Inside
Game Day
Saturday, October 19, 2013
By Al Myatt |
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Southern Misstery
Al Myatt
©2013 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
GREENVILLE — East Carolina avoided the
pitfall of playing down to the level of its competition on Saturday with a
pounding of Southern Miss that kept the Pirates on pace for their goal of
the Conference USA championship.
The Pirates played well enough for their
reserves to get meaningful game experience in the 55-14 rout, but one of the
intriguing aspects of the matchup didn't involve ECU at all.
It was the mystery of Southern Miss, as
in 'What the heck has happened to those guys?'
They used to be bad. That's bad in the
sense of intimidating.
Now they're just bad — as in not good.
Used to be they'd hit you, never would
help anybody up and they were going to try to hit you harder the next play.
They owned the line of scrimmage and they would keep knocking you off of it.
That was when Jeff Bower was coaching.
They weren't too shabby when Larry Fedora
got his system up and running either. Austin Davis was a good leader at
quarterback and the Golden Eagles were a sparkling 12-2 his senior season in
2011.
Then Fedora went to Chapel Hill and the
problems began in Hattiesburg.
Fedora's successor, defensive-oriented
Ellis Johnson, came in and the drop off wasn't immediately apparent when ECU
opened up its Conference USA schedule a year ago with a 24-14 win at The
Rock. It was the first loss in a home opener in this millennium for the
Golden Eagles but they had a solid athlete at quarterback, freshman Anthony
Alford, and there appeared to be some of that yesteryear talent on defense.
But USM never got it together. They
experienced the most precipitous fall in the Football Bowl Subdivision,
going from 12-2 to 0-12.
There were some issues with Alford and he
left USM.
Johnson was terminated by athletic
director Jeff Hammond, a former USM quarterback and retired Army general who
was something of a hero to much of the fan base.
Hammond hired offensive-minded Todd
Monken from Oklahoma State, the same program that groomed Fedora before his
arrival at USM.
Dr. Rodney Bennett became the new
president of Southern Miss in February.
Hammond's contract expired at the end of
June and was not renewed.
His replacement was Bill McGillis, former
associate AD at South Florida.
McGillis was on the sideline Saturday and
looked like a man trying to figure out his next move.
Here's some of the information McGillis
was probably processing: The Golden Eagles are 0-6 under Monken and have
lost 18 in a row. There was no perceptible improvement in performance after
an open date that followed a 24-23 loss at home to previously-winless
Florida International.
Does McGillis give Monken, a coach he
didn't hire, enough time to get the job done with players he's recruited?
It's a similar situation to what Terry
Holland faced when ECU was struggling in the John Thompson coaching era.
No wonder Monken, who had described the
winless campaign last year as "a one-year speed bump," seemed distracted and
un-engaging at the C-USA media day in July.
He had figured out his personnel
situation in spring ball. He probably knows he's standing on quicksand as
far as administrative support.
Holland pulled the plug on Thompson
before the end of the 2004 season and hired Skip Holtz.
That led to Conference USA championships
in 2008 and 2009. Then Holtz went to South Florida.
ECU's situation at that point parallels
that which USM experienced with Fedora's departure.
The Pirates have been much more
successful by comparison since Ruffin McNeill was hired.
The difference on the field Saturday can
in part be attributed to a higher degree of administrative continuity and
judgment at ECU.
Holland has moved to other
responsibilities as AD Emeritus, but Jeff Compher obviously knows how to
direct an athletic program. Dr. Steve Ballard, ECU's chancellor since 2004,
played shortstop in a College World Series for Arizona. How cool is that as
far as being able to relate to athletics?
Southern Miss is in a state of disarray.
Monken has a four-year deal in the neighborhood of $750,000 annually.
Can the Golden Eagles afford a buyout?
Can they afford not to?
There is no one on the present Southern
Miss staff with a connection to the program's successful past.
McNeill, in contrast, has former Pirate
players such as Kirk Doll and Marc Yellock on staff in addition to himself.
Here's a suggestion, Mr. McGillis: Look
into the possibility of Tyrone Nix, defensive coordinator at Middle
Tennessee, if you haven't already. He was one of the greats at USM and his
brother, Derrick, who is on the staff at Ole Miss, is as well.
The fan base is no doubt looking to
reconnect with its winning past.
But wins for USM are becoming a fading
memory.
E-mail Al Myatt.
PAGE UPDATED
10/20/13 02:27 PM.
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