|
-----
Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
-----
|
 |
From the Anchor Desk
Friday, September 13, 2002
-----
By Brian Bailey
Sports Anchor of WNCT-TV 9 |
 |
©2002 Bonesville.net
If you haven’t realized it yet, the Pirates are 0-2 because
of turnovers.
The “turnover” problem has been talked about, written about
and mulled over for the past five days in Pirate Land.
Nobody realizes the problem more than the Pirate
quarterback. Young Paul Troth has had almost a season’s worth of poor throws
and bad luck in just two games.
Pirate fans shouldn’t be ready to give up on Troth.
You can see the fire in his eyes. You can also see the
disappointment. It’s certainly wearing on the quarterback. Nobody wants to
turn this thing around more than Troth.
“I know that there are fans that are on the fence,” said
Troth. “I know I haven’t performed as well as I can just yet. We have a very
young football team and we are growing together. I just hope they don’t give
up on me.”
East Carolina fans are usually a pretty forgiving group.
Jeff Blake certainly didn’t set the world on fire in his early playing days
with East Carolina.
In fact, playing quarterback at East Carolina is
complicated. There are reads, and different plays for different sets. It is
not easy, but I don’t think Troth realized just how tough it was going to
be.
The problem with playing quarterback is that you just can’t
duplicate game speed in practice. Coaches certainly try, but there is just
no way to do it.
The best thing that Paul Troth can do as a quarterback is to play. He has
only played in two games. He had flashes of brilliance in both games.
Here’s hoping we all look back at the Tulane game as his
breakout venture.
Secretive Scelfo conducts Tulane
walk-throughs CIA-style
Two years ago when the Green Wave came to Greenville, Coach
Chris Scelfo completely closed his workout on that Friday at the stadium.
Even Pirate Coach Steve Logan, who closes most of his team’s
practices and workouts, allows the cameras out for a little bit.
Scelfo was adamant that we would not take pictures of any of
his players walking around on the field, passing the football, etc…
So, my assistant in the WNCT Sports Department, Brian Meador
decided to have a little fun. Meador took some shots through the bushes, and
came back with what we called top-secret video.
It was really funny, showing pictures of bushes in the
foreground, with guys jogging in the background.
The secrecy certainly didn’t help the Green Wave that
season, as the Pirates won the game 37-17. In fact, East Carolina leads the
all-time series 4-1.
I don’t think the folks at Tulane were all that amused with
our broadcast, but Pirate fans told me the next day that they thought it was
hilarious.
I just hope the Green Wave is in a better mood when they
work out later today at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
Then I hope they go home mad on Saturday night!
 Send an e-mail message to
Brian Bailey.
Click here to dig into Brian Bailey's Bonesville
archives.
02/23/2007 01:23:16 AM
----- |
