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Insights and Observations
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Henry's Highlights
Monday, October 3, 2005
By Henry Hinton |
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Season of redemption still
within reach
©2005 Bonesville.net
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The next time you think
you’re having a tough day at the office, think about how Skip Holtz must
have felt after the third fumble Saturday night.
A strong week of
preparation gave East Carolina hope that this might be the year to break the
losing string to Southern Miss.
Truthfully, Southern Miss
looked like the better team, but it was hard to tell due to the
self-destructive pattern set early on by the Pirates.
Would ECU have been able
to keep it close or even win the game if it had not given the Golden Eagles
the ball deep in its own territory early and then twice more inside the red
zone? Surely the Pirates would have come away with at least three points
both times? Who knows?
The good news is that
even with five turnovers it seemed totally possible that ECU could come back
and have a shot to win until mid-way the second half.
A great atmosphere inside
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium was dashed by the unfortunate turn of events. This
coaching staff and young team need that electric environment to return on
Saturday night when Rice comes to town.
This season is not lost
by a long shot. Holtz, his talented coaching staff and these players deserve
another chance from the fans. While Rice will create some unique challenges
for the Pirate defense, it is totally possible that the ECU offense could
put up some points on this Owls squad which is 0-3 after its loss to UAB on
Saturday.
For a program fighting
hard to regain respectability and that now has a three-game losing streak to
overcome, the home crowd needs to be part of the solution, not the problem.
It is way too early to
give up on this edition of Pirate football. The story of this season could
well still be ahead.
Hall of Fame goes 'big
time'
Potentially the largest
and most talked about East Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony ever is
set to take place this weekend.
Legendary coach Pat Dye
will finally be inducted at a ceremony Friday night along with golfer Gail
Sykes-Clayton, baseball player Larry Crayton and basketball player Latonya
Hargrove.
Thinking about Coach Dye
and those formative years of ECU football reminds those of us who have been
around long enough about some exciting times. It also serves as a 30-year
milestone of what can be called “big time football” in Greenville.
The Pat Dye era was the
start of what Chancellor Leo Jenkins wanted ECU football to be. While the
opponents were mostly Southern Conference foes like Richmond, VMI, William
and Mary and the like, Dye also managed to become competitive with the likes
of N.C. State and North Carolina in the 70’s.
When Jenkins hired Dye
off Bear Bryant’s staff at Alabama, many eyebrows were raised around the
country. Jenkins’ dream was to make ECU the best football program in the
state of North Carolina. It can be argued the Pirates made great strides
toward that goal during the Dye years.
Dye’s 48-18-1 record
serves as the best winning percentage of any coach in ECU's modern era. His
exit from ECU was somewhat controversial in many eyes, but his players have
remained loyal to their former coach and many have worked tirelessly to make
this weekend’s events a reality.
Dye came to ECU in 1974
and concluded his run at ECU six years later. Waiting 30 years to be honored
in the Hall of Fame seems like too long considering what he accomplished in
Greenville and subsequently at Wyoming and Auburn.
Better late than never.
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04/21/2008 07:08:13 PM |
