East Carolina Pirates: Reports say Scottie Montgomery to be Coach
The East Carolina Pirates are expected to name Duke offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery as their next head coach.
The East Carolina Pirates may have a new head coach. According to reports from Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports, the Pirates will hire current Duke offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery to fill the position that became empty when the team suddenly fired Ruffin McNeill.
Montgomery is a surprising choice. First he comes from Duke, which runs an offense that is much different than the Air Raid. That does not necessarily mean that the Air Raid is finished at East Carolina, but it would be hard to think that Montgomery will adapt to a system he is unaccustomed to, particularly when he has been Duke’s play-caller.
Another defensive coach might have kept the Air Raid for the sake of continuity, but you have to imagine that Montgomery will want to do things his way on the offense.
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Montgomery is a young coach. He will be 37 this year. He played wide receiver for Duke around 2000. He has held various roles at Duke including quarterbacks coach. He was promoted to offensive coordinator when Kurt Roper left to take over the offense in Florida in Will Muschamp’s last season there.
Duke used a more traditional offense than ECU’s while Montgomery was there. Montgomery tried to get the most out of a decent tailback group. He also tried to get the most out of Thomas Sirk, but never really implemented the deep ball as part of Duke’s attack with Sirk under center.
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Coming from Duke, Montgomery should have a good idea of what recruiting in North Carolina is like. The new coach also has the benefit of being from the state he is recruiting in. Duke also had to find overlooked talent, so Montgomery may bring that skill with him.
For current ECU players, the benefit of Montgomery is his experience. He has mentored quarterbacks and played wide receiver. He should be a good reference for Isaiah Jones and the remaining members of the ECU offense.
Next: ECU fires Ruffin McNeill
With the hire of Montgomery, we can also put to bed any idea of grabbing Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma. Riley is about as old as Montgomery, so thinking it would be a young hire was not far off.
As for Ruffin McNeill, the fired head coach has accepted a position as linebackers coach under the new Bronco Mendenhall regime at Virginia.