By
Denny O'Brien
©2009 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
Perhaps the most
encouraging sign about East Carolina’s upcoming football season occurred
on Saturday, August 22.
Ironically, that date
brought no substantive news about the status of kicker Ben Hartman, the
availability of Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards for the
season opener, or updates about uniform combinations that might satisfy
the superstitious types.
But it did mark the
release of the Associated Press preseason Top 25, an annual list from
which East Carolina is traditionally excluded. This year was no
different as the Pirates were clumped with a handful of programs in the
consolation category of others receiving votes.
If anything, that should
produce a surplus of saliva in the Pirates’ competitive glands. Because
if you had put more glamorous jerseys on top of ECU’s returning
personnel, it almost assuredly would have led to a respectable preseason
ranking by the voters.
While that likely would
have generated national interest and elevated fan euphoria, it also
could have inflated some egos in the ECU locker room. Instead, the
slight might have unleashed a hurricane-force sigh of relief from ECU
head coach Skip Holtz.
“We're not going to go
through camp and talk about the BCS,” Holtz said at ECU’s Media Day.
“That's one thing we learned from last year. We lost our focus and tried
to play for something that wasn't ours.
“We have to have a focus
of being 1-0 today and winning in each day of fall camp. If we don't win
today, it's going to be hard to win tomorrow. We have to focus
day-by-day and game-by-game. Twelve weeks in the season when the dust
clears, we'll see where we are. Talking about it isn't going t get us a
darn thing. It's the focus that's going to be important.”
That focus was seemingly
lost when the Pirates carried their No. 15 national ranking to Raleigh
last season to face a supposed down-and-out bunch from N.C. State. ECU
entered Carter-Finley Stadium with an overconfident strut and seemed
more interested in taunting the onlooking Wolfpack faithful than taking
care of the opponent on the field.
The resulting
overtime loss should have
provided a grounding reality check and re-established focus throughout
the roster. Instead it snowballed into consecutive double-digit losses
to a pair of teams most previously envisioned the Pirates handily
beating.
With a date with underdog
Appalachian State just days away, that three-game stretch could serve as
a good reminder about the type of intensity required from East Carolina
on a weekly basis. Though the Pirates are without question deeper and
more talented than the Mountaineers, there are certain scenarios that
could lead to a shocking upset.
And almost all of them
could be traced to a lack of focus.
Truthfully, the Pirates
will be the most experienced and talented team in the stadium almost
every week of the regular season. Including Virginia Tech, it’s hard to
find a slam-dunk exception barring the type of personnel attrition the
Pirates experienced last season.
Even so, success this
season will be defined as much by this team’s mental makeup as it will
by its physical ability. To that end, ECU must more closely mimic the
team that closed last year than the one that opened it.
With injuries and
suspensions nearly suffocating the depth chart in ’08, the Pirates
essentially willed themselves to a Conference USA title. They did so
with a blue collar work ethic and the grit it takes to tough out a
series of field goal battles.
Now the trick is for East
Carolina to apply the same mentality to a deeper, more talented and
experienced bunch.
“It definitely is a
challenge to stay grounded,” ECU tight end Rob Kass said. “You get
caught up in ESPN, the local news stations, and everybody being here.
It’s obviously very exciting for the program.
“But something that Coach
Holtz has instilled within us is that we have to eat a piece of humble
pie. Enjoy it, but don’t buy into it. I feel like we’ve done that this
summer. We forgot about all the headlines and newspaper clippings.”
That must remain the case
for the Pirates to reach their potential this season. With all the
weapons returning — and some key additions joining that arsenal — this
bunch could potentially rival the success of 1991 and 1999.
Maybe even better.
This ECU team definitely
matches up on paper. The challenge is to do so between the ears.
