From the Anchor Desk Tuesday, November 29, 2011 By Brian Bailey

Focus turns to recruiting, 2012 season

By Brian Bailey
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

The team that led the entire nation in turnovers ended its season with one on Saturday in Huntington, West Virginia.

The storybook ending would have seen Dominique Davis rally East Carolina to a victory in overtime at Marshall.

Instead, Davis’s last pass as a Pirate ended up as an interception in the 34-27 overtime loss. The picks were a huge problem that Davis battled all season long and never really found an answer for.

It all went by way too fast for Davis, who transferred to East Carolina from Fort Scott Community College after starting his career with Boston College.

“I can’t believe it’s almost over,” said Davis as he prepared for the final regular season game against the Herd.

The final game for Davis went much like his regular season. His brilliance was dimmed by his three interceptions.

Davis was 32-48 for 285 yards and three touchdowns in the season-ending loss. He led a great drive to send the game to overtime. But the three interceptions took the luster off of the performance.

Davis was as good as there is at times this season.

I was in Annapolis when Davis shattered the NCAA record for consecutive completions and I will never forget it. He was like a surgeon dissecting the Navy defense as the Pirates captured the key win on the road.

Still, Davis threw too many to the wrong team this year. He’d be the first to tell you how frustrating it was this season.

For the first time in six seasons the Pirates won’t go to a bowl game. All good things must come to an end, but this East Carolina team certainly had plenty of chances to extend its season with another bowl trip.

Now the Pirates have to hit the recruiting trail, and hit it hard. Ruffin McNeill came to East Carolina with the idea that he could lure the best players from Eastern North Carolina into the Pirate Nation, outdueling the likes of North Carolina and N.C. State for some of the area’s best talent.

Coach McNeill has several things going for him. He has an intense love for his university, and a knack in recruiting to come across as a father figure that so many young males need in this day and age.

There have been plenty of questions this year, but McNeill’s love and passion for East Carolina University is certainly not one of them.

McNeill has some tough decisions to make.

His special teams struggled this season. The Pirates made too many turnovers to win some winnable games. Great teams don’t turn the football over. Turnovers will be the number one topic of conversation when spring football kicks off.

The quarterback battle will also be an interesting one come spring. Rio Johnson handled the backup role all season, and may get the first shot at the position.

Shane Carden and Cody Keith have patiently waited for a chance to shine. Brad Wornick had a couple of shots in 2010 and gives the Pirates an insurance policy as a senior next year.

McNeill’s number one concern after his first year as coach was with his defense. That squad was decimated by injuries and finished dead last in the nation that season. This year the defense was much improved, though it's not yet where McNeill and the staff want it to be.

Injuries on offense were the big story in 2011. McNeill said he had never seen so many injuries in 31 years of coaching. As McNeill has said many times, the injuries are not an excuse. They do, however, paint a more realistic picture of how the Pirates finished at 5-7.

East Carolina will certainly miss the extra workouts the bowl games bring. Those missed practices give added importance to the upcoming spring workouts.

The Pirates will also benefit from another year with Jeff Connors in-house for strength and conditioning. Connors needs to get some healthy bodies back, and then he can do what he does best.

The 2011 football season is in the books.

2012 begins today.

BB

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