Inside Game Day Saturday, November 23, 2013 By Al Myatt

Rivalry isn’t what it used to be

Al Myatt
©2013 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

RALEIGH — Strange to say after East Carolina’s 42-28 win at N.C. State on Saturday, but now the Pirates can focus on their big game.

ECU (9-2, 6-1 Conference USA) plays at Marshall on Friday at noon for C-USA’s East Division championship. Winning the league title has been the stated goal of the program throughout the 2013 season.

The matchup with the Wolfpack was a potential distraction with its rival implications but the Pirates muted the outside noise and took care of business.

With State mired in a seven-game losing streak, the status of the series has inverted from the old days when Pack fans said they had nothing to gain from playing ECU. It was the Pirates who stood to lose the most in the 28th meeting between the two programs.

With the Wolfpack reeling and its fan base less than enthusiastic, this edition of the rivalry didn’t seem to have its usual intensity. To the Pirates credit, they didn’t play down to the level of their competition.

Offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, quarterback Shane Carden, running back Vintavious Cooper and receiver Justin Hardy were dialed in. The offensive line was an enabler for any means the Pirates chose to attack. ECU’s lead was 35-7 after reserve running back Breon Allen scored on a 3-yard run with 5:02 left in the third quarter.

ECU's defense had the Pack in its tentacles most of the day. Trent Tignor punted well. The Pirates' coverage units kept State from breaking out.

State did a good job of making the outcome appear more respectable with two scores in the final minute.

It is noteworthy that this was the first time that ECU has beaten North Carolina and N.C. State in the same season. It was also the first time a Pirates team coached by Ruffin McNeill has won as many as nine games.

But the rivalry with State isn’t what it once was. There wasn't that almost bloodthirsty edge between the fan bases.

The series used to be played every season until an incident in 1987 when a security guard was injured as he tried to keep ECU fans from tearing down the goal posts in Raleigh.

Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say.

Right now, the regional foes meet just once every three years. The next meeting will be in Greenville in 2016. Carden played the Wolfpack just once in his career. Hard to build any real animosity for an opponent under those circumstances.

More out-of-state recruiting can change the perception of what is a big game, too.

When Chuck Amato was coaching NCSU, his emphasis on recruiting the state of Florida tended to make State’s games with Florida State bigger to a lot of the players than those with North Carolina.

Pack quarterback Brandan Mitchelll, a senior from Louisiana by way of Arkansas, probably had difficulty conceptualizing the traditional meaning of playing ECU.

State quarterbacks in the past such as Johnny Evans from High Point and Jamie Barnette from Roxboro didn't have that issue. Nor did ECU field generals Leander Green from Jacksonville or David Garrard from Durham during their college careers.

For a long time, the series with the Wolfpack from ECU's standpoint was about the Pirates proving that they could play with an Atlantic Coast Conference team. It was about earning respect for an institution and a region.

I don’t think playing State these days has the same meaning in regard to how ECU perceives itself or how the Pirates feel that they are perceived by others. The university and its athletic programs can stand on their own merits. A platform such as a matchup on Tobacco Road has less value today in terms of promoting ECU.

Carden, a junior from Houston, knew Oklahoma-Texas was a big game as a youth. He learned about the magnitude of playing State after he arrived in Greenville.

“My freshman year (2010), when they came in to play at ECU, and we ended up getting that win in overtime, I kind of realized how big wins against teams like this are — how big it is for the program,” Carden said. “To be a part of a team that’s able to do that means a lot to me.”

The series probably had its greatest significance for the Pirates when ECU was an independent in the matchups from 1977 to 1996. A win over State could easily make a season worthwhile in those days when there was no conference framework within which to compete.

Back in 1997 when ECU joined C-USA as a football only member, then-Pirates coach Steve Logan fretted about how a game with State would jeopardize his players' focus on the league race.

Logan would love the 2013 Pirates. They can step out of the league and step up against an in-state ACC foe without losing sight of their ultimate mission.

In many years the game was played earlier in the season and both teams had aspirations for the remainder of the schedule. At this point, State has fallen short of bowl eligibility. They’ll try to send their seniors out as winners against Maryland next week, but major bragging rights were missed against ECU.

On a completely different level, McNeill and staff compete with N.C. State virtually every day on the recruiting trail.

“I know the alumni appreciate (the victories over North Carolina and N.C. State),” McNeill said. “Having grown up in this state, I understand the significance of it. We will see the results of this and how recruits react.”

That may have been as important as anything that happened on the field.

Hardy said ECU had a business-like approach. The State fans who showed up had hope for a while. State answered an early ECU score before the Pirates got rolling with a succession of stops and drives.

The ECU faithful were worried about losing face against a team that tumbled to 3-8. They were relieved as the Pirates showed themselves to be the dominant team.

Relief is different from rejoicing.

McNeill indirectly indicated that he expects State to close the competitive gap.

“Dave Doeren is a good coach,” he said.

That might mean a more lively renewal of the series by the time the 2016 season gets here.

Saturday’s contest ranked pretty low by ECU-State standards with the Pirates’ 37-34 Peach Bowl win to cap the 1991 season probably at the top of the chart, followed by the 33-27 overtime win in Greenville in McNeill’s first season as coach in 2010.

Although the game wasn’t one to savor in an often-emotional series which the Pack leads, 16-12, the reason for its one-sidedness was ECU’s high level of efficiency and focus.

Those factors, plus some inevitable belief and momentum generated by Saturday’s performance, will be valuable when the Pirate ship sails into Huntington, WV, for Friday’s showdown.

That’s the big game.

It has been all season.

E-mail Al Myatt.

PAGE UPDATED 11/24/13 06:19 AM.