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BAILEY'S
TAKE ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the
Anchor Desk
Tuesday,
November 29, 2011
By Brian
Bailey |
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Focus turns to recruiting, 2012 season
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BRAIN BAILEY SHOW |
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 Replay
Monday night's BRIAN BAILEY SHOW,
featuring ECU football talk, plus high
school football talk with guests PAUL
CORNWELL, NICK ANDERSON and
JIM BOB BRYANT. 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. |
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REPLAY SHOW |
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Pirate Radio Home
Page |
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C-USA Standings |
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Final
Regular Season Standings |
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(Through games of 11.26.11) |
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East
Division |
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SCHOOL |
C-USA |
ALL |
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USM
Marshall
ECU
UAB
UCF
Memphis |
6-2
5-3
4-4
3-5
3-5
1-7 |
10-2
6-6
5-7
3-9
5-7
2-10 |
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West
Division |
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SCHOOL |
C-USA |
ALL |
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Houston
Tulsa
SMU
Rice
UTEP
Tulane |
8-0
7-1
5-3
3-5
2-6
1-7 |
12-0
8-4
7-5
4-8
5-7
2-11 |
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By
Brian Bailey
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
The team that led the
entire nation in turnovers ended its season with one on Saturday in
Huntington, West Virginia.
The storybook ending would
have seen Dominique Davis rally East Carolina to a victory in overtime
at Marshall.
Instead, Davis’s last pass
as a Pirate ended up as an interception in the 34-27
overtime loss. The picks were a
huge problem that Davis battled all season long and never really found
an answer for.
It all went by way too
fast for Davis, who transferred to East Carolina from Fort Scott
Community College after starting his career with Boston College.
“I can’t believe it’s
almost over,” said Davis as he prepared for the final regular season
game against the Herd.
The final game for Davis
went much like his regular season. His brilliance was dimmed by his
three interceptions.
Davis was 32-48 for 285
yards and three touchdowns in the season-ending loss. He led a great
drive to send the game to overtime. But the three interceptions took the
luster off of the performance.
Davis was as good as there
is at times this season.
I was
in Annapolis when Davis
shattered the NCAA record for consecutive completions and I will never
forget it. He was like a surgeon dissecting the Navy defense as the
Pirates
captured the key win on the
road.
Still, Davis threw too
many to the wrong team this year. He’d be the first to tell you how
frustrating it was this season.
For the first time in six
seasons the Pirates won’t go to a bowl game. All good things must come
to an end, but this East Carolina team certainly had plenty of chances
to extend its season with another bowl trip.
Now the Pirates have to
hit the recruiting trail, and hit it hard. Ruffin McNeill came to East
Carolina with the idea that he could lure the best players from Eastern
North Carolina into the Pirate Nation, outdueling the likes of North
Carolina and N.C. State for some of the area’s best talent.
Coach McNeill has several
things going for him. He has an intense love for his university, and a
knack in recruiting to come across as a father figure that so many young
males need in this day and age.
There have been plenty of
questions this year, but McNeill’s love and passion for East Carolina
University is certainly not one of them.
McNeill has some tough
decisions to make.
His special teams
struggled this season. The Pirates made too many turnovers to win some
winnable games. Great teams don’t turn the football over. Turnovers will
be the number one topic of conversation when spring football kicks off.
The quarterback battle
will also be an interesting one come spring. Rio Johnson handled the
backup role all season, and may get the first shot at the position.
Shane Carden and Cody
Keith have patiently waited for a chance to shine. Brad Wornick had a
couple of shots in 2010 and gives the Pirates an insurance policy as a
senior next year.
McNeill’s number one
concern after his first year as coach was with his defense. That squad
was decimated by injuries and finished dead last in the nation that
season. This year the defense was much improved, though it's not yet
where McNeill and the staff want it to be.
Injuries on offense were
the big story in 2011. McNeill said he had never seen so many injuries
in 31 years of coaching. As McNeill has said many times, the injuries
are not an excuse. They do, however, paint a more realistic picture of
how the Pirates
finished at 5-7.
East Carolina will
certainly miss the extra workouts the bowl games bring. Those missed
practices give added importance to the upcoming spring workouts.
The Pirates will also
benefit from another year with Jeff Connors in-house for strength and
conditioning. Connors needs to get some healthy bodies back, and then he
can do what he does best.
The
2011 football season is in the
books.
2012 begins today.
BB
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Brian Bailey Archives
11/29/2011 02:38 AM |
