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Pirates finally perform on bigger stage

By Al Myatt
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

There’s no telling what Steve Spurrier actually meant by the comment. The Ol’ Ball Coach is, after all, a master of both the verbal head game and the not-so-subtle dig.

So when Spurrier was quoted as saying that he’d rather his South Carolina Gamecocks schedule games against East Carolina than a bottom-feeder from one of college football’s power conferences – specifically the Big Ten – it’s anyone’s guess as to whether he was praising the Pirates or putting down a rival league.

ECU coach Ruffin McNeill, as he does with most things in life, chose to take the positive interpretation.

“I’ve always gotten along great with Coach Spurrier,” McNeill said. “I respect what he says because of what he’s done on the field. And Coach Spurrier has done it on the field. He stirs it up with what he says and I appreciate the compliment.”

McNeill’s comment may have been his way of practicing a little psychology of his own in advance of the Pirates’ upcoming date with the Gamecocks in Columbia on Sept. 6. But there’s also a valid reason for his optimism.

When you’re ECU and you’re constantly fighting to earn the respect of anyone outside a 90-mile radius of Greenville, you know that compliments aren’t always easy to come by – regardless of how well your teams perform on the field.

But that may be about to change.

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With their entry into the American Athletic Conference, the Pirates have finally hit on an association that will give them the exposure they have always lacked while providing both the financial and competitive resources necessary to earn the national respect they have always craved.

Within its first 12 months of existence, the AAC has already claimed a BCS bowl victory with Central Florida’s win against Baylor in the Fiesta, to go along with UConn’s national championships in both the men’s and women’s basketball.

No, the league formerly known as the Big East isn’t one of the five power conferences that were recently granted autonomy over their own affairs. And no matter how hard it tries, there’s a good chance it will never be granted that kind of stature. But that won’t stop if from trying.

Like ECU, the AAC has set exceedingly high expectations for itself and isn’t about back down from anyone that tries to tell it what it can or can’t accomplish.

That’s an attitude that makes it the perfect fit for the feisty Pirates.

“First of all, they bring a great football program,” AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said during a visit to Greenville this summer. “They bring a university that is widely respected. They bring a sports department that is extremely well-run. They will bring energy, enthusiasm and the kind of fan interest you want. I think they’re going to bring a great deal to our conference, that’s what’s exciting about this.”

What’s exciting to athletic director Jeff Compher and everyone else associated with ECU is that in contrast to all those other conferences that rejected ECU in the past – most notably the ACC – Aresco said it doesn’t matter that the school is located off the beaten path in a market that barely registers on the ratings charts.

With rival schools located in media hotbeds such as Dallas, Houston, Cincinnati and Memphis, along with the national spotlight that follows UConn, the Pirates will have plenty of opportunities to get noticed as long as they hold up their end of the bargain when the cameras are rolling.

“I don’t think (market size) is as important as developing competitiveness and making your mark nationally,” Aresco said. “We’re a little different from other conferences. We need to perform on the field and on the court to gain the attention we deserve.”

It’s a similar situation to the one the Big East faced when it first came onto the scene in the early 1980s.

“What you’re going to see is programs coming in that will raise their level and raise their profile,” Aresco said. “To this day Frank Beamer says there’s no way Virginia Tech could have done what it did without membership in the Big East. Think about where they were and how they built a program. It’s not easy to do, but you can do it. A program like (ECU) is already in place, especially in football. It just needs to be discovered.”

In that respect, McNeill and his team couldn’t have picked a better time to introduce themselves to the world outside of Eastern North Carolina. Coming off a 10-win season with most of their top playmakers returning, led by the record-setting duo of quarterback Shane Carden and receiver Justin Hardy, this year’s Pirates have a much better chance of making a positive first impression than if they were a team in rebuilding mode.

“It’s about time we get this national exposure for ECU,” Carden said. “I don’t think a lot of people really understand the stature football has at this school. I’m glad we’re finally getting this opportunity to showcase who we are and what we can do.”

Now all they have to do is take advantage of the opportunity by winning some of those big games that everyone will be watching.

The more that happens, the less room for interpretation there will be in the compliments they get.

E-mail Al Myatt

PAGE UPDATED 08/15/14 05:13 AM.

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