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American Football
Schedule |
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THURSDAY |
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Cincinnati 54, ECU 46 (ESPN2) |
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FRIDAY |
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UCF
31, Tulsa 7 (ESPN2) |
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SATURDAY |
Penn State 30, Temple 13 (ESPN2)
Memphis 38, Tulane 7 (ESPNU)
USF 14, SMU 13 (CBSSN) |
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FOOTBALL |
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Stakes will be high in Cincinnati |
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It’s time for the East Carolina
Pirates to crank it up again. It’s
time for that high flying offense to
take flight. It’s time for that
defense to create turnovers and give
the offense a short field. It’s time
to finish strong. ...
More from Brian Bailey... |
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MULTIMEDIA |
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Audio: The
Brian Bailey Show |
  The
Brian Bailey Show
airs on Pirate Radio
1250 on Mondays at
6:30 p.m. Brian's
guest this week was
ECU recruiting
coordinator and
inside receivers coach Donnie
Kirkpatrick (right):
Replay
show... |
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MULTIMEDIA |
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Audio: Coach Ruff Weekly
Presser |
 ECU
coach Ruffin McNeill spoke
with the media at his weekly
press conference on Monday
as the Pirates prepare to
hit the road to face
Cincinnati on Thursday
(courtesy of Pirate
Radio 1250;
file
photo):
Select
clip... |
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FOOTBALL |
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Pirates regroup from Philly
fumbles |
The 24-hour rule that serves
as a buffer between games
expired Sunday after East
Carolina's 20-10 loss at
Temple on Saturday. The span
increased to 48 hours and
then 72 hours before the
Pirates finally got back on
the practice field
Wednesday. ...
More from Al Myatt... |
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FOOTBALL SPECIAL
FEATURE |
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15 Questions for
Terry Whisnant |
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 Akeem
Richmond may be gone but
Terry Whisnant is set to
continue East Carolina's
outside shooting prowess.
Whisnant transferred from
Florida State after
averaging 2.1 points and 7.7
minutes for a Seminoles team
that won the Atlantic Coast
Conference Tournament his
freshman year. His numbers
at FSU improved to 5.2
points and 17.2 minutes as a
sophomore when he made 35.6
percent of his 3-point
tries. ...
More from W.A.
Myatt... |
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Pictured: ECU junior
Terry Whisnant is
ready for action
after sitting out a
year under NCAA
transfer rules. The
Cherryville native
played his freshman
and sophomore
seasons at Florida
State. His skill at
shooting from long
range is expected to
be a key asset for
the Pirates as they
make their debut in
the American
Athletic Conference.
(ECU Media Relations
photo) |
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Owls become Temple of Doom |
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PHILADELPHIA — The statistics
told a convoluted tale after 60
minutes of college football at
Lincoln Financial Field, home of
the Philadelphia Eagles, on
Saturday. When East Carolina
outgains an opponent 432 to 135
in total yardage, the assumption
would be that the Pirates won
handily. ...
More from Al Myatt... |
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CHILLY
PHILLY: Fans
were sparse
on Saturday
at the East
Carolina-Temple
game in
dreary
Philadelphia.
Road games
before
meager
crowds have
typically
created a
difficult
environment
for the
Pirates to
perform
well, a
scenario
that was
punctuated
as the Owls
took
advantage of
penalties
and
weather-assisted
turnovers to
deal ECU
its first
American
Athletic
Conference
loss
in the cold,
rainy
conditions
at Lincoln
Financial
Field. The
announced
attendance
at the
69,176-seat
home of the
NFL's Eagles
was 22,130.
[Al Myatt
photo] |
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Audio: Ruff Post-game |
 ECU
coach Ruffin McNeill spoke
with the press after the
Pirates' upset loss to
Temple on Saturday (recorded
by Al Myatt; file photo):
Select audio clip... |
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By
Greg Vacek
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
View ECU's Football
Schedule
VIEW MOBILE VERSION OF THIS PAGE
Some say Thursday night is
the start of the weekend. Will it be the start of a new streak for
the East Carolina Pirates?
Jimbo Fisher, owner of
college football’s longest active winning streak at 24 games,
recently sized up the difficulty of stringing together victories.
"[Winning]
is so much harder than we make it seem to be out there,” said the
Florida State coach. “If it wasn’t, guys would be undefeated all the
time. … Why do you think I’m nervous every week? A college kid –
think of all the things that went through your head at that age.
It’s a challenge every week to control their minds to bring them to
focus, to understand how to be consistent. That’s the hard thing.”
It seems that East
Carolina's non-traditional schedule has become the norm for teams as
their conferences allow television to dictate times and dates. ECU
has six non-football Saturdays this season, which is good for me to
be able see my kids’ soccer games, but not necessarily good for a
college football team that relies on structure and familiar routines
to keep the kids focused.
The Pirates, after competing
their third and final bye week of the 2014 season, have had 11 days
to rest, reflect, retool and refocus heading into a stretch run that
will help determine who is eventually crowned the American Athletic
Conference champion.
Memphis currently leads the
pack with a 4-1 league record, followed by Cincinnati, ECU and
Central Florida all at 3-1. That makes the Pirates' Thursday night
matchup with the Bearcats an important one.
Have the Pirates exorcised
the Thursday Night Demons? Historically the Pirates haven’t taken
full advantage coming off of open weeks, winning only nine of their
last 13 opportunities.
One of ESPN’s original
Thursday night trailblazers, ECU has won its last two primetime
Thursday contests but has not been spectacular over the long run,
posting a 6-8 record. UC has played 14 Thursday night games, holding
an 11-3 mark with an 8-1 record at home.
East Carolina is 17-19 in
non-Saturday games since 2000. Surprisingly, the Pirates have been
better on the road, compiling an 11-9 record in foreign venues
compared to a 6-10 slate at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The Pirates’ series with
Cincinnati resumes after a 10-year hiatus since the Bearcats
departed Conference USA. ECU holds a 12-5 all-time series advantage.
ECU dominated the early years with seven straight victories,
including five of eight in Nippert Stadium.
The teams played yearly from
1986-2004 with the exception of 1996 and 2000. UC won the most
recent three meetings — in 2002, '03 and '04 — when both schools
were members of C-USA.
The 2002 game marked a
controversial point in the ECU football program's history. The
Bearcats
defeated ECU 42-26 in a season-ending
Friday night contest in Greenville. Steve Logan, the
Pirates' all-time winningest coach,
was fired the morning after the game.
Logan had complained publicly about timing of the game, which was
televised during the prep football playoffs
to the consternation of the N.C. High
School Athletics Association.
The John Thompson era, an
abbreviated two-year span during which ECU recorded a 3-20 record,
debuted on a Monday night the following season with
a 40-3 thumping by the Bearcats.
Thompson's final season included
a 24-19 loss to Cincinnati
among the Pirates nine defeats in 2004.
ECU’s last victory over the
Bearcats came in 2001
with David Garrard and Leonard Henry
leading the way in a 28-26 nail-biter on the road.
Thursday will mark the third
time this season that the Pirates will be playing in an NFL stadium.
Earlier appearance on the turf of the pros were
at South Florida (the Tampa
Bay Bucs' Raymond James Stadium) and
at Temple (the Philadelphia
Eagles' Lincoln Financial Field).
While venerable Nippert
Stadium is undergoing an $86 million renovation and expansion, the
Bearcats are playing all of their 2014 home games at the
Cincinnati Bengals' Paul Brown Stadium. The Bearcats began playing
on the site where Nippert Stadium rests way back in 1902, making it
the fourth oldest playing site for college football in the nation.
UC athletic director Mike
Bohn told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the school has 26,000 tickets
out for the ECU game and is hoping to reach 29,000 for this
important matchup. But with temperatures for Thursday expected to
top out at 36 degrees before falling throughout the game — and with
ESPN2 cameras beaming the contest to home TVs — the attendance could
be significantly lower.
For a chance to win in the
frigid conditions, the Pirates need to heat up and put together an
all-around better performance than they did in their
five-turnover penalty-fest against Temple
in chilly Philly.
Cincinnati quarterbacks
Munchie Legaux and Gunner Kiel both will see playing time at
quarterback against ECU and both are capable of giving the Pirates
problems. Kiel has started all eight games but has been hampered by
bruised ribs). He leads the American in passing TDs (20) and passing
efficiency (154.5).
Legaux, who suffered a
serious leg injury in the second game of the 2013 season, has helped
the Bearcats improve to 5-3 overall with effective performances in
relief of Kiel in the last two games.
Shane Carden
and company will have to
look out for an improving UC defense that has forced nine turnovers
in the last three games after forcing only six in its first five
contests.
The challenge for the
Pirates is now to move on from their loss to Temple and put all the
baggage that came with it behind them. Don’t let a team beat you
twice.
With four games remaining,
East Carolina still has a chance to control its own destiny. Win out
and they clinch at least a share of the American title in their
first season in the conference. Not bad for a team that was picked
fourth in the Preseason AAC poll.
