...
ECU FINDS A NEW WR WEAPON
How Bud Foster and Virginia Tech jumped all over the Buckeyes at Ohio State was perhaps the biggest story of Week 2. Seven days later, the Hokies were back at Lane Stadium and got ambushed themselves, as East Carolina jumped on them en route to a 28-21 win in spite of 13 penalties and gained 502 yards on the vaunted VT defense. Against the Buckeyes, Foster played a lot of Bear defense with a suffocating front that overwhelmed the inexperienced OSU O-line and redshirt freshman QB J.T. Barrett. They didn't play it as much against ECU, but the Pirates burned Va. Tech with big plays when they had chances, especially in the first half. The Pirates' 370 yards in the first half were the most allowed by the Hokies in any half in 10 years.
The aggressive Tech defensive scheme was a challenge to ECU, especially their receivers who knew they'd get manned up. In prior seasons, the Pirates, who hadn't won at Lane Stadium in 23 seasons, wilted in the face of the pressure."We hadn't been aggressive enough against 'em," ECU offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley told FOX Sports on Sunday. "You really gotta try and be aggressive back. Against them, if you get on your heels, they're gonna bully you around. They'd done that before against us. They made us play their game. (On Saturday), we weren't perfect, but we had our spurts and we completed a lot of vertical balls."
ECU's star QB Shane Carden completed 23 of 47 passes for 427 yards, the third-most ever against a Va. Tech defense. The surprise star of the game was ECU WR Cam Worthy, a former walk-on, who caught six passes for 224 yards, including two long-gainers on the game-winning drive. Normally, ECU's standout WR is Justin Hardy, the school's all-time leading receiver in every major category, but against the Hokies D it was Worthy who took over.
Worthy's quite a story. He's the kind of athlete who would figure to blow up the NFL Combine. He's a 6-3, 220-pounder with a 43-inch vertical jump, but he was off everyone's radar. Riley said he came to ECU as a junior college walk-on QB who the program found out about through one of the team's long snapper's mothers.
"It was a real random deal," Riley said. "He's this really raw kid, but he's big and he has huge hands and great ball skills, but his route-running was beyond raw. (ECU WR coach) Dave Nichol has done a great job with him, and now Cam's really just stopped thinking and is just playing, and making a lot of plays for us."
http://www.foxsports.com/college-footbal...ure-091414