2009 NCAA - East Carolina
In all likelihood, this will be Skip Holtz's final season in Greenville. He garnered plenty of interest after the Pirates won their first C-USA title last year, beating Tulsa 27-24 in the league championship game. This is his fifth season and he has built a program that was able to start the season with upset wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia last fall. ECU returns 35 of 44 on the two-deep, including 19 starters, so another fast start is expected. Sixth-year quarterback Patrick Pinckney will pilot the offense, and there is quality depth everywhere on offense, except at TE, where star Davon Drew was one of the few key losses. |
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East Carolina
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Eight starters are back on the Pirate defense that ranked in the top three in all of the league's four major stats in 2008. There are few weaknesses, as stars litter the line (DE CJ Wilson, a 2009 Lombardi Watch list member), linebackers (Nick Johnson), and secondary (FS Van Eskridge). The Pirates play only three games at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium before November, but this group should have the experience to handle the early road tests. |
| ASK the bookie? - With the schedule bring fairly rough early (Appalachian State at home, at West Virginia and at North Carolina), people will know early on if the Pirates are going to have any aspirations for an unbeaten season. Stiff tests await later (Virginia Tech visits Greenville in November, and ECU goes to Tulsa the very next week) - but this team has all of the pieces in place to make another surprise run. After some disappointing losses (1-8 ATS after the first two upsets), the Pirates fell off of a lot of maps before the upset as a 12-point dog to Tulsa in the C-USA title game. Can they build off of that win, and last year's early success? One thing's for sure - they are a favorite to win the league title again. |
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