Pirates look to prove 'em wrong

By Brian Bailey
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I had the privilege of attending my first American Athletic Conference Football Media Day earlier this week.

The American may not be a “Power 5” conference, but it certainly carries itself that way.

The highlight of the two-day gathering of players and coaches was the annual clam bake, which featured almost 300 lobsters, hundreds of clams, corn, sausage, potatoes and more. It was a true “football feast” and it came with the sun setting off the Newport, Rhode Island coast. It was simply beautiful.

Cincinnati is the media’s pick to win the 2015 AAC championship. The Bearcats picked up 22 of the 30 first place votes. Memphis was the second pick, followed by Houston and Central Florida.

“I think it’s more of a testament to what we have done the last several years,” said Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville. “We have won nine games the last two years so it’s natural for us to get some recognition. But as we sit here, I don’t know how good of a football team we will have.”

East Carolina is picked fourth in the East Division of the AAC standings behind Cincinnati, UCF and Temple.

That’s certainly a by-product of losing the likes of Shane Carden and Justin Hardy.

The prediction doesn’t factor in that the Pirates should be better on defense in 2015. The Pirates also still have plenty of weapons on offense and hope to fly under the radar while competing for a conference championship.

“Predictions are just that, predictions,” said Pirate senior linebacker Zeek Bigger. “People are going to think what they want to think. I’m just ready to go out and get this thing started and start proving those people wrong.”

“Polls are great, but let’s see where we are at the end of the season,” said ECU coach Ruffin McNeill. “I have a lot of confidence in our players and our staff and we look forward to battling for the division title.”

Respect for Coach Ruff runs deep in the AAC. Every coach that I talked to had nothing but kind words and pure respect for the Pirate coach.

“He’s like me, he’s old school,” said UCF Coach George O’Leary. “I like spending time with him at events like this.”

“Coach McNeill comes from a defensive background like I did,” said Coach Tuberville. “We have known each other for a long time and he is a great man.”

Tuberville went so far as to reminisce about his extremely short tenure at East Carolina.

“I spent two weeks in Greenville on Bill Lewis’s staff,” said Tuberville. “I was looking forward to working at ECU, but then Jimmy Johnson called and offered me a job at Miami that I couldn’t turn down.”

Commissioner Mike Aresco addressed the media on Tuesday and his message was clear: The way to make it a “Power 6” in college football is to win against the “Power 5” in non-conference play.

“Our teams certainly look a lot like most of the “Power 5” teams,” said Aresco. “We just have to keep working and I’m confident we can continue to be part of the conversation.”

East Carolina is all set to enter year two in the American Athletic Conference. Expectations from the league aren’t all that high, but that’s usually when the Pirates play their best, with that chip on their shoulder.

Look out East Division of the AAC! The Pirates will be out to prove the experts wrong in 2015.

BB

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