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AAC Bowl Scoreboard |
Miami Beach Bowl
Marlins Park
Miami, FL
Dec. 22 • 2 p.m. • ESPN
Memphis 55,
BYU 48 (2OT)
Attendance: 20,761 |
Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl
Tropicana Field
St. Petersburg, FL
Dec. 26 • 8 p.m. • ESPN
N.C. State
34, Central Florida 27
Attendance: 26,675 |
Northrop Grumman Military Bowl
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium
Annapolis, MD
Dec. 27 • 1 p.m. • ESPN
Virginia
Tech 33, Cincinnati 17
Attendance: 34,277 |
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Amon G. Carter Stadium
Fort Worth, TX
Jan. 2 • Noon • ESPN
Houston 35,
Pittsburgh 34
Attendance:
37,888 |
Birmingham Bowl
Legion Field
Birmingham, AL
Jan. 3 • Noon • ESPN
Florida 28,
East Carolina 20
Attendance: 30,083 |
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FOOTBALL |
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Late bowl date has pros and
cons |
By the
time the East Carolina
football team charges out of
the tunnel onto historic
Legion Field for its
Birmingham Bowl game against
Florida on Saturday, all but
two of the 39 games on the
postseason schedule will
have already been completed. ...
More from Brett
Friedlander... |
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BASKETBALL |
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Tulane takes AAC opener at
ECU |
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GREENVILLE — Tulane's
Jonathan Stark hit four of
five attempts from beyond
the arc as the Green Wave
took a 67-59 American
Athletic Conference win over
East Carolina at Williams
Arena in Minges Coliseum on
Wednesday afternoon. Stark
scored 22 points and Louis
Dabney added 19 for Tulane
(10-3, 1-0 AAC). ...
More... |
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Next: ECU at USF
| Sat., 7 pm | TV:
ESPN3 |
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BASKETBALL |
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Whisnant leads Pirates past
UNCG |
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GREENVILLE — East Carolina
built an early lead and
defeated UNC-Greensboro
71-50 in Williams Arena at
Minges Coliseum on Sunday
afternoon. Terry Whisnant
scored 14 of his 17 points
in the first half as the
Pirates led 45-26 at
intermission. ...
More... |
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BASKETBALL |
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ECU gets untracked, downs
Rattlers |
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GREENVILLE — After trailing
winless Florida A&M 29-27 at
the half, East Carolina
outscored the Rattlers 48-28
after intermission for a
75-57 nonconference win at
Williams Arena in Minges
Coliseum on Monday night.
ECU was led by Caleb White
with 19 points as the
Pirates improved to 6-6.
Michel-Ofik Nzege added 14
points and a team-high six
rebounds. ...
More... |
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By
Greg Vacek
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
View ECU's Football
Schedule
VIEW MOBILE VERSION OF THIS PAGE
If I had told you in
August that East Carolina would shake up the regional power
structure with September victories
over North Carolina and
Virginia Tech, would you
have accused me of wearing purple-tinted glasses?
If I had predicted at
the beginning of the season that the Pirates would have a chance to
win nine games with Shane Carden and Justin Hardy capping off their
record-breaking careers against the Florida Gators in a post-New
Year's Day bowl game, would you have said that sounds pretty darn
good?
Late season stumbles have
had many Pirate fans debating whether the 2014 season provided some
of the most gut-wrenching losses in ECU history. Although this
season has had many “what ifs,” it also had its magical moments.
Time seems to help fans
forget the memories of missed opportunities of seasons gone by.
Teams led by Skip Holtz suffered heartbreaking bowl setbacks to SEC
opponents Kentucky and Arkansas in consecutive Liberty Bowl
appearances (2008
and
2009).
Ed Emory’s 1983 squad, which
was arguably one of ECU’s best teams ever, also had its share of
heartbreak. In ECU’s only appearance against Florida to date, the
No. 6 Gators used a late fourth-quarter touchdown run by Neal
Anderson to post a 24-17 victory on Oct. 22, 1983 in Gainesville.
Emory’s Pirates completed
that season with an 8-3 record, dropping all three contests to
Sunshine State opponents (47-46 at Florida State, 24-17 at Florida,
12-7 at Miami) by a combined 13 points. They did defeat future SEC
member Missouri, but ECU failed to receive a bowl invite even with a
top 20 ranking. Instead a 6-5 Notre Dame team was invited to the
Liberty bowl.
Out of all the games and
locales the Pirate have played, the State of Alabama has hosted some
of the most disappointing moments in the annals of ECU sports. Some
believe the East Carolina football team is cursed when stepping
inside the Alabama state line. How do you explain what happened on
December 19, 2001, when the Pirates led by 30 at halftime of the
GMAC Bowl in Mobile, yet found a way to
lose to Marshall 64-61 in double overtime?
Or a 22-23 loss in Birmingham in 1998 to Alabama after Brantley
Rivers' extra point was blocked and returned by the Crimson Tide’s
Kecalf Bailey for a rare two-point PAT return.
How do you explain what
happened in a Conference USA game on September 9, 2006, when the
Pirates were on their way to a long touchdown pass for the go-ahead
score late in the game when UAB safety Chris Felder punched the ball
out of Phillip Henry’s hands and the Blazers recovered in the end
zone
to preserve a 17-12 UAB win?
Maybe there was some
legitimacy to the Curse of Alabama. Or maybe East Carolina
historically had reserved some of its most disappointing
performances for its visits to the heartland of college football.
Since 1965, ECU’s record in the state of Alabama is 4-10. The
Pirates do have a three-game winning streak at Historic Legion
Field, finally breaking a 10-game O-fer-Alabama losing streak with
an error-filled 17-13 breath holder victory
over UAB in 2008. ECU’s
last loss in the state of Alabama
was to South Florida in the inaugural Birmingham (PapaJohns.com)
Bowl in 2006.
The Florida Gators aren't
strangers to playing football games in the city of Birmingham, but
five of their six prior matchups have been against the Alabama
Crimson Tide. The only other time Florida has played a team other
than the Crimson Tide was in the 1988 All-American Bowl at Legion
Field when the Gators beat Illinois, 14-10.
The last two times Florida
has played at Legion Field were in the first two SEC championship
games, both against Alabama. Florida lost to Alabama, 28-21, in the
inaugural conference title game in 1992 and the Tide went on to win
the national championship. The next year in a SEC championship
rematch, Florida beat Alabama, 28-13.
ECU and Florida had the
South Carolina Gamecocks as a common opponent on their schedules
this season and the net result was similar as Carden and the Pirates
passed for 321 yards in
a 33-23 road loss, while the
Gators rushed for 218 in a 23-20 home overtime defeat.
A lot will be changing with
the Florida program this offseason with the dismissal of head coach
Will Muschamp. Defensive Coordinator D.J. Durkin will serve as
interim head Gator during the bowl game.
ECU coach Ruffin McNeill
is familiar with interim head coaching role, as he was tasked with
preparing a Texas Tech team for its bowl game after Mike Leach was
fired. Ruff led the Red Raiders to a victory over Michigan State.
The big question: What
changes will the Gators make made under Durkin? Will Kurt Roper air
it out now that he has complete control of the offense? Considering
Florida QB Treon Harris’s struggles with the intermediate passing
game, the Pirates can expect that when Harris throws, it will often
be a deep ball that will test a secondary that has given up some big
plays.
ECU got some bad news
Wednesday, losing leading rusher Breon Allen to a knee injury
suffered at practice. Adjustments will have to be made on the
defensive side as well in the wake of word out of ECU that starting
nose tackle Terry Williams and safety Domonique Lennon had been
ruled ineligible for the bowl game.
Not to be outdone, the
Gators’ announced that two key players, defensive tackle Darious
Cummings and wide receiver/kick returner Andre Dubose, did not make
the trip to Alabama for varying off-the-field reasons.
Past performance doesn’t
predict future results. Durkin was only 15 years old when the
Florida last played for the SEC championship in Birmingham. Shane
Carden was only 15 years old at Episcopal High School in Bellaire,
Texas, when the Pirates last played a bowl game in Birmingham,
losing to South Florida in the PapaJohns.com bowl. A lot has changed
with the Pirate and Gator programs since then.
On Saturday, Ruffin McNeill
can accomplish something Skip Holtz was never able to accomplish at
ECU — a bowl victory over an SEC opponent.
In an article earlier this season, I wrote,
“Ultimately the Pirates will be judged by their body of work, how
they perform over the entire season.”
In 2014, the Pirates
offensive unit was impressive, rating among the nation’s Top 5 in
passing (second), first downs (third) and total yards (fifth). On
defense, only seven teams at the FBS level were better against the
run than the Pirates, who allowed just 107.1 yards per game. Seniors
Shane Carden and Justin Hardy, who were part of McNeill’s first ECU
recruiting class, have shattered every passing and receiving record,
respectively, to help lead the Pirates to their third-straight bowl
appearance and fourth in McNeill’s five years.
With a bowl victory this
Saturday, the Pirates can finish the season with at least nine wins
for the second consecutive year (and fourth time since 2008) and
also would achieve back-to-back bowl victories in successive seasons
for the first time since winning three straight in 1963, 1964 and
1965.
For the 2014 version of
Pirate football, that's not a bad body of work and not bad place for
McNeill’s program to be.
A historical snapshot of
ECU's appearances in the state of Alabama:
• 11/20/1965: ECU 35,
Samford 10
• 11/9/1985: Auburn 35, ECU 10
• 9/20/1986: Auburn 45, ECU 0
• 11/5/1994: Auburn 38, ECU 21
• 10/17/1998: Alabama 23, ECU 22 (Birmingham)
• 11/6/1999: UAB 36, ECU 17
• 12/22/1999: TCU 28, ECU 14 (Mobile Alabama Bowl)
• 12/19/2001:
Marshall 64, ECU 61 [OT]
(GMAC Bowl, Mobile)
• 11/16/2002:
UAB 36, ECU 29
• 9/9/2006:
UAB 17, ECU 12
• 12/23/2006:
USF 24, ECU 7 (PapaJohns.com
Bowl, Birmingham)
• 11/22/2008:
ECU 17, UAB 13
• 11/11/2010:
ECU 54, UAB 42
• 10/20/2012:
ECU 42, UAB 35
• 1/3/2015: ECU vs. Florida (Birmingham Bowl)
East
Carolina has landed one of
North Carolina's top college
prospects, albeit a 2012
model. The Pirates went back
in the stacks to snare James
Summers, who quarterbacked
Greensboro's Page High
School to the state 4-AA
title in 2011 as a senior.
...