HENRY HINTON: Seeds of new rivalry are firmly planted

Henry's Highlights
Wednesday, November 23, 2005

By Henry Hinton

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Nothing to play for, huh? East Carolina stepped up and got a huge win at Marshall on Saturday, which personifies the attitude of a rebuilding program. ECU and Marshall, you see, have a lot of history.

Was it just a coincidence that these teams squared off on Rivalry Saturday? Perhaps the schedulers at the conference office in Dallas realize that the Pirates and the Thundering Herd have the potential to start a bona fide rivalry with all the trimmings.

That would be good for ECU and the Pirate fans. Truth is East Carolina has never had a true rival.

Oh, there’s the obvious disdain Pirate fans have for other in-state schools, but those teams live in the ACC and don’t recognize East Carolina as their number one nemesis. You can’t have a rivalry unless both teams agree to participate.

ECU folks also have long felt a strong kinship to Southern Mississippi since the Golden Eagles have to operate in the shadow of the SEC, much like the problems the Pirates face being the only Division 1-A school in a state dominated by the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The problem with the Southern Miss series as a rivalry is distance and the fact that ECU has had difficulties winning enough in the series to make it a true clash.

Marshall offers a lot of potential. Enough has been said over the last week about the 1970 plane crash, but it could be argued, and argued well, that the last game played between the two schools prior to Saturday’s rematch in Huntington was the start of East Carolina’s current down cycle.

On December 19, 2001, Marshall defeated ECU in the GMAC Mobile Bowl 64-61 in two overtimes. If the Pirates had held onto their large early lead to win that game the record would have been 7-5 for the year. However, after breaking the record for most points in the history of bowl games, ECU finished .500 with a 6-6 record.

Two years later, that helped give the ECU administration an argument that the Pirates had completed two non-winning seasons, which helped justify a coaching change. That set about a downslide that may finally be turning around.

In fact, on the bright side, Saturday’s win at Marshall could well be the start of the turnaround. Or perhaps Skip Holtz’s team was already in the midst of one in spite of a few disappointing losses this season. Nonetheless, the victory in Huntington was a positive step in bringing the program back around.

To take the field with the kind of tenacity that was displayed by ECU Saturday after securing a losing season the week before at Tulsa is a credit to the coaching staff and seniors.

Holtz praised his seniors all week and predicted they would not have a let down after a disappointing effort by the team a week before. They delivered.

The proximity is right and the teams seemed evenly matched enough that the ECU-Marshall series could develop into a nice honest-to-goodness rivalry for years to come.

Next up for East Carolina is the season finale with the UAB Blazers, who are coming off an upset win over the league’s only Top 25 team. Watson Brown’s team defeated Texas-El Paso 35-23 on Saturday to run the UAB record to 5-5, keeping their bowl hopes alive.

ECU can play spoiler for the second consecutive week when the Blazers come to Dowdy-Ficklen for a noon kickoff this Saturday.

UAB features the top passing quarterback in Conference USA in Darrell Hackney. The Atlanta, GA, senior has thrown for 2,718 yards in the first 10 games of the season. He was 11 of 17 for 184 yards in El Paso last Saturday.

Recently on Talk 1070’s Chalkboard Chat, former ECU Coach Steve Logan said that Hackney had been heavily recruited by his staff when Hackney was in high school in Georgia.

Jeff Jagodzinski, now the offensive line coach for the Atlanta Falcons, had suggested that ECU take Hackney in spite of the fact that he had a serious leg injury in high school.

“I was scared to take a chance on the young man”, Logan said. “We knew what his potential was, but that leg thing scared me off.”

A fledgling start-up program in Birmingham was one of the few programs to take a look at Hackney after that. Watson Brown is obviously glad he did.