By Denny O'Brien
©2009 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.

East Carolina took a positive step towards defending its Conference USA championship with an important win over Central Florida Saturday.

While the 19-14 victory didn’t deliver a national statement like last season's wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia, it did provide a resumé booster for the future. With the win over the Knights, the Pirates ran their series series advantage to a commanding 8-1 mark.

Should the Big East finally pull the trigger on adding a ninth football member, that’s an important detail that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Because of all the factors that are generally taken into account anytime a conference seeks to expand, a quality product should be tops on the Big East agenda.

Right now that’s something that UCF isn’t providing.

There is no arguing that UCF has the enrollment of a small city, a location in an attractive television market, and provides a destination abundant with high school talent. Those certainly are some nice built-in advantages.

But at some point the Knights must demonstrate they can reap the long-term benefits from the size and location of their university. So far they’ve been unable to do so when facing ECU.

Though the final score might mislead some to believe Saturday was a game between two evenly matched opponents, it was clear to anyone who watched with an analytical eye that the Pirates were easily the superior bunch. Aside from a late two-minute drill, the Pirates dominated the statistical battle and completely shut down the UCF offense almost the entire second half.

And had the Pirates executed with more precision on offense — specifically in the red zone — this game likely would have been decided by three scores.

Series advantage aside, it’s not like ECU doesn’t also offer additional benefits the Big East might seek. While the Knights are witnessing their attendance numbers fade, the Pirates are experiencing a significant increase, win or lose.

After consecutive losses to BCS opponents injected disappointment into a fan base filled with high hopes this fall, ECU still commanded a sellout of more than 43,000 for a Conference USA opponent. That speaks volumes about the abundant interest in the program and justifies the decision to increase the stadium’s capacity to 50,000.

That shouldn’t go unnoticed if the Big East is seriously considering expansion. Neither should ECU’s series dominance over UCF if league administrators are comparing the two.

It should be hard to ignore what separates these two programs on the scoreboard.

Pressure produces for Pirates

Plenty of UCF quarterback Brett Hodges’ 266 passing yards came on a late two-minute drive when the game was seemingly out of reach. But outside of that last gasp series, the Pirates didn’t allow Hodges to get comfortable in the pocket.

Credit the ECU staff for scripting a defensive game plan that, perhaps, UCF wasn’t expecting.

“He took some shots today, their quarterback,” ECU Coach Skip Holtz said. “We were one step away all day.

“Coach Hud [Greg Hudson] and Coach [Vernon] Hargreaves were trying to get a little bit more speed off the edge, and kind of turned and went to a nickel defense for us, bringing in another linebacker and taking out one of the defensive ends. We probably brought more pressure today than we have in a really long time.”

The speed of linebackers Chris Mattocks and Steve Spence on the edge provided a new wrinkle in the ECU defense, a very productive one at that. The Pirates registered four sacks and six quarterback hurries as a result.

And three of Hodges’ four interceptions can be directly credited to ECU’s heavy rush.

Standing ‘O’

The most memorable moment of the 2009 season to date had to occur late in the third quarter.

With quarterback Patrick Pinkney scrambling and searching for an open receiver, he hit quarterback-turned-tight end Rob Kass near the goal line with a 13-yard strike. It was Kass’ first career reception, and he looked like a seasoned veteran at the position in making it.

“Patrick made a great play,” Kass said. “He avoided and eluded one guy, saw me with one-on-one coverage and just put it to the back shoulder.

“I just tried to catch it and get my feet in bounds. I was very excited to catch the ball. And I appreciate the Pirate Nation. I understand that I got a standing ovation. I just heard the crowd roar and I got back to the huddle. I was pretty excited.”

Had Dwayne Harris been more precise a play later and connected with a wide-open Kass in the end zone, the Dowdy-Ficklen roar would have increased by deafening decibels.