There are those in Pirate Nation who will take the time to find faults in the Pirates victory over CC last night. From the venue, the “Birmingham Bowl”, to the apparent lack of discipline (11 penalties) of the Pirates, you can choose to find fault. I choose to celebrate! The Pirates put an exclamation point on their 7-5 season, which included its’ share of disappointment. There will be, and in deed, should be a thorough critique of, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, that was 2022 Pirate football. For now, I say thank you to HA for his toughness, resilience, and leadership. For all of the players who “bought in” to a culture and pushed on, thank you. I think there are plenty of reasons to look forward to 2023, but for now, I just say, “Thank You”!!!

Thanks, Sammy Great report, love your work.

Welcome home. I hope you have a good spring and get the chance to compete for a starting gig. The Pirates need A LOT of help upgrading their coverage capabilities. Remember, CBs require a very short memory and the ability to immediately step up again. Don’t just “get acquainted” this spring. Seize it. Make it yours. Best of luck!!!

Thanks, Sammy

Let’s hope he has some cover skills. ECU needs some people on the back end who can actually cover receivers one-on-one to allow options for five rushers to make an opposing qb get rid of the ball. Whether Coach H or the DC want to admit it, the Pirates are almost always overmatched in the secondary by any decent qb/receiver combo. As close as the Pirates were to a 10 or 11 win season, they were equally close to a 5 win season. The offense can’t always bail out a porous secondary.

...agreed that this should be taken as a "must win", but the opening line has ECU by 7.5, meaning that in some sense, the value of a Pirates win is not a whole lot more than just treading water.

So many positives here fellas. Regional matchup, I'm actually pretty excited about it. Coastal has been pretty solid in case you haven't noticed. Nat Championship in Baseball too. Should be a fun game and well attended. Warmer destination, and actually a pretty fun town to visit. We have come so far from where we were.... Has everyone forgotten the low point of Aggies' coming to G'vegas and winning? I never will. We compete now and the future looks bright with Houston at the helm. He is building a solid program and we are foolish to do anything other than recognize it and get behind him and our Pirates!!! Let's Go!!! Blessing to have the opportunity!!

This is a must win game, to be taken seriously. ECU was ahead of TCU at the point when we lost to TCU in Mobile in '99. We were ahead of Marshall when we lost to the Herd in 2001, S. Florida had no real bowl history when they beat us in 2006. We beat Boise St. in 2007 and they have not run really run far past us nor has UL-Lafayette though they beat us in 2012, plus we kept Ohio behind us by winning in 2014. W had our chances to prove it to the SEC in 2009, 2010, 2015. Interestingly we lost 2 bowl games in 2010. ECU is much better than that. We must take this game very seriously to keep Coastal in the rear view mirror.

ECU has no grounds to complain, of course, and I think that one more win would've made a pretty big difference, and no slight meant to CC, which is quite decent, but this is somewhat disappointing, given the projections being made that the opposition would be a Power 5 opponent. CC has little football tradition, not much cachet, and virtually any P5 opponent would've made for a higher stature contest. Other than this game giving ECU a chance to beat a recruiting competitor, there's considerably more downside to this game than upside.

Yes, but UNCC's football is poor, and it generally has no tradition, athletic (except maybe baseball) or academic, so there's just no upside for the American generally or ECU specifically. In other news, it was nice to see Tulane kick UCF's a$$ on its way out the door as a parting gift.

I agree, it’s hard to get excited about games against those new AAC teams, except Charlotte. Because I live near there.

In terms of its football stature, the AAC would be better off staying with its 8 remaining teams than admitting those Conf USA teams, and is only worsening the stature loss that it's suffering due to the 3 departures. At worst, I can keep see them maybe taking Rice, due to its very high academic pedigree and long tradition, and UTSA, which clearly has aggressive aspirations for success on the field.

I can’t agree about the talent “being there” for the secondary. Several times early on in the season the D had a decent pass rush, or at least getting pressure. Because of the problems in the secondary, the Pirates have dropped seven back with an eighth man in the flat, which almost eliminates any chance of disrupting the QB. I think if anyone on the roster could execute the type of lockdown coverage of a Ja’Quan MacMillan, we would have seen him. When you can’t press cover with any consistency, combined with no pressure up front, you could be in for some long days against any decent passing game. The Warner kid is a great example. He’s a freshman but comes with a high IQ for the game. He sliced and diced the Pirates almost the entire game. I’m proud of what the Pirates have accomplished, given what we now know about the team’s strengths and weaknesses. I’m disappointed the coaches didn’t address the special teams in more detail going into the season. No one is perfect, but certain errors really shouldn’t happen at all, much less on a recurring basis. Here’s hoping for a successful bowl game. The Seniors who have persevered certainly have earned it.

Kudos to ecu coaches and team. Parity in the conference could be seen early on. Coach Houston knows he has got to shore-up the defensive secondary, and create better pass rushing. The talent is there.

FWIW, the latest projection has ECU playing Syracuse at Fenway Park on Sat., Dec. 17 (at 1100, a stupid time, unfortunately.) I would expect the early line to be tight, w/ Syracuse favored, but this would be an excellent post-season game for the Pirates, probably about as good as they can hope for. Bring mittens.