CHRONICLING ECU & C-USA SPORTS
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from the 'ville
Thursday, September 14, 2006
By Al Myatt |
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Spurned Leach to suit up
against former team
Waived by Green Bay, ex-ECU
star has no trouble finding a home
©2006 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Vonta Leach was sitting in a Wisconsin airport
around 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday evening, preparing to board a flight
to New Orleans where he will join his new National Football League team, the
Saints.
In an improbable sequence of events, the
former East Carolina jack-of-all-trades was released by the Packers to make
room on the roster for former N.C. State receiver Koren Robinson.
"It surprised and shocked me," Leach said of
the phone call from the Packers informing him of the move. "But knowing what
I can do, I figured someone would pick me up."
The Saints acquired Leach and his $425,000
annual salary via waivers on Wednesday afternoon. The New York Jets and New
England Patriots also claimed Leach but New Orleans had precedence, which is
determined by team draft order until the third week of the season.
"I had a great game against some All-Pro
linebackers," Leach said of his effort in Green Bay's 26-0 loss to Chicago
in the 2006 season opener.
Leach, a third year pro, started at fullback
for Green Bay in the loss to the Bears and his blocking helped Ahman Green
gain 110 yards on 20 carries. Brett Favre was 15 for 29 passing for the
Packers for 170 yards with two interceptions.
Obviously, the Packers felt they needed to add
a weapon to the offense and Leach was the fall guy.
Ironically, New Orleans' next game is at Green
Bay on Sunday.
"Green Bay has been jerking him around for two
years," said Ralph Vitolo of Fayetteville, Leach's agent. "New Orleans has
had some injuries so this is a good situation for Vonta.
"Yeah, they play at Green Bay this week. Talk
about poetic justice. He's got to give up his apartment and move but I don't
think learning the system at New Orleans will be a problem for him."
Receiver Joe Horn of the Saints is also a
client of Vitolo's. Leach joins a franchise displaced by Hurricane Katrina
at this time last season.
"I'll be blocking for Reggie Bush and Deuce
McAllister," Leach said. "Reggie Bush was a great running back in college
and he'll be making a lot of noise."
Leach was a linebacker at ECU as a freshman
and sophomore in 2000 and 2001. Four games into his junior season in 2002,
he was moved to fullback.
Defensively, he had 52 solo stops and 47
assists in his ECU career. The South Robeson High product had eight tackles
for losses and was credited with 3.5 sacks.
Leach had 94 carries for 336 yards with five
touchdowns as a Pirate. He caught nine passes for 39 yards. His greatest
value at the close of his ECU career was as a blocker and it's helping him
earn a good living today.
Going into Leach's senior season in 2003, ECU
was in a coaching transition and expectations were not high for the Pirates
in the preseason. That didn't affect Leach's optimism.
"It ain't gon' be no fun when the rabbit gets
the gun," he said with confidence that the Pirates could prove their critics
wrong.
He may be thinking the same thing as he
returns to Green Bay this weekend.
Memphis sans roaring 20
Running back DeAngelo Williams led Memphis to
three straight bowl games. Before that, the Tigers had not made a bowl trip
since 1971. Williams, who ran for 1,964 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2005 in
the process of setting an NCAA career record for all-purpose yards was the
first round draft choice of the Carolina Panthers.
The Pirates saw a lot of No. 20 over the
years, mostly in pursuit.
Last year, Williams ran for 226 yards and two
touchdowns in the Tigers' 27-24 win over the Pirates in Liberty Bowl
Memorial Stadium. This week, thankfully for ECU, Williams is the Minnesota
Vikings' problem.
"You look at them now on offense and they have
much more diversity," said Pirates coach Skip Holtz. "They have many more
weapons than they had a year ago. I know that Coach (Tommy) West had a lot
of injuries at the quarterback position (in 2005), which kind of forced him
to be one dimensional.
"He put a saddle on his NFL tailback and he
went up and down the field. You knew what they were going to do. You just
had a hard time stopping it. With where they are right now they have much
more balance."
Holtz noted that Memphis has averaged 275
yards passing and 400 yards total offense in a 1-1 start. Ten different
receivers had catches in the Tigers' 33-14 win over Chattanooga last week. A
wide receiver has thrown a scoring pass in Memphis' first two games, which
includes a 28-25 loss at Ole Miss in the season opener.
"We must be playing the wrong people at
quarterback," said former Clemson coach Tommy West, now in his sixth season
at Memphis.
West is concerned about his ground game coming
into Greenville.
"We didn't (run) the ball very well," he said
of the win over Chattanooga. "That's very disturbing because for us to be
good offensively we have to have a good running game. We were about three
yards (average) every play and we need to be at four or five."
Memphis will face an ECU defense that should
have linebacker Pierre Bell back from a shoulder injury.
ECU's schedule factor
Only three of 12 Conference USA football teams
have yet to play a home game — ECU, Southern Methodist and Tulane. Memphis
will be the second league game for the Pirates while seven C-USA teams have
yet to play a conference game.
ECU athletic director Terry Holland said the
conference simply fills in the blanks as far as when league games are
played.
"If you give them dates where you don't have
non-conference games they will put league games in there," Holland said.
"You can count on that."
The Pirates have non-conference games
remaining with West Virginia (Sept.23), Virginia (Oct. 7) and at N.C. State
(Nov. 25).
"I do think we're a better football team than
we were a year ago, even though the wins and losses may not show it right
now," Holtz said. "We've just got to be patient. We're trying to take our
game to another level. We're trying to improve as a football program and
we're still in the very early stages of development."
The strength of current schedule compared to
2005 when ECU was 5-6 in Holtz's first year appears more difficult.
"The hill got a whole lot steeper that we have
to play," Holtz said. "We may not win as many games as we did last year but
we may be a better football team."
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