By
Denny O'Brien
©2008 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
MEMPHIS — When Conference
USA released its official preseason football poll last week, East
Carolina coach Skip Holtz found his team in a familiar position. The
Pirates were predicted to finish second in the East division, exactly
where the ended each of the last two seasons.
This year, Holtz is hoping
for a different scenario than the late-season stumbles that prevented
the Pirates from claiming a spot in the C-USA championship game in both
2006 and 2007.
Standing in the way is a
slate of eight league opponents, including defending champion Central
Florida, which again was selected as the favorite to repeat in the East.
It’s proven to be a
perplexing gauntlet in recent years, with the Pirates winning their
share of games as the underdog, while losing a few games in which they
were favored. Regardless, Holtz says it is time for ECU to finally close
the deal on that elusive conference championship.
“I think it is an honor
for us to be picked as high as we are,” Holtz said. “I think we have a
chance to be a pretty good football team. We have, I believe, 18 players
that started a game.
“We have a good nucleus
coming back. Our players have worked very hard. Now we want to make that
next step. We’ve had the opportunity to play for a division championship
the last couple of weeks of the season, but we haven’t been able to
close that door. That’s the biggest thing that we need to do right now.”
If they do, it will mark
the first ever C-USA title for the Pirates. It also would mark the first
conference title of any kind since 1973, when ECU last won the Southern
Conference under the direction of Sonny Randle.
Seven coaches have paced
the Pirates’ sideline since then, and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium has seen its
share of facelifts. There have been many marquee victories and memorable
performances, but not a single season in which East Carolina could
proclaim dominion over its conference foes.
Granted, most of that time
was spent as a Division I-A Independent.
And while Holtz likes the
potential of his fourth ECU team, he acknowledges that the mental
hurdles facing the Pirates are perhaps bigger than the physical ones.
“I think you have to learn
not only how to win, but you have to learn how to handle winning,” Holtz
said. “That may be a harder task, because of our human nature, than
learning how to win.
“When you win games, you
get everybody’s best. You’ve got to be a self-starter. You can’t be
motivated because you lost. I don’t know what all those problems were,
but we have to address each one of them with this football team. They’re
all issues that you have to learn how to handle in order to win.”
Holtz hopes the experience
the Pirates have gained the past two seasons — both the experience of
painful late-season losses and the experience that now peppers his
roster — will propel them to the summit of C-USA.
The post-spring depth
chart was filled with 32 upperclassmen, most of whom experienced those
late-season losses against Rice (2006) and Marshall (2007) that
prevented ECU from playing for the C-USA title.
Now Holtz hopes he can
quickly identify team leaders from within his core of veterans, guys who
can push some of the younger players to elevate themselves. Leadership
was an area of major emphasis during spring practice, though Holtz
wasn’t satisfied that anyone emerged to fill that role.
“I’m anxious to see where
that leadership goes in fall camp,” Holtz said. “I came out of spring
ball with so many guys missing. We had to have a great summer, but we’re
going to have to have a great fall camp.
“I’ll get a much better
feel of where we are leadership-wise in about a week to ten days into
fall camp than I do right now because I haven’t been with them since
spring practice.”
Perhaps senior defensive
end Zack Slate and senior quarterback Patrick Pinkney will help fill the
leadership void. Both accompanied Holtz to Memphis for the annual C-USA
Football Media Kickoff, and both have earned the respect of teammates
with their play.
Slate has taken an active
role during the off-season to make sure that his teammates are meeting
their responsibilities both on the field and off.
“I make sure to encourage
and keep in touch with as many kids as we can,” Slate said. “I try to
keep my eye on them and let them know that I’m thinking about them. I
think that means a lot.
“Besides that, I just try
to be an example the best way that I can. That’s the best way to hold
someone accountable.”
Pinkney finds himself in a
unique leadership position of being both a senior and the No. 1
quarterback. Both are distinctions in which leadership is automatically
assumed, and Pinkney says he is completely comfortable with that role.
“Being accountable, being
disciplined, doing the little things right, doing the right things when
the coaches aren’t around, making sure that the other guys are doing the
right thing,” Pinkney said. “That’s all about being a leader.
“All of my teammates
respect me and that helps me a lot. I know that they count on me, so
that makes me a better person and a better player.”
Pinkney understands that
he and his teammates must play better this fall for East Carolina to
hoist the C-USA championship trophy. Every detail of the offense,
defense and special teams must improve, not to mention the mental
preparation that is required on a weekly basis.
As ECU has painfully
learned, there are no gimmees in C-USA, no luxury of arriving on
Saturday and simply going through the motions.
“This league has such
great balance,” Holtz said. “When you go down the list, every team has a
chance to win it. Every team has some star players and a lot of
strengths.
“I would really like to
see us as a program take the next step. I can’t sit here and say that
this will be the year. That’s why we go play the games.”
