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Game 13: USF 24, East Carolina
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The Slants of the Game
Sunday, December 24, 2006
By Denny O'Brien |
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Bulls expose holes for ECU
©2006 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
BIRMINGHAM East Carolina's performance in
the inaugural PapaJohns.com Bowl is an unfair gauge for the strides the
Pirates have made since Skip Holtz arrived in Greenville.
But the 24-7 stampede South Florida
unleashed on the Bucs can be viewed as a good barometer for future progress.
That's because the distance between the
Bulls and Pirates is as wide as the margin on the Legion Field scoreboard
if not more. And that separation of skill was evident not long after the two
teams unloaded their buses.
"They won the battle up front, especially
early," ECU coach Skip Holtz said. "I think that's a combination of their
speed, the way that they run to the ball on defense.
"I think the same thing would be true on
the other side of the ball. The first play of the game for our defense, they
go right up the middle for 16 yards and a touchdown. And every time they ran
the ball, they got four or five yards."
Ten years ago this wasn't the case.
At the time, USF was a newborn program that
barely had legs. Meanwhile, East Carolina was busy finishing a three-year
stretch in which it averaged eight wins, many of which were against
high-profile opponents.
That high-water era of ECU football
featured standout performers and quality depth at most positions. That much
was reflected by the number of Pirates who landed on NFL rosters.
In the ten years the Bulls have been in
existence, they have quickly climbed to the level on which ECU once existed.
Judging by the way USF's defense performed against the Pirates, you can
certainly understand how.
The Bulls are big, fast, aggressive, and
play with a reckless abandon on almost every snap. That's a powerful package
that produced six sacks, two lost fumbles and a halftime margin comfortable
enough to shift into neutral after intermission.
"They have a very good defense," senior
tackle Eric Graham said. "They run around and chase the ball down very fast.
"They are a very quick team. They are one
of the better defenses that we've faced this year."
Make that the best.
No outfit on ECU's schedule even remotely
resembled the one pieced together by Bulls coach Jim Leavitt. That includes
West Virginia, Virginia, and N.C. State, each of which is peppered with
professional talent on defense.
From the depth of its personnel to its
well-designed schemes, South Florida's defense paralleled the muscle of a
Top Ten program. And it did most of its flexing whenever ECU made a serious
threat to score.
"We just couldn't the ball in the end
zone," Holtz said. "We were 0-3 and they were 3-3 in red zone scoring
chances.
"I know that we were down there three times
and never got a point out of it. I think when you look at that, it's hard to
be successful. This was a game that came down to red zone chances."
Those opportunities were quickly closed by
USF's superior speed. And before ECU can compete regularly with programs of
USF's caliber, it must narrow the talent gap that was exposed in the
Pirates' return to postseason play.
Doing so will be a challenge given the
disadvantages often associated with membership in a conference outside of
the Bowl Championship Series. A lack of access to the big money bowls has no
doubt created a steeper recruiting hill for ECU and it's non-BCS brethren.
South Florida no longer deals with that
issue, and its 17-point victory over the Pirates partially reflects that.
But ECU is in no way facing a peak too high
to climb. It was again clear on Saturday that a healthy heap of its talent
is tightly woven into the first two classes that Holtz signed.
That includes redshirt freshman quarterback
Rob Kass (10-of-19, 138 yards) and sophomore running back Dominique Lindsay
(85 yards), perhaps the starting backfield next season. It also includes the
entire two-deep chart on the defensive front seven.
After Saturday it's clear that it isn't
quite on par with South Florida. But considering where ECU was two seasons
ago, it's a pretty good start.
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02/23/2007 02:03:53 AM |
