Kevin Sounds Off Monday, September 30, 2013 By Kevin Monroe

Setting the record straight on UNC

By Kevin Monroe
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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.

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PAGE UPDATED 10/01/13 12:23 AM.