Without hesitation, Skip Holtz
will tell you that from top-to-bottom, last season's
senior class was the most talented bunch to come through
the program during his tenure as head football
coach. And though he won’t say it specifically, you get
the sense that the team’s 9-5 record was merely a shadow
of what could have been had the Pirates not endured an insane number of career-ending and
season-disrupting injuries that occurred during the
campaign.
“If everybody stayed healthy, far and
away this was the most talented class since I have been
here… it’s not even close,” Holtz said, his words tailing
off as if he were thinking about what may have been.
“When you talk about (Marcus) Hands, (Khalif) Mitchell,
(Zack) Slate, (Quentin) Cotton, (Pierre) Bell, (Davon)
Drew, (Brandon) Setzer – you can go through all the
names – they were the most talented senior class we have
had. But the unfortunate part is that eight of them were
not able to finish the season.”
Add to that eight, losing Dwayne Harris,
Jamar Bryant and Jonathan Williams for two thirds of the
season, and you can see why Holtz finds it hard to
contain his feelings about the type of season it could
have been had the team that lined up and put beat downs
on Virginia Tech and West Virginia in back-to-back
weekends could have stayed intact for all 14 games.
“Yes, it was a very talented class,” he
said. “A very frustrated class and a very
frustrating season.”
Still, beyond the pain Holtz feels for
the guys who saw their Pirate careers cut short in what
should have been their blaze of glory, the coach zeroed
in on what this class meant to the program going
forward.
“The standard of what we are trying to
do and the productivity of these guys is what, I think,
will be missed the most,” Holtz said. “This group taught
us about teamwork and that it is not about
individualism even when you are individuals with a lot
of talent. Instead, it’s about giving up individualism
for the team. I think this class was a great example of
that. I told them, ‘When you lose football games, you
have to deal with problems, but when you win football
games you still have to deal with problems, they are
just different problems.’
“This senior class really has gone a
long way in teaching us how to handle some of the highs
and lows when you look at the success we had coming out
of the shoot at 2-0 with the two teams we beat. It
speaks volumes for their talents but it speaks even more
to their personalities the way they competed in the
second half of the season to win the championship.”
As hard as it was for many of the
injured seniors to watch the team go on without them,
for the most part, these leaders stay engaged with the
team, trying to help in any way they could despite the
personal pain they were feeling for not being out there
themselves.
“These young men were very supportive
(after their injuries),” Holtz said. “But the hard part
is they know they can’t play and being around the guys
was painful. It just about killed Quentin to be there
and deal with that (void). Like the other seniors, he
was very supportive but it was very hard on them.
Stanley was there every day, too, but it is hard to be
vocal – even when you have been in the past – because
you don’t feel like you are paying the same price as the
guys on the field.”
This class and its leadership were hard
to miss. Clearly, losing your defensive heart and soul
in Cotton was tough, but then another senior, Bell,
stepped it up to carry on the torch. When the team
needed an offensive identity, Simmons would put his body
on the line and at times, would will his way to a first
down when it was needed. When Lee was lost for the
season, Drew basically took over the entire
pass-catching responsibility for the Pirates down the
stretch. The seniors left their mark as leaders without
question.
While Drew and several others will make
runs at the NFL, most of the seniors have played their
last football. Holtz sees some football in the future,
though, for a few others, should they opt for an
alternative route.
“There are some young men in this class
who would be tremendous coaches,” Holtz said. “Guys who
could give back an awful lot and bring quite a bit to a
team.”
And while he was very close to this senior class, the
coach admits that some of them really bonded tightly
with him.
“There are some kids that get close to
your heart and it is really unfair to single guys out,
but when I look guys like Davon Drew, T.J. Lee, Zack
Slate, Quentin Cotton and J.J. Millbrook, I would say
there are a lot of special players, but to see those
five and the way they have grown as men and football
players, they have really touched my life,” Holtz said.
Reflecting on the rash of injuries that
cut down the senior class in a way not seen before in
his coaching career, Holtz looked for the silver lining
in the sadness.
“I have never had a year like this one before from an
injury standpoint,” he said. “I know it is part of this
game, but when seniors are getting injured and having
their careers cut short, it is hard to deal with, it
really is. Not only for the young man but for the
football program because you are replacing a guy who has
been in your program and playing for four or five years
with a guy who is just starting out. (All of a sudden,) we
are calling names like Daryl Freeney and Joe Womack,
guys who are new to the program.
“It does benefit us for this coming
year, when you talk about the guys getting injured like
Khalif Mitchell, Marcus Hands, and Brandon Setzer, so
guys like Scotty Robinson are playing more. Then Hewitt
goes down and that gave a guy like Emanuel Davis an
opportunity to step up. When Cotton goes down, ... a young man like Chris Mattocks makes the
transition from safety to linebacker and a young man
Cliff Perryman gets the chance to step up. To see
Terrance Campbell and D.J. Scott step up at tackle for
Stanley Bryant and then to see those wide receivers we
mentioned… this will pay big dividends in the future. But
you do have to wonder if some of these seniors could
have stayed healthy for the season.”
It goes by fast for a coach who must
focus on the future, not the past. Still, Holtz says this class was indeed a special one, one that he saw
from its arrival to its departure.
So, to the young men who were the main
contributors in the resurrection of the ECU program,
thanks for those 29 victories, the three bowl
appearances, the Hawaii Bowl championship and the
Pirates first-ever Conference USA title! Thanks for
giving us back Pirate football!
Use the drop-down menu at the top of the
page to review each senior's career.