ECU preview.....

[chemstock]

Hello from Pirate Nation. I just wanted to come over and say a few words.
I understand you might not know much about our team so I thought I might pass on a little insight.
As you know, ECU over the past few years has taken a nose dive and suffered many loses and had few wins. We have a new AD in Terry Holland and he has hired a new coach in Skip Holtz. What we have learned about this hire is Terry Holland knew what he was doing when he hired Skip. Skip enters the job and goes out and hires the most experienced coaching staff we have ever had at ECU. 17 years average experience per coach. Now they enter the program looking to find everything broke, but that is not what they found. They found a fan base that was still supporting the program, even with only 3 wins in 2 years.
(check out our attendance numbers for this year). They also found a group of seniors that were ready to win some. So Skip sat them down and told them what they would have to do to win. To no ones surprise, all the players bought into the plan and worked their butts off all summer.
Now thru 5 games we are 2-3. It seems the team is a work in process because you have to learn to win. I can see progress and each game they get better. Now are we good enough to go into SMU and win is yet to be seen. Right now we are the underdog and that is why we play the game, to prove the so-called experts wrong.

Here is our offense:
QB James Pinkney(#7) (JR)(6'3 210) is getting better each week. Works out the shot-gun mostly. Has a strong arm. He will take off and run and has only thrown 2 int's for the season.

RB Chris Johnson(#5) (SO) one of the fastest back in the country. He is #6 nationally in all-purpose yards. He is most dangerous when lined up as receiver. Caught a 80 yd. TD this week.

WR Andrea Allison(#2)(JR) one of the best receivers in the country. Just check his numbers (5th nationally) You must put your best DB on him.

Weakness of offense is O-line. A work in progress, good pass protection, poor run blocking.

Defense: Getting better each week. Ones to watch:
#92 Marcus Hands(#92) DE (6'5 275)(FR) He will get to your QB.
#93 Brandon Setzer(#93) NG(6'6 317)(FR) He holds the middle so you must run off tackle.
#40 Chris Moore(#40) MLB is on the Butkus Watch list as a top LB. He will be in a lot of tackles.
#9 Zack Baker(#9) SS is the leader of the D- backs and has 3 int's (did not play last game because of an injury. Will play this week)

Weakness on defense in d-line is so young (2Fr., 1So., 1Jr.) and is still giving up too many yards rushing.


Thanks for the space... and good luck next week!

[KnuckleStang]

#5 Johnson, is he your PR as well? I watched a lot of your game with Duke earlier this year, and he was impressive. Benefitted from a couple of blatant (missed) blocks-in-the-back, but nice runs nonetheless.

[Ikus]

We all know being on an award watch list doesn't make you a great player. But our ECU guest is dead-on about Chris Moore. He's an excellent player. And yes, they have some real speed on offense.

Don't know a great deal yet about their defense.

[RGV Pony]

It's really hard to read that description of the ECU program and not have cynical thoughts pop up. Like "well, a few years ago we hired PB and he brought in some coaches w/ HS experience [JB]." Or "PB came in expecting to find at least a couple of qb's, but found none...so he used a converted scout team tight end, then ran him off.." or "PB came in and bodly declared that this team would compete immediately for conference championships, and frankly none too surprising to many, didn't," or "one would have thought that there would be some representative fan base left, but save for the band, about 75 on ponyfans.com, 1500 or so that usually show up to bball games, and a few thousand others, that's about all there was."

Forgive me for those thoughts. Have to work on keeping them at bay.

[EastStang]

I worry about the ECU game principally because we might be favored. We are not good enough to take anyone lightly. ECU has shown they are much improved over last season. So, I hope that we come out as fired up as possible and play to our best potential. Otherwise, it could be a long day.

[JasonB]

ECU's defense will give up some points and yards.

One of the keys to the game is going to be to hold time of possession, to keep their offense off the field, get them out of rythem and to force them to press and make mistakes.

ECU was able to keep it close at West Virginia and at Wake by winning the turnover battle. The one game they got blown out in, they won the turnover battle.

Turnovers will be a key on Saturday. The team that makes the least mistakes will win the game.

[chemstock]

JasonB you had it figured out... turnovers was the difference of the game.

I enjoyed wtaching the game and thought it went down to the wire. It is a shame there has to be a loser.

Please stick with your team, for they are good enough to beat some teams left on your schedule. CUSA is still wide open, so anything can happen.

As you can see, the ECU team is a work in progress, and yes we can beat Memphis. They have us a 9 point underdog.... hahahahahaha

Good luck the rest of the season!