College Football Week 2: Lets Go ECU Pirates!

By Brian Wisowaty

By virtue of team nickname, maybe Seton Hall fans can jump on the red-hot East Carolina bandwagon. After stunning the Virginia Tech Hokies on the first Saturday of the college football season, the Pirates put a beat-down on Pat White and the visiting West Virginia Mountaineers, 24-3.



Keep in mind, West Virginia came into the game as the number eight team in the nation.

Is this a case of a hot start, or perhaps was ECU just underrated from the start? Consider the leader on the field for the Pirates, quarterback Patrick Pinkney. His father was under center at QB for the team way back when, thus giving us a nice father-to-son overture in this story. Statistically, younger Pinkney went 22 of 28 against West Virginia, including a touchdown and 236 passing yards.

Against the Hokies on August 30: 19 of 23 for 211 yards and a TD. Looking at the line scores for him, he has two individual quarterback ratings above the 160.0 mark to start a season. Not bad for a player that not many people even knew about three weeks ago.

And for East Carolina, the road gets a bit easier as the year goes on. A trip to Tulane is on the radar for next Saturday, with contests at Virginia, at UCF, and versus UTEP later on this season. Other than those, the schedule isn’t too daunting.

It can get rough if the Pirates stay hot, simply because the lower-level teams on the schedule will circle the upcoming match-up against them and try to play spoiler. Plus, the emotional drop-off after beating two ranked major-conference teams might keep need week’s game “closer than the experts think”.

But, I’d trust Pinkney and the Pirates to keep it rolling. East Carolina should hit the polls this week ranked somewhere between 15 and 25. But, most importantly, it’s way too early to mention BCS talk for these kids.

Quick hits:

• Gosh, did Notre Dame ever give its fans a scare at home versus San Diego State. Quarterback Jimmy Claussen bailed the Fighting Irish out of a loss that could have set things back painfully for the team. It could be a long season in South Bend if this keeps up.

• The personal foul for excessive celebration assessed to Washington quarterback Jake Locker was absolute ludicrous in their game versus Brigham Young. In case you missed it, a last second scramble run by Locker brought the Huskies within one point, but the penalty pushed the PAT attempt back 15 yards. Of course, BYU blocked the kick and escaped with a one point win. The foul came, as the officials said, because Locker flipped the ball over his shoulder, or “tossed it into the air” (not to the official or near the line of scrimmage). Give me a break. Interpret the rules to keep the game in the players’ hands. On a related note, kudos to the Washington coaches and players in staying respectful of the atrocious decision by the Pac 10 officiating crew.

• USC and Ohio State have survived weeks one and two. Now, we have a week three showdown in The Coliseum to shake up the national title mix. The injury to Buckeyes HB Chris Wells in week one hurt them versus Ohio in game two, but he should return against the Trojans.

• Pitt, after embarrassing themselves last weekend and proving head coach Dave Wannstadt may be on his way out, picked up a redemption win against Buffalo. Though the Bulls aren’t a conference foe, a loss to them would have sent the Panthers into an early tailspin.

• The Rutgers loss to Fresno State in week one showed (a) HB Ray Rice will be greatly missed and (b) QB Mike Teel still has work to do. The problem is that we’ve been saying this about Teel for years.

• Miami hung tough with Florida, despite the final score not indicating such. Aside being disgusted with UF coach Urban Meyer in seemingly trying to run up the score late (QB Tim Tebow was launching deep passes for no reason in the fourth quarter), I leave the game as a Hurricanes fan very optimistic about the future. It’s also worth noting that a questionable and controversial overturned call gave the Gators a red zone visit that broke the 9-3 barrier down and started the scoring. Had the call stood, and it probably should have in my opinion, “The U” would have forced a punt and maybe kept the upset brewing at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Nevertheless, it’s onto Texas A&M for Miami in two weeks, while Florida preps for a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee and an SEC showdown with the Vols.




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