Perhaps no one on the East Carolina football team was more upset than Brandon Simmons to hear that his camp roommate, Dominique Lindsay, was injured last week and likely lost for the 2008 season.

A fellow senior and close friend to Lindsay, Simmons did the only thing he could. He picked up the football and kept on going. While Lindsay sat in the stands for the Pirates' second scrimmage of August camp Saturday, Simmons electrified the ECU running attack.

The running back carried the ball five times in the early sequences with the top offense and barreled his way to 59 yards.

"When he went down it kind of hurt me," Simmons said of Lindsay after the scrimmage. "I'm not going to sit here and say I can carry the load (at running back) by myself. We have so much talent, so the faster some of the younger guys can pick it up, the more explosive we can be as an offense."

Simmons said he kept Lindsay posted with text messages and calls when he was having knee surgery.

Lindsay was poised to lead a crew of running backs this year all bent on trying to replace last year's superstar, Chris Johnson.

The knee injury halted that plan, and immediately changed ECU's offensive planning for the season, which starts Aug. 30 in Charlotte against Virginia Tech.

"As a whole, we're starting to do much better things," said Simmons, who transferred along with younger brother Jason from Elizabeth City State in early 2006. "The offensive line is starting to solidify, we have a lot of experience. Guys are starting to do what they're supposed to do."

Head coach Skip Holtz had hoped to try a two-back system this year, mainly featuring the bruising 6-foot-1, 225-pound Simmons and the speedy 5-10, 210-pound Lindsay. On Saturday, sophomores Norman Whitley and Jonathan Williams and junior J.R Rogers carried a good deal of the load along with Simmons.

"Brandon Simmons is really playing like a workhorse right now," Holtz. "He's doing a great job for us and he's having a phenomenal camp. We were looking at Dominique Lindsay and him carrying the weight of the running back position. With Dominique out of there, he's really going to have to step up and carry a bigger part of the load."

As for the other backs, Holtz said playing time would be based on who did the little things, mostly without the ball, the best.

The other early explosion Saturday came from senior safety J.J. Millbrook, who picked off a Rob Kass pass intended for tight end J.R. Kraemer on his own 8-yard line, spun up field and dashed 92 yards behind great blocking for a touchdown.

It was one of the few flashes of brilliance in what was, at times, a grueling afternoon in a largely situational scrimmage.

"That was awesome. The whole defense pushed," Millbrook said of the play. "The defensive line and the linebackers pressured the quarterback, and I made the play. I was tired but I made the play and got into the end zone."

The offense - which was flagged for a costly 13 penalties - accounted for a pair of touchdowns later in the scrimmage.

First-team quarterback Patrick Pinkney zipped a pass over the middle to Williams, who picked the deflected pass out of the air and rumbled into the end zone for a 34-yard score. In the late minutes, T.J. Terrell reeled in his third catch of the day and leapt over the goal line for a 30-yard touchdown.

Scrimmage notes: The Pirates spent much of the day working through kicking sequences, featuring both junior Matt Dodge and redshirt Ben Ryan. Both connected on field goals from 25 yards, then Dodge had a 42-yarder blocked and another tipped before Ryan connected from the same distance. Dodge later stroked one from 50 yards. True freshman Leonard Paulk teamed with redshirt Michael Bowman on punt returns behind starter Dwayne Harris. Kickoff return tandems included Williams and corner Jerek Hewett, Whitley and Harris, Whitley and Rogers and Harris and Rogers. The top defensive unit had one surprise, as redshirt cornerback Emmanuel Davis spent the day as a starter ahead of Hewett and across from sophomore Darryl Reynolds. True freshman defensive lineman Robert Jones spent time with the second team and was also credited with a field goal block. At linebacker, the Pirates started senior Pierre Bell in the middle, senior Quentin Cotton on the left and junior Jeremy Chambliss on the right. Junior receiver Alex Taylor spent most of the day as the No. 3 receiver on the top unit, joined by starters Harris and junior Jamar Bryant. In four-receiver packages, they were joined by senior T.J. Lee, who made a 46-yard reception, one of four grabs. Redshirt linebacker Matt Thompson was credited with a sack. Pinkney spent much of his day trying to find junior Reyn Willis, but had more success finding senior tight end Davon Drew, who also had four catches.Fullback/tight end Kevin Gidrey made his presence felt, making a handful of catches on the right sideline and delivering some crunching hits with the ball.

 __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nathan Summers can be reached at nsummers@coxnc.com, or at (252)329-9595.  Once a Pirate, Always a Pirate!  Deryck & The Wilson Group - Team East Carolina extremely support the ECU Pirates - for local information, real estate and everything ECU - visit www.1SearchMLS.com!