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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
By Brian Bailey |
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It's back to work
for Pirate football
By
Brian Bailey
©2009 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Skip Holtz has never
kept it a secret. While
he loves the excitement
of game day, the roar of
the crowd and the thrill
of the competition, the
East Carolina football
coach's real passion
comes on the practice
field.
Bowl preparations give
teams extra workouts,
designed to get teams
ready for the
postseason.
Most teams, though, use
the extra time to get
ready for next year.
It’s a huge advantage
for teams that make it
to bowl games,
especially those that
are fortunate enough to
go in consecutive years.
East Carolina is set to
make its fourth straight
bowl appearance.
“It’s really been good,”
said Holtz on Sunday
afternoon, after his
Pirates completed a
rainy workout. “We’ve
kind of gone Friday,
Saturday and Sunday this
weekend. We’ve really
been working with the
underclassman. We’ve
taken the upper classmen
and lifted and ran them,
but we really didn’t do
a lot of football
related stuff.”
Holtz enjoys practice
especially when there is
no game to immediately
prepare for. It’s mostly
fundamentals in the
spring and during the
early schedule in bowl
preparations.
“We’ve kind of used
these days as back to
spring practice,” Holtz
continued. “We’re
already beginning to put
next year’s football
team together. Some of
these younger players,
who have held cards all
season at practice, are
now getting a chance to
do a little bit.”
The Pirate schedule is a
complex one to close out
the year. The team will
be in exams the rest of
this week until
Thursday.
The squad will get back
together and practice
late Thursday, when they
will start working on
Liberty Bowl opponent
Arkansas.
East Carolina will
practice until the
Monday before Christmas
before breaking for the
holiday.
The Pirates will then
reconvene in Memphis to
kick off bowl week.
Hopefully, the coaching
carousel will slow down
a bit as we get closer
to the New Year.
Holtz has been linked as
a candidate at Virginia
and Kansas.
Now it’s Cincinnati, a
school that came after
Holtz harder than many
people realize the last
time the Bearcats needed
a coach.
“I have not talked to
anyone at this point,”
said Holtz after
Sunday’s practice [SELECT
AUDIO CLIP].
“You can’t react to
every rumor that hits.
This football team will
definitely hear it from
my lips if anything goes
on. I’m not
interviewing. I haven’t
talked to anyone. If you
listen to the rumor mill
then I’ve taken three
jobs.
"It’s flattering. I have
a great situation here.
I love it here and I’m
not trying to hustle up
a job. I’m just looking
forward to the future
here at East Carolina.”
That immediate future is
a tough test in the
Liberty Bowl against
Arkansas.
BB
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Brian Bailey.
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12/15/2009 02:04 AM |
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