East Carolina football coach Scottie Montgomery held Thomas Sirk out his team’s game against Virginia Tech two weeks ago as a precaution after the quarterback spent time in the Pirates’ concussion protocol.
It was a decision that paid off in a big way Sunday when, now fully healthy, Sirk threw for a career-high 426 yards and three touchdowns to lead ECU to its first win of the season. Sirk’s performance in that 41-38 victory against UConn earned him recognition Monday as the American Athletic Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week.
Sirk, a graduate transfer from Duke, completed his first 11 passes of the game while going 30 of 39. Fifteen of his completions went for 10 or more yards while leading the Pirates to 596 total yards.
All three of his touchdown passes went to senior receiver Davon Grayson, who was also honored by the AAC as a member of the league’s weekly honor roll. Grayson caught a career-high 11 passes for 223 yards — the third highest single-game total in school history.
South Florida cornerback Deatrick Nichols was the AAC’s Defensive Player of the Week while his teammate Emilio Nadelman was named Special Teams Player of the week for their play in the Bulls’ 43-7 rout of Temple.
ECU plays USF in Greenville on Saturday in the Pirates’ conference home opener.
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