GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) Coach Scottie Montgomery helped make Thomas Sirk a starting quarterback at Duke. He could do it again at East Carolina.

The surroundings may have changed, but Montgomery and Sirk are together once more. Montgomery enters his second season as the Pirates' coach while Sirk followed him from Durham to Greenville a few months ago after he lost his starting job with the Blue Devils following a pair of serious injuries.

Now a graduate transfer, Sirk is spending the preseason in a battle for the position with Gardner Minshew. If Sirk wins it, how well he meshes with his new teammates could determine how successful Montgomery's second season as the Pirates' coach will be.