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Game 8: ECU 20, USM 17 (OT) |
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The Slants of the Game
Sunday, October 29, 2006
By Denny O'Brien |
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East Carolina raises heat in
rivalry
©2006 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
HATTIESBURG, MS It's been a while since
East Carolina and Southern Miss played a competitive, meaningful football
game. So to say the so-called rivalry between the Pirates and Golden Eagles
needed a boost would be the understatement of the series.
What it received Saturday was a rare,
magical 20-17 overtime win by East Carolina that perhaps was the beginning
spark that could ignite an inferno between the two.
"Tonight was one heck of a football game,"
East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said. "It was a competitive game across the
board. Both teams were hard-hitting, physical, good defensive play tonight.
"It was about two stubborn programs that
were going to keep running the ball, and we were going to wait to see who
was going to make the last mistake. That's really what this game came down
to."
At the midpoint of the third quarter it
appeared as if ECU again would be guilty of committing the final blunder.
James Pinkney's errant pass found the arms of Golden Eagles safety Eddie
Hicks, who kidnapped Uncle Mo and sprinted 87 yards for a 17-10 lead.
It was the type of play that often has
sucked the wind out of the Pirates' sail. That ECU recovered was a testament
to the ground ECU has made up as a program and perhaps is a sign of a return
to parity in a series that had been non-competitive for much of the last
decade.
"This series has had some great rivalry
eras in it," Holtz said. "There have been some times when this was a great
rivalry. But I certainly don't expect Southern Miss to look at this as a
rivalry game when they've won 84-17 (in the last two years) and won five
years in a row.
"To them, I'm not sure that it's the
rivalry game that it is to our players, especially the way that we've been
beat by Southern Miss."
Before Saturday, you had to rewind the
clock to 2001 to find a game that actually made an impact on the Conference
USA standings. That day the Pirates closed their season with a disappointing
seven-point loss in a battle for second place in C-USA.
Since then the series has been defined by
lopsided margins in USM's favor, with each game all but decided by the
halftime horn. Thankfully that trend came to a merciful end.
East Carolina opened the game with the type
of passion and purpose that mostly is lacking when Southern Miss occupies
the opposite sideline. The defense matched the grit the Golden Eagles
normally display and kept the Pirates within striking distance until Pinkney
could engineer a game-tying drive that ended with him plunging for paydirt
on a 4th and 1 with 13 seconds left in regulation.
For a change the game even possessed much
of what you would expect in a heated rivalry. There were big plays on
special teams, major shifts in momentum, controversial calls, and plenty of
jawing.
Had the two teams been wearing different
uniforms and performing on a different stage, you might have mistaken this
for a heated SEC showdown.
"We take it as a rivalry," ECU hero Travis
Williams said. "But we knew the (Southern Miss) fans and players... they
didn't think this was a rivalry to them. So, we just came out here for four
quarters and played smash-mouth football.
"We believed in each other the whole week.
We were the underdogs."
That has been the case almost every time
the two have met. And had it not been for Williams' game-sealing
interception in overtime which assured that Ben Hartman's 19-yard field
goal moments before wouldn't go for naught this perhaps turns into yet
another chapter in USM's historical dominance over ECU.
Sure, there have been some decent showdowns
over the years. The '95 game no doubt deserves the distinction of a classic
game, and it will be remembered in both camps for the improbable way the
Pirates stole one at The Rock.
Years from now we're likely to find the
2006 game on the same shelf.
But by and large this series has been an
all-out dud, a snoozefest that largely underwhelms the fans who build it up
to something much larger than it really has been.
For ECU-USM to meet the lofty expectations
of fans, the annual stakes must parallel what the two were playing for
Saturday first place in the parity-rich C-USA East. An annual helping of
headline performers and an increased dislike between the two programs also
would help transform this mythical rivalry into a legitimate one.
While nothing can be done to close the
geographic distance between the two, there is no reason this can't qualify
as a rivalry by all other measures. But that will require more meetings akin
to the most recent one.
Based solely on history, much of the burden
rests firmly on ECU's shoulders. If the Pirates' effort Saturday is any
indication, bank on this one heating up.
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02/23/2007 02:03:48 AM |
