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Kevin Sounds Off
Monday,
September 30, 2013
By Kevin Monroe |
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Setting the record straight on UNC
By
Kevin Monroe
©2013 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Saturday’s
win over the North Carolina Tar Heels
was a statement win for the East Carolina Pirates.
Tar
Heel fans will tell you that this game meant more to the Pirates, that
it was ECU’s bowl game or Super Bowl.
If any
football game means more to your opponent than it means to you, there is
a good chance you will get beat. As for it being equated to a bowl game
or Super Bowl for the Pirates, that’s merely an attempt to rationalize
why your team was thrashed from start to finish.
Almost
every season for as long as I can remember, the Pirates have played
multiple BCS automatic-qualifying teams, most of which have a superior
football pedigree to North Carolina. Just over the last few seasons, ECU
has played South Carolina, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. The football
culture in Chapel Hill isn't even in the same stratosphere as that that
permeates Columbia, Blacksburg and Morgantown.
The
reason the outcome in Chapel Hill is such a big deal to Pirate fans is
because beating North Carolina is something East Carolina feels they
should be able to do routinely. That is not to say that ECU has a better
football program than UNC. The Tar heels have a solid program that
consistently competes for the Coastal Division in the ACC.
However, let us not forget which season is underway. North Carolina is a
Top 10 basketball school. It is not a Top 10 football school by any
stretch.
The
Pirates should be able to beat the Tar Heels on the gridiron at least
once every two or three times they play them. Losing 11 of the last 12
to North Carolina was just mind boggling to Pirate Nation. The fact that
the Pirates hadn’t won in Kenan Stadium since 1975 was just as
perplexing for Pirate fans. The results seemed out of sync with the
relative strengths of the programs during many of those years.
East
Carolina has beaten North Carolina State six out of the last 10 times
they have played. The Pirates' logical objective is to have at least a
similar level of success against the Tar heels.
The
games involving East Carolina, N.C. State and North Carolina have
another dimension that goes beyond in-state rivalries. The schools
recruit many of
the same in-state kids. The outcomes of games between
these three schools sometimes influences the college choices the top
recruits will make.
When I
was picking a college to attend for football back in the day, I chose
East Carolina over N.C State. The reason I made that decision was
because I felt I had a better chance to win games at ECU — not just
winning against the in-state schools, but winning more games overall.
It
turns out
that I made the right choice. My class beat the Wolfpack two out of
three times during my career and we averaged seven wins a year with an
11-game schedule. Steve Logan became ECU's all-time winningest coach,
and Mike O’Cain, who recruited me at N.C. State, was fired.
Saturday’s ECU win will be referred to as a statement win for the
Pirates. It was a win that didn’t happen on the last play of the game.
The result was not skewed by gimmicks, turnovers or miscues on special
teams. The Pirates went into Kenan Stadium and ran the ball right at UNC,
then dropped back and threw the ball all around the field and dared the
Tar Heels to stop them.
That
stop never happened — the Pirates were 100% in the red zone with 6
touchdowns and 2 field goals in their eight opportunities.
The
only trickery in the game came from the Heels and it resulted in a
touchdown on a reverse pass in the first half.
East
Carolina matched the Heels in size and speed and had a better scheme.
The win
doesn’t guarantee an ECU victory the next time the teams play, but it
certainly changes the way the Pirates will be perceived in Chapel Hill.
E-mail Kevin Monroe.
PAGE UPDATED
09/30/13 01:25 PM.
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