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

It�s easy to see why most believe Arkansas will cruise past East Carolina in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl this Saturday. Seriously, what�s not to like about the Hogs?

They are from the mighty Southeastern Conference, which means their annual paycheck is handsomely funded by the BCS, CBS, ESPN, and just about any other revenue-producing acronym associated with college athletics. Those funds are used to upgrade facilities, pay coaches bigger salaries, and to pad annual recruiting budgets.

That means a bigger venue to pack more people for home games, more money to lure top-flight assistants, and the means to go after more celebrated recruits. It ideally should create a competitive disadvantage for any school against which Arkansas competes outside of the SEC, save for a few.

That includes most schools from the ACC and Big East, and more than half of the programs from the other BCS automatic qualifier conferences.

On paper the 51st Liberty Bowl should be a no-brainer. It�s a message that no doubt has penetrated the East Carolina locker room, just like it has on countless other occasions throughout the careers of 28 seniors.

�The whole year, no one really respected us,� senior running back Dominique Lindsay said after East Carolina defeated Houston in the C-USA championship game. �We were out to get respect (against Houston). That�s why you play the game � you want respect from your opponent.

�Week in and week out, they always seem to put us as the underdog no matter what we did the year before, and no matter what we did the week before. We get used to the role, and it�s kind of fun being the underdog. You like to see the guy�s face when you are victorious. That�s why you play the game. We have a big-time program here.�

If it sounds like Lindsay is weighted by a super-sized chip on his shoulder, think again. That couldn�t be further from the truth. That mentality carries with it the assumption that you don�t belong on the same field with many of the programs on your schedule, and that has never been a part of the mindset of this senior class.

Though ECU gained plenty of historical mileage off that mentality, those days have long passed. The Pirates no longer have a desire to prove that they can compete with anyone on their schedule. They now expect to win anytime they step on the field, regardless of the opponent.

That has been clear since the 2007 season opener when the Pirates lost to Virginia Tech in a showcase game on ESPN.

If you recall, Pirates� coach Skip Holtz had less than one week to prepare a new starting quarterback after the untimely suspension of then-starter Rob Kass. He responded by inserting three different guys under center, each of whom were receiving their first significant action for ECU.

Not exactly the parameters around which you want to prepare for a Top 10 team.

It seems that such a narrow loss to a heavily-favored opponent in a game receiving national attention would leave Holtz and his players encouraged about the season outlook. Yet most of the rhetoric following a 17-7 loss in which the Pirates led much of the first half was on the mistakes and missed opportunities that prevented ECU from winning.

It sent a message that this program wasn�t satisfied with going blow for blow with the nation�s elite. Not when there is a genuine belief that the team on the ECU sideline is the better one each week.

And that will be the feeling in Memphis on Saturday.

While much of the media focus on Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett might draw the ire of ECU�s message board militia, don�t expect Patrick Pinkney, C.J. Wilson, or Van Eskridge to lose much sleep. They�ve already heard the pregame buzz surrounding Ian Johnson (Boise State), Pat White (West Virginia), and Case Keenum (Houston), and their response has been business as usual.

Business as usual for this group is a consistent time-clock approach to both practice and games. The Pirates don�t pay too much attention to the peripherals, instead maintaining their focus each time they step on the field and finding ways to do what they do best.

Which is win games.

Winning is something this senior bunch has done a lot over their careers � 33 times to be exact � and they have learned to do it in a variety of ways. It has become routine to the point where both the Pirates and their fans are perplexed when they suffer the occasional loss.

What is even more perplexing is how some pigskin pundits will dissect the Liberty Bowl and predict the Razorbacks in a landslide. Because when you dismiss the helmet logos and conference affiliation, there is a lot to like about the Pirates on Saturday.

ECU�s maturity and trophy game experience � six over the past four seasons � does provide a mental advantage. So does the fact that the Pirates have beaten better teams than Arkansas over the past two years, including a stretch when they posted three-consecutive victories over ranked opponents.

But that won�t stop the analysts from praising Mallett�s powerful right arm and the swift feet of his receivers on the perimeter. Perhaps they should also spend some time focusing on the anatomical advantages that ECU clearly will present on Saturday.

Those can be found between the ears.