From the Anchor Desk Tuesday, October 1, 2013 By Brian Bailey WNCT-TV 9 Sports Director

Pirates over the hump

By Brian Bailey
©2013 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

Shane Carden entered Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill on Saturday with a big smile on his face.

He looked like he knew what was coming.

It was the look of confidence and of appreciation. Carden knew that if he executed he would have a big day. He also very much appreciated the show of support from the Pirate faithful from that corner of the stadium near the East Carolina locker room.

Carden orchestrated the Pirate offense to perfection in the 55-31 victory over North Carolina. He ran for three touchdowns and threw for three more. He put on a performance that ranks with any quarterback in Pirate football history.

“We came out here and my whole mind set was no fear,” said Carden on the field after the Pirates win. “We had no fear about who we were playing and no fear about where were playing and no fear about what was around us. The noise and negative talk didn’t matter. This was for Pirate Nation. We know how much this means to our school, our university, Greenville as a city and it’s an awesome feeling.”

Carden was an obvious selection for the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week with his six touchdown performance against the Tar Heels.

His other weekend honors ran down like thiss:

• Capital One Cup Impact Performance Nominee

• College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) National Performer-of-the-Week

• College Sports Madness C-USA Player-of-the-Week (second time this season)

• Davey O’Brien Honorable Mention Player-of-the-Week

• Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Player-of-the-Week (second-time this season)

• ESPN Primetime Performer

• ESPN Helmet Sticker

Pirate coach Ruffin McNeill also had high praise for his junior quarterback and team leader.

“We want to get as many of those guys in our program,” said McNeill. “They’re called self-motivated student-athletes. I love motivating because everyone is not trained the same. Everybody learns differently. He definitely has the ‘Coach me, Coach’ mentality.”

Last week I wrote that the Pirates needed to take a chip on their shoulder to Chapel Hill. They did more than that.

This was as dominating a performance as I’ve seen from an East Carolina team in some time.

Coach McNeill needed a win like this. He most certainly got one.

Now the trick is to rope everybody back in, to win the next game.

Up next is Middle Tennessee, a program coached by former ECU assistant Rick Stockstill. Stockstill could have very easily been the successor to Skip Holtz before McNeill was hired. The ECU job belonged to Rick Stockstill before Stockstill pulled his name out of the running.

Coach Ruff remembers it this way.

“I was talking to Mississippi State,” he explained. “I was getting set to visit with Coach (Jim) Harbaugh at Stanford. I saw Stock. … He was going places and I was going places. I wished him luck. I was at Stanford when I got my call.”

“Stock would have fit in well here. But I’m a Pirate and I fit in a little better,” added McNeill.

Funny how things go, isn’t it?

Now, Ruffin McNeill takes his Pirates to Murfreesboro for game two of the Conference USA slate.

McNeill’s 24-hour rule was in effect to start the week. The entire program has to put the win over North Carolina on the sideline and focus in on ‘the next game’ week after week as seven of the eight remaining regulars season contests are against C-USA foes.

It’s never personal for the Pirate coach. It’s about the players, the ones that worked so hard to make a win like this possible.

“The locker room was the most gratifying thing to me,” said McNeill. “It’s a sacred place because it’s the greatest laboratory for human behavior. When the program wins, the university wins. When the university wins, Pirate Nation wins.”

Deep down, Ruffin McNeill knows.

Pirate Nation won a big one on Saturday.

BB

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PAGE UPDATED 10/01/13 02:31 PM.