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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
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By Brian Bailey |
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Pirates learning lessons the
hard way
©2005 Bonesville.net
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 Replay
Monday night's high school playoffs edition of
The Brian Bailey Show,
with guests Greg Thomas, Raymond Cobb, Dixon
Sauls and Paul Cornwell. |
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Select audio clip |
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 Replay Skip
Holtz's Monday press conference (recorded by
Brian Bailey). |
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Select
audio clip |
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Admittedly, I didn’t read many
of the classics going through school. One of those that I did read was
Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”
I agree with East Carolina
defensive coordinator Greg Hudson on his assessment from the Tulsa game. It
was indeed “the best of times and the worst of times” for ECU against the
Golden Hurricane.
A 13-10 first half lead was
quickly erased after a key fumble and a roughing the punter penalty. In the
end, it turned out to be a 45-13 cakewalk for the Hurricane.
The second half reminded me of
too many games from last year in which the Pirates didn’t tackle well and
weren’t competitive.
“Going back and watching the
film, I don’t think anybody just up and quit,” said Pirate coach Skip Holtz
at his weekly news conference on Monday. “I think sometimes momentum starts
to go against you, especially on the road; it’s very hard to get that
snowball to stop.
"All of a sudden things that
worked in the first half didn’t work. You couldn’t complete a pass and you
couldn’t pick up a first down. I think a seed of doubt crept in and we
couldn’t do anything at all.”
Holtz continues to remind
everyone that this is a work in progress. While many might feel the team
took a step backwards on Saturday, the Pirate coach says it’s another lesson
learned as this program continues to improve.
“I think it was a lesson in
the mental toughness department,” Holtz said. “I ask this football team how
a fumble and a roughing the kicker penalty could affect the mentality of 100
players on our squad. Again, I think guys got frustrated, maybe left their
gaps on defense, maybe tried to do too much. I just don’t think any of them
stopped playing.”
ECU vs. Marshall (the last
time)
Every time I think of ECU and
Marshall, I think back to the GMAC Bowl in 2001.
It was the battle of the future Jacksonville Jaguar quarterbacks, David
Garrard for the Pirates and Byron Leftwich for the Thundering Herd.
I can still see that
television shot of then-Pirate coach Steve Logan. When Josh Davis caught the
pass from Leftwich to win the game 64-61 in double overtime, the camera got
a reaction shot from Logan.
Excedrin headache powders
couldn’t have found a better advertising medium than that one shot of Logan.
His expression said it all. How did that just happen? It would turn out to
be a headache that would eventually send him out as the Pirate coach.
Logan and his staff know more
football in their pinkies then I’ll ever know. Still, for the life of me, I
can’t understand why Leonard Henry didn’t get fifty carries in the second
half of that loss to Marshall. The way Leonard was running the football, I
don’t think Marshall would have had time to come from 30 points down to win
that game.
Hoops takes center stage
Friday night is a huge sports
night in our area. Not only is it the second round of the state high school
football playoffs, but it is also opening night for Pirate basketball.
Ricky Stokes and company
opened on Saturday night with an
exhibition win over North Carolina Central.
I think Corey Rouse has a real
shot of being named All-Conference USA. Rouse looked good on Saturday night,
and he’ll have to carry the load inside for this Pirate team. Rouse had 20
points in the win over the Eagles.
Tommy Hammonds looks like he
has bulked up quite a bit and Japhet McNeil ran a nice show on Saturday
night, dishing out a dozen assists.
The Pirates open with a three
game home stand that includes N.C. A&T, Gardner-Webb and Wofford.
The Wofford game is now a 5
p.m. start so Pirate fans can enjoy a football/basketball doubleheader on
campus on November 26th.
Williams Arena provides a
tremendous home court advantage when there is a good crowd on hand. Be there
for opening night as ECU tips off the Ricky Stokes era.
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02/23/2007 01:32:15 AM |
