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Blake Harrell said Emory Williams is earning an opportunity at quarterback and that the week of practice would help determine who gives East Carolina the best chance to win. He also said Mitch must improve. This leaves competition open ahead of Old Dominion; Harrell did not announce a new starter, a fixed two-quarterback rotation or an injury-driven change.
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Starting center Brandon had swelling from what Harrell described as a likely high ankle sprain and dressed but did not practice Monday. Karson Jones has practiced at center and replaced him during the game. Harrell expects Brandon back Saturday, not a confirmed clearance. Landon will be eased back cautiously after missing late-week work and still feeling discomfort in warmups; Brock Spalding is moving better but is not practicing.
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East Carolina's run game improved to almost 200 yards against App State, led by Ashton Gray, but downfield passing still needs better protection and full-speed routes. Harrell said late use of running-back and tight-end chips helped the tackles. Jeremiah Melvin needs better conditioning and rotation to stay fresh late; Harrell also wants more targets for tight ends whose practice work has improved.
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Harrell praised edge play from Julien Davis and Kendrick DuJour, improved tackling and ten tackles for loss, but said ECU still has no takeaways. Explosive gains exposed Cover 3 spacing, dive-versus-quarterback assignment errors and two inexperienced defenders on a reverse flea-flicker. Better third-down defense and preventing one mistake from becoming consecutive breakdowns remain specific corrections.
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Harrell described Old Dominion's offense as a tempo attack using very wide splits, run numbers and quarterback keepers, with Josh Rodriguez a go/choice-route target. Defensively, ODU uses an odd three-man front and three-high safeties rotating down. He cautioned that Virginia Tech's 44 points included defensive and special-teams scores, so that total should not all be charged to ODU's defense.