Saturday, September 09, 2006
Somebody wants revenge on East Carolina.
Given the Pirates' recent football history, that's as interesting a premise for ECU's Conference USA kickoff tonight as could have been imagined this time last year. East Carolina (0-1) and second-year coach Skip Holtz will play inside UAB's vast Legion Field, and it will be the Blazers who carry the hopes of reversing last season's fortunes.Holtz's first season with the Pirates ended with a bang, as ECU forced UAB senior passer Darrell Hackney into three interceptions and elbowed the Blazers out of the bowl season with a 31-23 victory.
Although Hackney is gone, a wealth of last year's talent was in that team's junior class, and that crew will lead a favored UAB squad on a revenge mission in Birmingham, Ala., tonight.
"Hackney's gone and everybody thought they wouldn't be any good," said Holtz, who opened his second season at ECU with a 28-23 loss at Navy. "Everybody else around him is back. They are a very balanced football team and I think they are better than they were a year ago."
Spurring on the 0-1 Blazers even more will be the team's valiant effort in its opener at Oklahoma, where the Sooners survived a scare to win 24-17.
Swayze Waters' third quarter field goal made the upset seem possible for the Blazers, giving UAB a 17-14 lead before Oklahoma saved its own neck with ace Adrian Peterson's 69-yard touchdown dash en route to saving the game.
"You watch the Oklahoma game, and it wasn't a fluke," said Holtz of UAB. "It's not like Oklahoma had guys running wide open and couldn't hit them. This is a big football team, a big, strong, physical football team."
That size starts up front on the UAB defense, where C-USA Preseason Player of the Year Larry McSwain waits to cause chaos from his defensive end spot. He is aligned with fellow seniors Jermaine McElveen and Clarence Respress, and behind them in a powerful front seven are three experienced linebackers led by senior leading tackler Orlandus King on the outside.
While ECU senior quarterback James Pinkney is coming off a typical season opener by his standards ? 283 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions ? the Pirates' running backs are continuing a trend of slow starts, and will get little encouragement from UAB's run-stoppers.
While the team's inexperienced line was in part blame, Holtz said, for ECU's meager 76 ground yards at Navy, just as glaring were tailbacks Chris Johnson and Brandon Fractious in "not making anybody miss," Holtz said.
King and senior corner Will Evans each made seven tackles for UAB against the Sooners, and lead what Holtz said is a beefed up defense compared with Navy's.
"It's going to be interesting to see how they try to defend us," said Holtz, whose offense rolled up 421 yards behind Pinkney in last year's meeting. "They have a new coordinator on defense (Rick Christophel), so they're obviously going to do some different things, and Oklahoma is a different team than us."
Pinkney found nine different receivers in last week's loss, including a second-quarter touchdown pass to Kevin Roach and another in the fourth to Phillip Henry.
That has already relieved some of the double-team pressure for senior Aundrae Allison, who has been the object of great attention from opposing defenses since last-year's 1,000-yard season.
"I think it's very encouraging for our offense to know that we have so many guys that we can count on," said Roach. "Last year at the beginning, we knew we could count on Aundrae, but by the end of the year as an offense we got better because we were able to spread the ball around."
Hackney's replacement this week is uncertain, but all eyes seem to be aimed at junior Sam Hunt, not senior Chris Williams. At Oklahoma, Hunt came off the bench to take a majority of the snaps in his first-ever appearance, finishing the day 9-of-15 for 149 yards and a touchdown and also rushing for 65 yards on 15 carries.
Senior ECU safety Jamar Flournoy, who wrapped up 12 tackles and forced a fumble at Navy, thinks tonight will be an even tougher assignment than Navy's triple option.
"Against Oklahoma, they just lined up and went to straight power," said Flournoy, part of an experienced Pirate secondary with seniors Pierre Parker, Kasey Ross and junior Travis Williams. "They're big up front and big in the backfield. They're going to line up and try to play smash-mouth football."
Hunt led the rushing attack for UAB last week, but he'll likely be joined today by seniors Corey White and Dan Burke, who divided 22 carries at Oklahoma and were also active in the passing game.
Somebody wants revenge on East Carolina.
Given the Pirates' recent football history, that's as interesting a premise for ECU's Conference USA kickoff tonight as could have been imagined this time last year. East Carolina (0-1) and second-year coach Skip Holtz will play inside UAB's vast Legion Field, and it will be the Blazers who carry the hopes of reversing last season's fortunes.Holtz's first season with the Pirates ended with a bang, as ECU forced UAB senior passer Darrell Hackney into three interceptions and elbowed the Blazers out of the bowl season with a 31-23 victory.
Although Hackney is gone, a wealth of last year's talent was in that team's junior class, and that crew will lead a favored UAB squad on a revenge mission in Birmingham, Ala., tonight.
"Hackney's gone and everybody thought they wouldn't be any good," said Holtz, who opened his second season at ECU with a 28-23 loss at Navy. "Everybody else around him is back. They are a very balanced football team and I think they are better than they were a year ago."
Spurring on the 0-1 Blazers even more will be the team's valiant effort in its opener at Oklahoma, where the Sooners survived a scare to win 24-17.
Swayze Waters' third quarter field goal made the upset seem possible for the Blazers, giving UAB a 17-14 lead before Oklahoma saved its own neck with ace Adrian Peterson's 69-yard touchdown dash en route to saving the game.
"You watch the Oklahoma game, and it wasn't a fluke," said Holtz of UAB. "It's not like Oklahoma had guys running wide open and couldn't hit them. This is a big football team, a big, strong, physical football team."
That size starts up front on the UAB defense, where C-USA Preseason Player of the Year Larry McSwain waits to cause chaos from his defensive end spot. He is aligned with fellow seniors Jermaine McElveen and Clarence Respress, and behind them in a powerful front seven are three experienced linebackers led by senior leading tackler Orlandus King on the outside.
While ECU senior quarterback James Pinkney is coming off a typical season opener by his standards ? 283 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions ? the Pirates' running backs are continuing a trend of slow starts, and will get little encouragement from UAB's run-stoppers.
While the team's inexperienced line was in part blame, Holtz said, for ECU's meager 76 ground yards at Navy, just as glaring were tailbacks Chris Johnson and Brandon Fractious in "not making anybody miss," Holtz said.
King and senior corner Will Evans each made seven tackles for UAB against the Sooners, and lead what Holtz said is a beefed up defense compared with Navy's.
"It's going to be interesting to see how they try to defend us," said Holtz, whose offense rolled up 421 yards behind Pinkney in last year's meeting. "They have a new coordinator on defense (Rick Christophel), so they're obviously going to do some different things, and Oklahoma is a different team than us."
Pinkney found nine different receivers in last week's loss, including a second-quarter touchdown pass to Kevin Roach and another in the fourth to Phillip Henry.
That has already relieved some of the double-team pressure for senior Aundrae Allison, who has been the object of great attention from opposing defenses since last-year's 1,000-yard season.
"I think it's very encouraging for our offense to know that we have so many guys that we can count on," said Roach. "Last year at the beginning, we knew we could count on Aundrae, but by the end of the year as an offense we got better because we were able to spread the ball around."
Hackney's replacement this week is uncertain, but all eyes seem to be aimed at junior Sam Hunt, not senior Chris Williams. At Oklahoma, Hunt came off the bench to take a majority of the snaps in his first-ever appearance, finishing the day 9-of-15 for 149 yards and a touchdown and also rushing for 65 yards on 15 carries.
Senior ECU safety Jamar Flournoy, who wrapped up 12 tackles and forced a fumble at Navy, thinks tonight will be an even tougher assignment than Navy's triple option.
"Against Oklahoma, they just lined up and went to straight power," said Flournoy, part of an experienced Pirate secondary with seniors Pierre Parker, Kasey Ross and junior Travis Williams. "They're big up front and big in the backfield. They're going to line up and try to play smash-mouth football."
Hunt led the rushing attack for UAB last week, but he'll likely be joined today by seniors Corey White and Dan Burke, who divided 22 carries at Oklahoma and were also active in the passing game.
