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BAILEY'S
TAKE ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the
Anchor Desk
Tuesday,
October 11, 2011
By Brian
Bailey |
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In search of confidence…
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East
Division |
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SCHOOL |
C-USA |
ALL |
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UCF
USM
Marshall
ECU
Memphis
UAB |
1-0
1-1
1-1
1-1
0-2
0-2 |
3-2
5-1
2-4
1-4
1-5
0-5 |
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West
Division |
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SCHOOL |
C-USA |
ALL |
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Houston
SMU
Tulsa
Rice
Tulane
UTEP |
2-0
2-0
1-0
1-1
1-1
0-2 |
6-0
4-1
2-3
2-3
2-4
2-3 |
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By
Brian Bailey
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
An East Carolina team that
was so competitive
against South Carolina and
Virginia Tech came up totally
empty in Saturday night’s
56-3 loss in Houston.
The fact that Case Keenum
threw for over 300 yards wasn’t a real surprise. The fact that Keenum’s
success, and the Pirates' lack thereof, turned the game into a rout by
the second quarter came as a shocker to the ECU faithful.
Most of us expected the
Cougars to score. The surprising entry is that the East Carolina offense
was so inept. The Pirates simply fired blanks all night long.
I thought Houston was a
soft 5-0 going into the game. Since ECU put up so little resistance, I’m
still not sure how good the Cougars are. They may be great. They
obviously played their best game against the Pirates.
“We got beat by a better
team on Saturday in Houston,” said Ruffin McNeill at his weekly news
conference on Monday. [Replay
news conference audio...]
“They played great on all
three sides of the ball," McNeill added. "Their offense, defense and
special teams were magnificent. They played with great confidence and
executed as well as any team we’ve played this year, including South
Carolina, Virginia Tech and North Carolina.”
Dominique Davis looks
lost. This isn’t a hatchet job on the Pirate quarterback. It’s just that
we’ve seen Davis when he’s firing strikes with confidence. We haven’t
see that Dominique Davis since the first half of the South Carolina
game.
McNeill says that Davis,
and the rest of his Pirates, need a big dose of confidence.
“Confidence comes from
success,” explained McNeill. "Houston was 5-0 going into the game and
had overcome some tough games during that stretch. Winning derives
confidence. They’ve won games and done so in various ways. It didn’t
matter what the score was in those games or how they had played. They
were still confident.”
McNeill’s Pirates are the
exact opposite. The team looks lost on offense, and the defense
struggled, as you would probably expect, against one of the nation’s top
quarterbacks.
“We’ve had some tough
games and not been successful four times,” said McNeill. “We’ll just
keep building on it step by step and get some success. As soon as we do,
you’ll see the same confidence within us.”
The million dollar
question is this: At 1-4, how do you build confidence?
“That’s something I have
to build in them,” said McNeill. “I tell them how much I believe in
them. We tell them how much we believe in them. We just have to keep
working. I’ve been here before. We’ll handle it and dig ourselves out.”
So McNeill and company
take their shovels to Memphis. More likely, the Tigers have enough
shovels to go around, because this bunch has been trying to dig
themselves out for a number of years.
McNeill was asked if he
was somewhat relieved that the tough part of the schedule was behind
this Pirate team.
“The competitive side of
me says no,” said McNeill. “The competitive side of me says we should be
undefeated right now. Those teams we’ve lost to are 21-3 and I give
credit to each of them. But the challenge side of me expects us to win
and play well on all three sides of the ball in each game.”
McNeill knows his Pirates
were 0-3 on those sides of the ball against Houston.
The Pirates head to
Tennessee desperately in search of confidence and a much needed victory.
BB
E-mail Brian Bailey.
Brian Bailey Archives
10/11/2011 04:33 AM |
Replay
Monday night's BRIAN BAILEY SHOW,
featuring ECU Athletic
Director
TERRY HOLLAND. Eastern North Carolina's longest running
sports radio call-in show airs each Monday
night at 7 p.m. on Pirate Radio 1250 and
930.