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Read Denny O'Brien's feature on Scott Cowen's confrontation with the Bowl Championship Series in Bonesville Magazine.

Pirate Notebook No. 216
Tuesday, November 16, 2004

By Denny O'Brien
Staff Writer and Columnist

J.T.'s case a tough sell

 

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It's a good thing Terry Holland's loafers would dwarf my size-ten feet. There's a pair of soles on which I wouldn't care to walk from now until December.

During that period, the East Carolina athletics director will face what is the most difficult and important decision administrators must make — the employment status of a head coach of a revenue sport.

That's the setting in which Holland now resides with regards to Pirates football coach John Thompson.

Chances are he'll get advice from every Joe Donor from here to Timbuktu.

Better him than me.

About the only certainty now is Thompson's questionable status as ECU's coach. Given several opportunities to extend a vote of confidence, Coach Holland has carefully avoided such statements by indicating the program is under review and that no decision would be levied until the season is concluded.

In the end, the primary question Holland must answer centers around his confidence in Thompson's ability to do the heavy lifting to restore East Carolina to its once-proud stature and position the program for inclusion with the "haves" in the next round of Bowl Championship Series-inspired conference reconfigurations.

So far, most of the evidence isn't in Thompson's favor.

"A lot of times when you come into a new job, the program is really down," Thompson said in May 2003 after having gone through spring drills observing the talent at his disposal. "They're used to losing. We're not used to losing here. We expect to win. We get better here and make some improvements, we're going to be winning championships. That's our goal.

"It's not like we've got to get better to be competitive. We get better, then we're going to be up there fighting for championships."

Given that analysis, one might lean towards one of two theories — either Thompson made a poor initial assessment of the program, or he has struggled with player development and preparation. That several of the players he inherited now reside on NFL rosters makes the latter argument the safer bet.

The overall lack of improvement — especially on defense — is one of many factors Holland no doubt will take under heavy consideration. Preparation, attention to detail, and the ability to adjust on the fly also are areas of high importance which are unlikely to get high marks when the report card is tabulated.

Take the two season openers in Thompson's brief tenure, embarrassing road losses from which ECU never fully recovered. In both cases, the Pirates appeared completely unprepared defensively despite full knowledge of the opposition's designs on offense.

Cincinnati's and West Virginia's commitment to the run was no magic rabbit. Yet, the Bearcats rushed for 361 in the 2003 opener, while Mountaineers bruiser Kay-Jay Harris alone tallied 337 to inaugurate the 2004 campaign.

The mistakes that underscored those outings persisted last week against Houston and again Saturday night versus South Florida. To date, poor tackling and blown coverage have been the common denominators on defense during Thompson's reign.

"We're all very frustrated," Thompson said following the Pirates' loss at USF. "You bust your heart trying to do it and keep doing it and it doesn't happen and that's the way it is sometimes. But the only way we're ever going to fail is if we quit."

No question, the Pirates by and large have shown the type of fight that would defy their 3-18 run over the past two seasons.

Still, there are legitimate questions about whether ECU can afford to wait another season to see if the urgently needed turnaround materializes.

On more than one occasion, J.T. has added to those questions by contributing to the odds confronting the Pirates. Several of his gameday decisions have been low percentage and had direct negative effects on the outcomes of games.

There was the decision to kick a field goal down 14 against Wake Forest with less than ten minutes to play. The botched fake punt early at Southern Miss from deep within ECU territory allowed the partisans at The Rock to relax and enjoy the trappings of Homecoming.

Saturday it was the call to accept a holding penalty instead of forcing a USF punt, granting the Bulls an opportunity to extend the drive — a second chance on which they capitalized with a long pass and eventual score.

"We could have taken the fourth down," Thompson said of the USF decision. "We just tried to get some field position out of it and back them way up because it was a long one. It was going to be fourth-and-four there at midfield or it was going to be third-and-24 back where the penalty was. We took it and it backfired on us."

Now the question is whether or not it will backfire on J.T.

Though the benefit of the doubt typically goes to the coach after only two seasons, it's unlikely that Thompson would be retained because of unwritten protocol. If he returns, rest assured it's because Holland is not only fully confident in his ability as a head coach, but also that it will make the most economic sense.

After all, that is the bottom line in college sports. If football is the engine behind a successful Division I-A program, the almighty dollar is the fuel.

I guess that means Joe Donor runs the filling station.

Chances are, Holland is trying to gauge how much gas is in the program's tank.

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02/23/2007 01:57:19 AM

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