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College Football Playoff
Rankings |
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Released date: Oct. 28, 2014 |
1. Mississippi
State 7-0
2. Florida State 7-0
3. Auburn 6-1
4. Mississippi 7-1
5. Oregon 7-1
6. Alabama 7-1
7. TCU 6-1
8. Michigan State 7-1
9. Kansas State 6-1
10. Notre Dame 6-1
11. Georgia 6-1
12. Arizona 6-1
13. Baylor 6-1
14. Arizona State 6-1
15. Nebraska 7-1
16. Ohio State 6-1
17. Utah 6-1
18. Oklahoma 5-2
19. LSU 7-2
20. West Virginia 6-2
21. Clemson 6-2
22. UCLA 6-2
23. East Carolina 6-1
24. Duke 6-1
25. Louisville 6-2) |
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Official College Football
Playoff Website |
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MULTIMEDIA |
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Audio: The
Brian Bailey Show |
  The
Brian Bailey Show
airs on Pirate Radio
1250 on Mondays at
6:30 p.m. Brian's
guest this week was
ECU outside
receivers coach Dave
Nichol (right):
Replay
show... |
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How good is ECU? |
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GREENVILLE —
East Carolina became bowl
eligible for the eighth time in
the last nine seasons with a
31-21 American Athletic
Conference football win over
Connecticut at Dowdy-Ficklen
Stadium on Thursday night. The
Pirates improved to 6-1 overall
and 3-0 in the American Athletic
Conference ...
More from Al Myatt... |
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PURPLE
HEART: East
Carolina
coach and
alumnus
Ruffin
McNeill
joins in on
the fight
song in
front of the
"Boneyard"
in
Dowdy-Ficklen
Stadium
after the
Pirates'
hard-fought
victory over
American
Athletic
Conference
foe UConn. ©Bonesville.net.
[W.A.
Myatt photo] |
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View more
pix in W.A. Myatt's
photo
gallery... |
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Audio: Ruff Post-game |
  ECU
coach Ruffin McNeill spoke with the press
after the Pirates
defeated UConn 31-21
Thursday night
(recorded by W.A. Myatt;
file photo):
Select audio clip... |
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FOOTBALL |
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Kevin's Keys to the Game |
East Carolina
is back in action today
after its second bye week.
The opening in the schedule
came at a perfect time for
the Pirates. With just one
American Athletic Conference
game under its belt, it gave
the team the opportunity to
get healthy and recharge to
make its first run at the
American title.
...
More from Kevin Monroe... |
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MULTIMEDIA |
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Audio: The Brian
Bailey Show |
 The
Brian Bailey Show
airs on Pirate Radio
1250 on Mondays at
6:30 p.m. Brian's
guest this week was
ECU hall of famer
and three-time Super
Bowl champion Robert
Jones (right):
Replay
show... |
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By
Al Myatt
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
View ECU's Football
Schedule
You can't avoid the realization that an election day is
approaching. Reminders are everywhere.
Every week in college football has an election day, when
voters rate the teams for ranking purposes.
East Carolina was little more than a potential write-in
candidate when the first 2014 polls were released but whether the
Pirates like it or not, they are now immersed in a campaign.
The campaign trail includes a stop in Philadelphia this
week and East Carolina could help itself with a good showing. ECU has
the mentality to defeat teams soundly and move up in the polls rather
than just win, as in
last week's 31-21 victory over Connecticut,
which resulted in slight drops in the most recent Associated Press and
coaches polls.
I realize that "just win" is significantly understating
the effort involved in beating another Football Bowl Subdivision team.
Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill knows how difficult that
task is. That's one reason he takes the ratings in stride, pointing out
that ECU had actually gone up in the polls earlier this year without
playing during a bye week.
The most important college football rankings ever, those
that will determine the four teams that will compete in the inaugural
Football Bowl Subdivision playoff, began this week. East Carolina was
slotted No. 23 by the carefully-picked panel.
McNeill isn't playing the ratings game. The Pirates
actually went conservative late in
a 70-41 win over North Carolina
rather than appear to be running up the score.
McNeill's focus is on steady improvement one rep at a
time in one practice at a time and one play at a time in one game at a
time. If those efforts produce one-point wins, he's good with that.
The approach is well-founded. Even if it isn't attention
grabbing, its results can be. McNeill is realistic. He can't control the
polls and if ECU performs in a step by step manner, he figures that the
outcomes and everything else associated with college football success
will take care of themselves.
The Pirates coordinators, Lincoln Riley on offense and
Rick Smith on defense, have expressed views that can produce dominant
results.
In an interview with Riley in February before his first
spring practice at ECU, he talked about an offense geared to score on
every possession. McNeill, Riley and several more members of the staff
had just arrived from Texas Tech.
"Maybe the biggest obstacle in getting to where we need
to get offensively is the mentality of the guys," Riley said in 2010.
"Not saying the mentality was bad before but for what we're asking them
to do we need a different mentality. It's gotta be a mentality of
wanting to score every single time. When you punt, that word almost
makes you sick to your stomach.
"That's the mentality that we progressed and got to at
Tech. That's the mentality that you need to be great on offense. You've
got to have that mentality and the guys, they understand that. They do.
They understand it's not going to be developed overnight, but when
you've got everybody on the staff having that type of mentality, and
this staff does, then I think that makes it easier to have it translate
over to the kids."
Smith said the defense has a simple goal every time it's
on the field at ECU's football media day early August.
"We want to get the ball back for the offense as fast as
we can," Smith said.
If the offense achieves its goal of scoring every
possession and the defense keeps getting the ball back then the Pirates
could roll up some one-sided wins.
It's easier said than done but the theoretical goals
could produce the kinds of results that will make ECU upwardly mobile
among those who cast college football ballots.
The case could be made that ECU's 3-0 record in the
American Athletic Conference is a little shinier than it might appear.
ECU
beat SMU 45-24 with the
Mustangs increasing their offensive potential with a willingness to go
for fourth down conversions. Four downs to make 10 yards requires 2.5
yards per play as opposed to 3.3 yards when a team is geared to turn
fourth downs over to special teams. It increases the chance of making a
first down by 25 percent.
The
28-17 win at South Florida
came before an upset-hungry homecoming crowd and marked the return of
Bulls' record-setting receiver Andre Davis from an injury. USF also
tried to limit ECU's offensive possessions by keeping the clock moving
with its running game.
This isn't Conference USA.
Holdover AAC teams such as Connecticut have routinely
lined up against some pretty rugged programs in the Big East. The
Huskies have faced Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse during the careers of
many of the current players. Their big, rangy secondary looked like
Virginia Tech.
UConn also has a coach, Bob Diaco, who came from the
defensive staff at Notre Dame. He's trying to institute a mindset and
style of play that have been effective for the Irish.
Throw in AAC officials, who are penalizing the Pirates at
a significantly higher rate than last year, and you have another
obstacle to overcome.
The blowout wins of 2013 that came against
Southern Miss (55-14),
Tulsa (58-24) and
UAB (63-14) have not
appeared on ECU's AAC resume to date. Those wins came after the Pirates
had
lost 36-33 in triple overtime at Tulane
and ECU responded with a vengeance.
The program may still be motivated by
a loss at Marshall last season
that denied the Pirates a shot at the C-USA championship.
It appears that the current team is focused on atonement
with an AAC title.
ECU has been strong in the latter stages of its league
wins, when conditioning supervised by Jeff Connors can enhance the
Pirates' abilities relative to those of a foe that isn't as fit or
well-built.
The factor du jour in Saturday's noon game at Temple may
be the weather. Cooler temperatures are in the forecast and rain is a
possibility.
"We'll have to make sure we have dry footballs for Shane
(Carden, ECU quarterback)," McNeill said.
How well the Pirates execute on a play by play basis will
determine if ECU can get to 4-0 in its new league. If that happens, how
efficiently the Pirates perform will figure into how the outcome is
perceived by the viewers on ESPN News, particularly those on the playoff
committee. Their rankings eventually will impact whether ECU could play
in a higher-tier bowl.
It's election time every week. That's why Marshall
recently enlisted the services of a public relations firm to present its
football aspirations in the best possible light.
McNeill is still looking for more consistency. The main
thing is to win but the Pirates are in a position where style points
matter, too.
ECU
coach Ruffin McNeill spoke
with the media at his weekly
press conference on Monday
(courtesy of Pirate Radio
1250; Bonesville file
photo):
