By
Denny O'Brien
©2009 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
Harris Poll
For the fourth year in a row, Denny O'Brien is a member
of the
voting panel
for the Harris Interactive College Football Poll,
commissioned by the Bowl Championship Series. As a
service to readers of this site, O'Brien's ballot will
be published in this space each Monday throughout the
season.
The
Harris Poll is a component of the BCS Standings.
The BCS Standings also take into
account the USA Today Coaches Poll and an average of
several
computer service rankings.
A senior
columnist for Bonesville.net, Bonesville The Magazine
and The Pirates' Chest, O'Brien was nominated to the
Harris Poll panel by Conference USA.
View the entire 114-member
panel.
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Denny O'Brien's Harris Poll Ballot
(Ballot cast
11.29.09)
1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Florida
4. Texas Christian
5. Cincinnati
6. Boise State
7. Oregon
8. Ohio State
9. Georgia Tech
10. Iowa
11. Penn State
12. Virginia Tech
13. Oregon State
14. Pittsburgh
15. Louisiana State
16. Stanford
17. Southern Cal
18. Brigham Young
19. West Virginia
20. California
21. Nebraska
22. Miami
23. Houston
24. Oklahoma State
25. Rutgers
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View this Week's Complete
Harris, AP & Coaches Polls |
View this Week's
BCS Standings |
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These are good times for
East Carolina football. Maybe the best.
Given the constant climate
changes in college football that are underscored by shifts in
classification and conference affiliation, It is difficult — and perhaps
even unfair — to compare squads from different eras. But it’s clear that
this period of ECU football is unrivaled by any before it when you
consider the accomplishments that are chronicled in the trophy case.
For the first time in
school history, a senior class will reach four-consecutive bowls. The
past three years have been marked by at least eight victories, two
Conference USA East Division titles, and at least one conference
championship and bowl win.
Along the way these
Pirates have beaten ranked teams in three consecutive games, navigated
as treacherous a non-conference schedule as any group in ECU history,
and knocked off their share of programs from BCS automatic qualifier
conferences.
This has occurred during a
period when the financial gap between the “haves” and “have nots” has
never been wider.
To put the program’s
positioning in proper perspective, consider that East Carolina won three
games during the two years that John Thompson oversaw the program. The
Pirates have won that many over the past three weeks under Skip Holtz’s
direction.
In a span of five years,
what Holtz has done is almost unprecedented in major college football.
He took a program that was arguably the worst in its conference and
molded into what is now clearly the best.
As East Carolina prepares
for its C-USA title showdown with No. 18 Houston, that is a distinction
that the Cougars can’t steal from the Pirates this Saturday. Regardless
of who hoists the championship trophy, ECU will remain the undisputed
mold for what other league athletics directors would give their right
arm to duplicate at their schools.
When you factor all the
measurables that define a program’s success — facilities, results on the
field and in the classroom, fan attendance, and television and media
interest — the rest of C-USA is playing catch-up to East Carolina. There
are no signs to suggest that the Pirates will be caught anytime soon.
Even more perspective can
found by conducting a thorough analysis of the Pirates’ in-state
neighbors. There isn’t a program in that bunch that will end this season
with a fourth straight bowl game or a third consecutive 8-plus win
season.
You certainly won’t find
any among them that has hosted a conference title game on their own
field.
Back when East Carolina
was 3-3 and reeling from a loss against Southern Methodist, this isn’t
the perspective that many of us took. It was just too easy to fire
critical bullets at the program for its undeniable imperfections.
If this season has taught
fans anything, it should be a lesson in patience. Instead of jumping the
gun with harsh mid-term evaluations, it just seems more healthy to wait
and place judgment on the full body of work.
That full body is a pretty
nice one for ECU. And when you evaluate each year of Holtz’s five-year
term, there is tangible improvement to which you can point.
There is no denying that
this season could have been better, but some things were just outside of
ECU’s control. Facing Top 25-caliber opponents earlier this season
without two starters in the secondary and without a healthy Dominique
Lindsay running the ball was a recipe for disaster.
So was a phantom late hit
penalty at crunch time in Chapel Hill and a flu bug that waged war on
several ECU starters in Dallas.
While Holtz wasn’t shy
about addressing those issues if asked, he never volunteered any as
excuses that contributed to any loss. Instead he focused on the areas
that he could control, bunkering down to chart a path that would return
his team to the league title game.
Perhaps that explains why
Holtz has been so successful at ECU. He’s never been one to dwell on the
past, instead channeling his energy on the task ahead. When you look
back at the road the Pirates have traveled during his tenure, it’s clear
their head coach is a visionary, not just a dreamer.
It’s easy to sit back and
dream of winning a conference championship. It’s much more difficult to
have the vision to execute it.
Clearly part of Holtz’s
vision was to take a program historically defined by offense, one that
is entrenched in a league built with programs defined by offense, and
slightly alter the culture by winning with defense. He even sometimes
jokingly states that his career goal is for his team to win a game 2-0.
While he might have to
switch to baseball to secure that goal, East Carolina fans can take
pride in what has been accomplished since Holtz took his post. They also
can be optimistic about what else can be achieved in both the weeks and
years to come.
The ground on which East
Carolina football currently sits has never been more solid. And thanks
to the efforts of the ECU administration, Holtz, his staff, and players,
there is plenty of room to grow.