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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, September 22, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Defending the title
starts now
By
Brian Bailey
©2009 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
The preliminaries
certainly didn’t go the
way this East Carolina
football program would
have liked.
East Carolina opens
Conference USA play this
week by hosting Central
Florida.
Believe it or not, this
may be a more important
game for the Knights
then it is for the
Pirates. UCF already has
a loss to Southern Miss
in league play.
An 0-2 start in the East
Division would just
about eliminate the
Knights from battling
for that spot in the
Conference USA title
game.
As for the Pirates, this
is an East Carolina team
that desperately wants
to get off the snide and
get on with the business
of defending its league
championship.
This experienced,
talented football team
has found life on the
road a bit difficult.
East Carolina showed
some signs of life on
offense against North
Carolina on Saturday,
with a couple of long,
second half drives. But
the problems scoring in
the second half
continued for Pirate
coach Skip Holtz and his
squad.
“I know when you look at
the score sheet it only
says three points, but
we had a 14-play drive
and a 15-play drive,”
said Holtz. “We took the
ball down the field,
made first downs and
converted third downs.
We were able to stay on
the field a little bit
more, which I was
encouraged by. Not
getting the big chunks
of yards and not getting
into the end zone is
something we have to
continue to work on.”
The mindset of playing
league games continues
to be a challenge for
Holtz and his coaching
staff. There was a buzz
about last week’s
matchup with North
Carolina. This week’s
buzz is more of the
manufactured kind.
It’s just the nature of
the beast of this
conference. Conference
USA has little history,
few rivalries, and
schools spread across
America. Perhaps it
should be the “sea to
shining sea” league.
Everyone at East
Carolina knows the
league has its
shortcomings. Holtz
likes to talk about the
“ugly baby.” It may be
ugly, but it’s home. The
challenge is to get the
fan base excited about
league games. It is
probably an easier sale
to the players.
"We're into conference
play now. I think our
players are excited
about it,” Holtz added.
“I hate where we are
right now at 1-2, as do
the players. But as I
said, there's something
we can do about it and
something we can do to
change it. A lot of that
is going to be the
preparation for this
week.”
Bad call didn't help
A blown call late in the
4th quarter was the
icing on the cake of
what was a frustrating
afternoon for East
Carolina in Chapel Hill.
No, the officials didn’t
beat East Carolina on
Saturday. North Carolina
was the better team and
the score reflected that
fact at game’s end.
I bring this up because
somebody on the
officiating crew should
have come to referee Ron
Cherry’s aid. Cherry
only saw the end of the
play, when C.J. Wilson
crashed into North
Carolina quarterback
T.J. Yates and was
called for a late hit.
Cherry missed the fact
that a Tar Heel
offensive lineman hit
Wilson in the back and
drove Wilson into Yates.
A no-call would have
made it 3rd and 12. If
the Tar Heels had been
flagged for the late
hit, it would have been
third and a bunch. There
could have been two
calls against North
Carolina on the play,
the block in the back
and the late hit.
“What the official told
me on the field is all
he saw was our player
hit the quarterback,”
said Holtz. “That was
all he saw, so he made
the call. My feeling was
that there were a lot of
officials on the field,
so somebody had to see
what happened to make
C.J. go into the
quarterback.”
Holtz says all coaches
send in films of calls
to the league office.
“Hopefully our officials
can turn and take some
of the mistakes that
they make by the films
that we send in and we
can improve on those
things and make sure we
don’t have these
mistakes in the future,"
he said.
Cherry is best know for
his line after calling a
personal foul in a game,
when he told the crowd
the player was, “giving
him the business.” NFL
official Ben Dreith
first made the call
famous years ago in a
Bills-Jets game.
I think Cherry is a fine
official, but his crew
let him down on that
call. North Carolina
iced the game two plays
later with its final
touchdown.
BB
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