Inside Game Day Saturday, September 12, 2015 By Al Myatt

Costly slip but Pirates moving on

Al Myatt
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GAINESVILLE, FL — A wet ball after a day of rain proved to be a deciding factor Saturday night.

East Carolina was driving when quarterback Blake Kemp lost the handle in the closing seconds on a 2nd-and-10 at the Florida 13-yard line. Alex McCalister recovered for the Gators to preserve a 31-24 win for the tenants at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Kemp had moved the Pirates from their 30 on ECU's final possession.

He hit Bryce Williams for a 7-yard touchdown to complete a 66-yard drive and cut the lead to one score with 3:04 to go.

The Pirate defense got a three and out to set up the bizarre close. McCalister was tackled by a teammate or he would likely have taken the recovery back for a TD.

"The ball was wet and it just slipped out of my hands," said Kemp, who triggered the most productive part of the Pirates offense. "My fault. I should have gripped it better."

The circumstances were similar to a 28-20 loss to the Gators in the Birmingham Bowl to complete the 2014 season – a late drive punctuated by a turnover and a close but no cigar conclusion for ECU.

Kemp completed 34 of 54 passes for 333 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

"We knew what they ran and we had plays called for their coverages," said Kemp, a left-handed junior who redshirted last year for the Pirates after transferring from Mesa (AZ) Community College. " ... We expect to score more points than we did."

Isaiah Jones caught 14 passes for 135 yards and a score. Williams had nine catches for 83 yards.

The Pirates didn't venture into SEC country to lose but the team focus appeared to be turning to the American Athletic Conference opener at Navy next Saturday pretty shortly after the ESPN2 cameras were turned off.

"We've got a tough team," Kemp said. "We didn't quit until the last play, literally until there were zero seconds on the clock. For that, I'm proud of the team but other than that I'm disappointed. We should have won."

Kemp put the Gators (2-0) on upset alert by connecting with Davon Grayson on a 31-yard touchdown with 11:26 left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead with Davis Plowman's conversion kick.

The Southeastern Conference club had answers both times the Pirates led.

A 27-yard scoring pass from Kemp to Jones after an interception by ECU's Bobby Fulp gave ECU a 14-10 lead with 10:43 left in the third quarter. The Gators, who missed first-half field goals of 34 and 35 yards, went up 31-17 with a 39-yard interception return by Jalen Tabor and a 7-yard run by Kelvin Taylor that completed a 75-yard drive.

Plowman took over the kicking duties that Connor Torruella performed for the Pirates last week.

Plowman was good from 30 yards on his only field goal try.

A crowd of 88,034 came out after the showers subsided.

"We practiced with the noise all week so that wasn't a big deal for us," Kemp said.

ECU had to rely on the passing of Kemp and James Summers, a juco transfer who joined the Pirates in late August. Summers completed 3 of 4 passes for 13 yards.

The Pirates ran aground in the Swamp, hemmed up for minus-13 yards rushing.

ECU played to its strength, the air attack.

"We had confidence we were going to get the job done," Jones said. "We beat ourselves tonight. There were critical times we didn't capitalize."

The circumstances are not that different from a 33-23 loss at South Carolina the second game of the 2014 season. The Pirates regrouped and won 28-21 at Virginia Tech the following week.

"We're going to work on the things we messed up on and take it in to next week and get better," Jones said. "We don't want to say we barely lost to Florida. That's not our mentality, We expect to win."

Mike linebacker Zeek Bigger had five solo stops and two assists to lead ECU in tackles with seven.

"We knew we were going to fight when it was 31-17," Bigger said. "We still had our chances. ... It was a great game. I give credit to us and Florida but it's over with now. We've got to get ready for our next game."

The Pirates didn't look like 20-point underdogs as defined by Las Vegas.

"Nip and tuck," said ECU coach Ruffin McNeill. "That's the way it's going to be in the conference, too."

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PAGE UPDATED 09/13/15 02:30 PM.