ECU in search of a ground game

By Brian Bailey
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For the East Carolina Pirates it’s simply a case of moving onward and upward.

ECU was beaten handily on Saturday in Annapolis, as Navy rolled up over 400 yards on the ground in a 45-21 victory. The win over the Pirates came in Navy’s debut in the American Athletic Conference.

The Pirates got off to a bad start in the first half, as Navy scored touchdowns on four consecutive drives. ECU may have spent a lot of practice time on stopping the option, but that work failed to pay dividends when it counted.

“Defensively, I thought we kept fighting,” said Pirate head coach Ruffin McNeill. “The first half was tough, but we made adjustments in the second half. With that team (Navy), you have to be ready. Watching the film, it wasn’t a missed assignment, but you can’t be a hair off on these guys. They’re that precise.”

Those cut blocks at the line are almost impossible to duplicate in practice. The Navy lineman have simply perfected the art, and the Pirate defensive lineman spent the day playing tentatively, worrying more about staying off the blocks than playing disciplined, assignment driven football.

Now, the Pirates move on in this tough opening month. Next up is Virginia Tech, and the Hokies only loss is to defending national champion Ohio State in that Labor Day Monday night opener.

“Virginia Tech is coming in here,” said McNeill. “Everybody knows how I feel about Coach (Frank) Beamer. He’s a Hall of Famer , one of the best in the business and one of the best people in the business. He felt like this team would be one of his best. They return nine starters on offense. I know Mike (Brewer) got hurt a little bit. He’s not back yet, but they’ve got (Brenden) Motley who is mobile, big and has been around the program.”

Beamer had similar thoughts on McNeill. Beamer spent part of his news conference in Blacksburg on Monday talking about his respect for Coach Ruff. He also thought back to what he was thinking last year, when the Pirates upset his Tech team 28-21 in Blacksburg.

“The thing that I remember from last year is looking out there and saying those guys are big and fast,” said Beamer. “They still look the same from that standpoint. The Kemp kid throws left-handed but it looks like what they kind of had to me.

Beamer hinted that he knows he’s headed to a hornet’s nest on Saturday. Nothing would make the pain of the Navy loss go away for the Pirates faster than a second straight victory over the Hokies.

Ruff had a message for the Pirate faithful.

“Keep believing and believe in your team," he said. "Believe in the kids and know that they work hard. This is not our first time being in a situation like this. There’s no panic button. It’s a confidence button. What we talk about is always remembering what our base philosophy is, and that’s staying dedicated to the team first and then staying dedicated to the vision and accomplishing that mission. We won’t deviate from that. We have a lot of games left. There’s a lot of ball to be played.”

Nine games in fact are left to be played in this season. That is a ton of football.

For the Pirates to turn things around, they have to find a running game. Controlling the football gives the defense a break. Credit quarterback Blake Kemp with putting up big numbers against teams that know he has to throw. If ECU can start churning out some numbers on the ground, that will open things up even further for Kemp.

“They’re loading the box up on us and making us fight for it,” explained Coach Ruff. “I want to be able to run the football. When Shane (Carden) was able to make them pay for doing that, that’s when you see them start to loosen up the box a little bit. I think guys are challenging themselves. That group up front has to play like a quarter, not like five nickels. I want to run the football and I’ve been disappointed that we haven’t been able to these last few games.”

Finally, you certainly can’t talk about the Hokies without mentioning Virginia Tech’s success on special teams.

Tech's special teams have scored 54 touchdowns in the Frank Beamer era. The Hokies returned their 20th blocked punt for a touchdown last week in the 51-24 win over Purdue.

Oddly enough, the Pirates blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown to beat Virginia Tech in the 2008 game in Charlotte. ECU won that game 27-22 to open that season.

The Hokies come to town providing another opportunity for the Pirates to rack up a win against a Power 5 team. ECU will put its four-game winning streak against the ACC on the line on Saturday.

The game is a sellout and the atmosphere should be electric.

The Pirates have yet to play their best football.

They will most likely need to in order to win this week.

BB

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