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SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
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Pirate Notebook No. 274
Friday, July 28, 2006
By Denny O'Brien |
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Bulletin board fodder can
only go so far
©2006 Bonesville.net
Motivational press clippings
won't produce a bowl bid for Pirates
One quarter, one minute, or maybe just one
play. That's about how long the emotion of a sixth-place prediction in
Conference USA's East division can fuel East Carolina this season.
Beyond that, talent, preparation and
execution will determine the Pirates' fate. And given the skill that peppers
ECU's two-deep chart, along with the proven ability of its coaches to draft
a solid script for upcoming opponents, you can bet the latter will largely
dictate where it lands in the C-USA standings.
That's not to say the added motivation from
a lack of respect can't aid the Pirates in their quest to return to
postseason competition. Anyone who says it can't has either never played an
organized sport or knows very little about East Carolina's gridiron history.
Still, the bottom line in Division I-A
college football is predicated much more on touchdowns and turnovers, not
the number of press clippings posted on a locker room bulletin board.
Look no further than losses to Southern
Miss and Central Florida last fall for concrete examples. Even a
chip-on-the-shoulder mentality won't overcome parallel performances against
the Pirates' schedule this fall.
"I think we could be much better than we
were a year ago, and I don't know that wins and losses are going to show
that," Pirates coach Skip Holtz said. "We could be a much improved team, but
when you play eight bowl teams... we did not beat a bowl team last year.
"We did not beat one team that went to a
bowl. Now, we prevented the last two from going, but we did not beat a team
that went to a bowl game. Now we play eight of them. If we stay right where
we were at the end of the year, we could be 4-8. We could be better than we
were last year and be there (4-8)."
Holtz is right.
This easily ranks among the most difficult
gauntlets in East Carolina history. And if you're basing it solely on
performance from the season before, you won't find a schedule in the ECU
media guide that presented more stumbling blocks than what awaits the
Pirates this fall.
Among the competition is a legitimate
contender for the national title, two ACC members loaded with former high
school blue chippers, and a Navy squad whose offense might be the most
dangerous on the schedule. That goes without mentioning four league clubs
fresh off postseason appearances and the fact that not a single game on the
schedule can be labeled a gimmee.
That's the neighborhood in which the
Pirates now reside — and it's also sound reason for not filling the inbox of
each C-USA coach with criticism over their preseason predictions.
If anything, ECU's preseason placement
should serve as a reminder that its perception still hasn't recovered from
the disastrous two-year period under John Thompson. Though the Pirates won
five last fall and were competitive in each of their six losses, the sting
from winning only thrice in two seasons obviously still lingers.
For it to heal completely, East Carolina
must again prove that it can compete with anyone on its schedule. Some weeks
that task could be difficult, but it is by no means unmanageable.
If ECU avoids significant injuries and
maintains its steady incline of improvement, a bowl bid and contention for
the C-USA East title is within reach. But it will take much more than the
fuel C-USA coaches added to the Pirates' fire to reach those goals.
C-USA emphasis
With East Carolina set to embark on a more
rigorous non-conference schedule, the temptation exists for fans to place
less importance on the C-USA slate.
But that mentality won't spill over into
the Pirates' locker room.
"From our standpoint here, we still
understand the importance of the conference and what we're trying to develop
and how we're trying to build this," Holtz said. "Behind closed doors, that
is still something that we talk about.
"I think for everybody in our conference,
everybody is playing the same people. I think what is making us unique right
now is who we are playing outside of it. I think the thing that is so great
about it is that inside of our conference, we lack geographical rivalries.
We don't have any bordering state rivalries in our conference."
True. The closest thing the Pirates have to
a geographic conference rival is Marshall — but you can hardly call this
rejuvenated series a border war.
So you can see why avoiding a letdown will
be a challenge when ECU faces some of its less attractive conference foes.
"Well, you always have to fight an
emotional letdown when you're playing emotional games," Holtz said. "What
we've done is add four of them."
"If we have an emotional letdown at Rice —
that's our fault. Rice counts as just as many wins as any of the other teams
on our schedule. And they also count as the same number of losses. What you
try to do as a coach is avoid the mental letdown, which is tough when you
face eight bowl teams."
Staff stability
Many view Richmond County standout Norman
Whitley as the top prize in ECU's recruiting haul. Four years from now, that
might prove to be true.
But Holtz's biggest off-season harvest took
place much closer to home with the return of 11 of the 12 original members
of his staff.
"There are not that many programs that have
a revolving door of coaches and lack stability that have success," Holtz
said. "When you look at, over time, the Penn States, the Florida States, the
people who have had success... nobody leaves.
"I think especially for our players after
year one, these guys are in the boat right now where they had been through
three head coaches and four coordinators. It's the first time James Pinkney
has gone into a spring knowing the offense, knowing the terminology. The
more that we can keep the terminology the same, and the more that we can
keep stability, the more our program is going to turn and step forward."
Stepping forward is exactly what the
Pirates should do with the lone spot in which the staff experienced
turnover. Don Yanowsky returns to take over as the special teams
coordinator, a post he held from 2001-02 when ECU flourished as the top
kicking unit in C-USA.
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02/23/2007 02:03:12 AM |
