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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Keeping the circus at
bay
By
Brian Bailey
©2008 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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BONESVILLE
THE MAGAZINE |
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Beating back-to-back
nationally-ranked
opponents may prove to
be the easy part for
Skip Holtz and this
Pirate football team.
Coach Holtz says the
Pirates have learned how
to win. Now, learning
how to handle winning is
the big task as the
Pirates head to Tulane
this weekend.
The program has never
seen the type of
attention it has gotten
over the last couple of
weeks. Even in 1991,
when East Carolina
finished 9th in the
nation, the national
exposure just wasn’t the
same.
ESPN now has daily
college football shows.
Over the last couple of
weeks, East Carolina has
been a topic in most if
not all of that
programming.
Holtz says “Welcome to
big-time college
football!”
He’s right, and it’s
right at our back door.
The Pirates head south
this weekend as a
13-point favorite. Last
year Holtz carried the
theme for his team to be
“humble and hungry.” He
knows that keeping this
team focused will be his
top priority.
“All those rankings,
bowl predictions,
speculation and
everything else that
people are doing on the
outside are great
because it creates a
buzz, stir and
excitement in the
program," said Holtz at
his
weekly news
conference
on Monday.
“From a player
standpoint in the locker
room, though, we don't
get seven points spotted
to us because we're
ranked and they're not,"
he cautioned. "The last
two teams we played both
had a ranking next to
their name and we did
not, and here we are
2-0. It doesn't mean
anything at this point.
You still have to line
up and go play the game.
"We just have to make
sure that we don't let
the circus atmosphere
around a winning program
interrupt what we're
trying to build right
now in between the
lines.”
The
game with West
Virginia
was in limbo all week
because of
Hurricane/Tropical Storm
Hanna. This week, it’s
Hurricane Ike that is
barreling down on the
Gulf Coast.
East Carolina officials
talked with those from
Conference USA and
Tulane about moving the
game to Greenville, in
case Ike is as bad as
many say it will be.
That move was turned
down. One ECU official
told me that the game
would be played this
weekend. If conditions
warrant a move, the big
question mark is the
neutral site location.
"In controlling what we
can control, there's a
lot of talk about the
hurricane and what's
going to happen with it
and if it's going to
move up into the gulf
area this week,” said
Holtz. “I know there's
been a lot of
speculation and talk
about what's going to
happen with the game and
if it's going to be
moved here, at a neutral
site, played there or
anything like that.
"At this point, Tulane
has made a decision that
the game will not come
here. They have other
options if the game is
not going to be played
there, but at this
point, I don't know what
they are.
"As I told the team,
we're going to approach
it as if we're going to
go to Tulane. That's the
only way we can handle
it at this point.
Everything else is
speculation until they
tell us for sure that
something has happened
and the game has had to
be moved to another
location."
It will be a great
challenge. Transitioning
from playing in front of
70,000-plus one week and
almost 44,000 the next
to playing in a
near-empty Louisiana
Superdome or perhaps
some neutral site on
Saturday is an extreme
contrast.
The "Big Four"
I had some time early
Friday morning and
decided to sneak out and
get in nine holes before
the rains from Hanna
hit. Friday is usually a
huge sports day, but the
high schools had moved
their games up to beat
the storm.
On the third hole at
Ironwood, I came up on a
fivesome. They waved me
through and I found out
they were West Virginia
fans, in for the game.
They said they were
going to get in 18,
regardless of the
weather!
They asked about the
‘hot spots’ in town and
I said to hit Finelli’s
and A.J. McMurphy’s, two
of my favorites. I ran
into them later at both
places and they were
most appreciative of the
information I had given
them.
By this time of the
night, there must have
been six or seven in the
group. They said they
were called “The Big
Four,” but I don’t know
if any of them knew
which four were “The Big
Four.” It must have been
some of that funny West
Virginia math.
As one of them was
leaving Friday night, a
Pirate fan wished him
good luck. He smiled and
said they wouldn’t need
much, but thanks anyway.
I don’t think that
group, or any of the
West Virginia faithful,
had any idea what was
coming.
They were good guys,
though, and will always
remember their trip to
Greenville.
Except they might need
some more of that funny
math when they think
about the final score.
BB
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09/09/2008 01:34:59 AM |
Replay
last night's
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