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Talent alone won't decide bowl game

By Brett Friedlander
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

College football bowl games aren’t always won by the team with the better record or the better, more highly-regarded players. They’re usually won by the team that’s more motivated to play.

So who does that favor in East Carolina’s Birmingham Bowl matchup against Florida?

Neither team has to be particularly happy about playing in Alabama, two days after Jan. 1 in a stadium that. while historic, is a crumbling relic in a bad neighborhood.

The Pirates, in particular, had aspirations of bigger and better things after getting off to a promising 6-1 start. But their hopes for an American Athletic Conference championship and a trip to one of the so-called “New Year’s Six” bowls as the nation’s best non-Power 5 team were derailed by a pair of self-inflicted November losses.

In spite of that disappointment, coach Ruffin McNeill’s team still has plenty of reasons to do more than just show up in Birmingham — not the least of which is the desire to send a senior class the coach described as “special” out on a winning note.

Those 19 upperclassmen, many of which arrived with McNeill back in 2010, had their collective heart ripped out two weeks ago when Central Florida spoiled their Senior Night celebration with a game-winning, 51-yard Hail Mary as time expired.

They’ve been chomping at the bit ever since to get back out onto the field and make amends — regardless of who and where they’re playing. The fact that the opponent is a brand-name program from the most hyped conference in college football — the kind of team ECU has always thrived on beating — has only added fuel to the Pirates’ fire.

“We’re very motivated for this game,” quarterback Shane Carden said. “It’s a great challenge against a great team. We’re looking forward to getting down there, playing against an SEC defense and really finishing the season off right. I want to leave this program right and give the rest of the seniors something to look back at.”

While Carden and his teammates have their sights set squarely on enhancing their their legacies with one final signature victory, it’s anybody’s guess where the Gators’ heads or hearts will be come Jan. 3.

They’ve played so poorly this season on the way to a 6-5 record, with the glaring exception of an unexpected rout of Georgia, that their school’s administration didn’t even wait for the regular season to end before firing coach Will Muschamp.

Although Colorado State’s Jim McElwain has already been hired as Muschamp’s replacement, he’ll be nothing more than a spectator at Legion Field while defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin and a lame duck staff lead the team against the Pirates.

It’s the kind of situation ECU nose tackle Terry Williams said can bring a team together, which is why he said he expects Florida “to come out ready to play and prove something.”

History, however, suggests the opposite might be true.

Remember back in 2011, when on the verge of NCAA sanctions, with a 6-6 record and an interim coach that had already been told he wouldn’t be retained, North Carolina showed up in Shreveport, LA, for an Independence Bowl game it really didn’t want to play and got trounced 41-24 by Missouri?

Or how about N.C. State’s performance at the Music City Bowl 12 months later? With coach Tom O’Brien having already been dispatched and newly hired Dave Doeren watching from the stands, the disinterested Wolfpack barely went through the motions for offensive coordinator Dana Bible in a 38-24 loss to Vanderbilt.

That doesn’t mean a team can’t rally around its interim coach and put together a winning effort, as Texas Tech did with McNeill at the 2009 Alamo Bowl. It’s just not that easy with staff members distracted by their own job searches and players struggling to motivate themselves for an opponent and a bowl they consider beneath them.

Despite its struggles this season, Florida has the talent — including soon-to-be NFL draft picks Vernon Heargraves III and Dante Fowler on defense — to be the exception to the rule.

The question is, does it have the motivation?

Contact Brett Friedlander

PAGE UPDATED 12/19/14 05:58 PM.

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