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Pirate Notebook No. 16
Wednesday, October 10, 2001

By Denny O'Brien
Staff Writer and Columnist

The bumpy road which led to East Carolina's current receiving woes began well before the Pirates' season opener against Wake Forest.

Before the Pirates even reported to preseason practice, senior Delayo Dodd was dismissed for disciplinary reasons. Dodd was arguably the most sure-handed of what was then considered a deep and talented receiving corps. At 6'3", 225, he was without a doubt the most physical.

Then, just a couple of weeks into pre-season drills, ECU's "Strongman" competition winner — Marcus White — separated a shoulder that caused him to miss the Pirates' first two games. His return to action produced a quick pick-me-up for the Pirates, with the Richmond, VA, sophomore hauling in two touchdown passes in two games. But even White admitted last week that he still is not performing at 100 percent.

The injury bug spread quickly upon White's return, this time infecting the Pirates' most consistent performer, junior Torey Morris. The Toms River, NJ, native fell victim to the Carrier Dome turf, which produced a broken foot that will most likely have him out for the remainder of the season.

And on Saturday, the oft-injured Aaron Harris succumbed to a broken leg, marking the second time in his career that he has suffered a season-ending injury.

In the wake of the injuries, a platoon of pass catchers that was once thought to be one of the team's strengths has come to be perceived instead as the Pirate offense's weak link. While the running game behind Leonard Henry and a stout offensive line continues to churn up chunks of yardage, a semi-depleted group of receivers seem to be dropping the ball. Literally.

"Here again, fundamentally, we're doing all the right things," head coach Steve Logan said. "Our offensive design is getting people open, but at some point there has to be a responsibility for each individual to make a play — really not a dramatic play, but just to catch it. I'm hoping, again, that that thing begins to bottom out."

With two steady veterans now on the mend, ECU's depth among its receivers is down to two sophomores, a second-year juco transfer and two converted quarterbacks.

The situation worries Logan enough that he is elevating three true-freshmen — Garrett Peterkin, Edwin Rios, and Demarcus Fox — to the varsity, hoping to provide a spark to the Pirate passing game. According to Logan, the burden of their success falls on senior quarterback David Garrard, who will be looked upon as an on-the-field teacher for the budding freshmen.

"David Garrard's going to have to start doing some coaching in the huddle, because experience-wise, they're going to be experiencing some things at a speed which they've never seen," Logan said. "But at the same time, we're going to get them on the field.

"Will that help us catch the football? I don't know, but there's two issues — one, we need somebody to step up and be a consistent ball-catcher, and number two, we need bodies, literally. We've lost two young men to broken bones. That doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me, if you take two out of any one position, you get thin in a hurry."

Another perceived strength going into the season was a solid secondary that was supposed to anchor a veteran defense.

But with recent injuries to game-one starters Kelly Hardy and Charlie Robinson, the Pirates' back end was targeted by both Syracuse and North Carolina, both of which had previously struggled in the passing game. The Orangemen and Tar Heels threw the ball with relative ease against the Pirates' soft zone coverage, inflicting some of the most painful damage on third-and-long situations.

"We've been there with the football on several occasions and haven't made the plays," Logan said. "That's really the big difference that I see.

"I'm hoping that has bottomed out. We've worked the fundamentals, we've worked the drills, we're doing all the things that I know you can do to help put a kid in position. We've had kids in position, it's just a matter of making the play."

Twice on Saturday, the Heels turned would-be interceptions into touchdowns. Carolina's first score came when a Pirate defender was in perfect position to haul in an errant Darian Durant pass, but was outmaneuvered by a sly Chesley Borders.

Later, UNC's Ronald Curry threw a not-so-perfect strike to the open arms of ECU CB Brandon Rainer. But instead of corralling Curry's wounded duck, the ball ricocheted off Rainer's jersey into the waiting arms of Saturday's seize-the-day standout — Carolina tight end Zach Hilton.

The Pirates' defensive backfield will be under the gun again when it faces Army's pass-happy attack on Saturday.

Whether or not the Bucs can pull off a second consecutive conference win will depend largely on the secondary's ability to control the Black Knight air attack.

Though ECU was successful in last year's tilt between the two teams, the secondary's recent struggles, coupled with Army's improvement in former ECU offensive architect Todd Berry's second year as the Cadets' head coach, are of genuine concern to Logan.

"Coach (Todd) Berry has gotten a lot of things done, as far as putting his stamp on things, from last year to this year," Logan said. "I think it's real obvious, offensively, that his players understand what it is he's trying to accomplish.

"They're really expressing the offense in a great fashion. They are very, very competitive on that side of the ball. The two games that got out of hand on them were simply a product of turnovers. When they haven't turned the ball over, they've been up and down the field."

Army certainly had it dialed in last week against Houston, moving the chains 23 times and piling up 427 total yards. The 28-14 victory was Army's first of the season, which has included two losses to conference foes UAB and Cincinnati.

"They had a heartbreaker at Cincinnati," Logan said. "They had Cincinnati beaten and then Cincinnati came back and performed a two-minute drill that was incredible. They got a big win last weekend over Houston and I'm sure that their kids will be ready to play."

There will be little margin for error this Saturday, or any of the remaining games for that matter. In a league with so many evenly-matched teams, Logan says the C-USA crown will most likely belong to the one that commits the fewest blunders down the stretch.

"We've got six games left," he said. "It's basically going to come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes in all six football games. The competition within our conference is very even.

"Every team has an advantage, but where there's an advantage there's a disadvantage. It all evens out when you start looking at Conference USA film."

"I think we did a really good job the last two weeks, emotionally, in getting our kids in a position where they were ready to play and play well, and yet not going over the top, which is the mistake I referred to last year at Virginia Tech. There's a mid-line you have to stay on, and I think our football team has done that."

For a team from which so much was expected, it would be easy to understand if a certain sense of panic was settling in around the ECU program. Based on Logan's observations, though, that couldn't be farther from the truth for the Pirates, who find themselves undefeated in C-USA and in virtual control of their own destiny.

"The good news is that we won the one Conference USA game we played, and that was really big," Logan noted. "I'd really be feeling desperate right now had we messed that up.

"We're into the stretch now, along with the rest of our conference, where over the next six or seven weeks, everybody's playing Conference USA football. So every week is big. We saw last week the Memphis-Southern Miss game, and that changed the paradigm quite a bit. Memphis steps up and gets a big win over Southern Miss and this changes the complexion."

The Pirates also received a big lift two weeks ago when the Golden Eagles upended UAB. The loss, which was the Blazers' first league loss of the season, could prove to be huge down the stretch, as conference favorites ECU and Louisville are both absent from UAB's schedule.

"You look around, Cincinnati has not lost, Louisville is sitting there undefeated, yet there haven't been a lot of conference games played," Logan added. "It's anybody's game right now."