and thought he was a great player. (He’s) very good with the ball, great with his feet, had great pocket presence (and) creates challenges out on the perimeter. Over the last couple of days, we’ve also been able to watch (Perry) Orth. Watching him play, they feel a little bit more comfortable with him throwing the football right now. All in all, it presents a tough challenge. They have a great young freshman (Bryan Edwards) out at wide receiver (with a) big body like one of the guys we saw last week. He’s going to be a hard tackle, pretty good in short spaces and has an extended catch radius so we have our hands full. On their offensive line, they have a guard who may be one of the best that we’ll see. He reminds me a lot of the guys we faced when we were preparing in the National Football League. They’re a great football team all around.”
On preparing for a road environment like South Carolina:
“We’re going to try to do everything from a noise standpoint, but the biggest thing about being on the road is the travel. Being focused, locked in and every person just doing their job and focusing on the game and situational football. Situational football in this game will be really, really important because that’s when the crowd is really evident: going in, coming out, third down, red zone, strike zone. I’m looking forward to moving fast throughout the rest of this week. We have to be able to play in noise.”
On what game films his staff is using to prepare for South Carolina:
“We’re trying to watch it all. We’re going back to Florida. A lot of that staff was together then, and then of course we’re going into what he (Muschamp) did at Auburn. We have to watch a lot of tape. It’s an ordinate amount of tape. Watching the first two games sometimes can be good, but sometimes it can be bad because you don’t know how much of the playbook they truly have open whether it’s offensively or defensively. Just as we are getting better, their coaches are getting better and more familiar with their and players and the players are becoming more familiar with the coaches, so it’s always the unknown. As coaches, what we try to do is watch a huge chunk of tape and by the time the guys roll in here tomorrow morning (Tuesday), we try to reduce that down to what we think will be helpful for them instead of clouding them with a lot of information that is useless.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 3:28 PM with the headline "ECU ‘got a great amount of intel’ on USC from Deke Adams."