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Resurgent ECU may try to crash BCS party
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Published: September 8, 2008
Big-league Pirates and other notes:
East Carolina delivered its application for a big bowl on Saturday, and three months from now the Bowl Championship Series computer will spit out the reply.
The Pirates followed up their opening win over No. 17 Virginia Tech with a 24-3 dismantling of No. 8 West Virginia, the highest-ranked victim in the school's roller-coaster history. The Pirates jumped into the AP poll at No. 14 and sent their shirt-shedding undergrads searching for historic models.
The BCS loosened the bowl rules in recent years to preserve a cartel controlled by six major conferences and Notre Dame. The big guys didn't want any revolutions from bothersome fringe players, didn't want any serious tilts toward a playoff system and absolutely didn't want any disruptions in the money supply flowing from the richest bowls.
Consequently, a team from outside the BCS inner circle can now guarantee a reservation in one of the five BCS games by finishing among the top 12 in the BCS standings or by finishing ahead of a cartel conference's champion, provided the outsider ranks among the top 16 in the standings. That last provision conceivably could involve the ACC (now led by No. 20 Wake Forest) or the Big East (No. 19 South Florida).
The Pirates' road ahead
The BCS standings are based on the USA Today coaches' poll, the Harris poll of mostly old men and an average of four convoluted computer formulas. At this premature stage, the AP poll offers a general status guide.
Last season, Hawaii ranked 10th in the final regular-season AP poll, reached the Sugar Bowl and toppled like a palm tree in a category-5 hurricane, 41-10 against Georgia. Boise State validated the upstarts' claim in 2006, however, ranking eighth in the regular-season, stunning Oklahoma 43-42 in a classic Fiesta Bowl and finishing No. 5. In 2004, Utah ranked fifth at the end of the regular season and fourth after its Fiesta Bowl win over Pitt, 35-7.
All three of those comets had a common calling card: They won every regular-season game. ECU or Brigham Young or any other 2008 candidate almost certainly would need the same perfection.
The Pirates have two distinct schedules left, an ACC schedule and a Conference USA schedule. The C-USA schedule looks harder, with road games against Central Florida and Southern Miss. The ACC road games: N.C. State on Sept. 20 and Virginia on Oct. 11. The rest: Tulane and Alabama-Birmingham on the road, Houston, Memphis, Marshall and Texas-El Paso at home, plus the C-USA title game.
Winning them all is incredibly difficult in any league. Each ECU game seems manageable, based on the offense's versatility behind quarterback Patrick Pinkney (41 completions in 51 passes so far) and the running brigade that replaced Chris Johnson (1,423 yards rushing in 2007). Coach Skip Holtz, who has a far smaller ego than his preening father, Lou, praised the defense for containing West Virginia's Patrick White (97 yards rushing, 72 yards passing). The Mountaineers rolled up 599 yards in a 48-7 romp over ECU last year but gained just 251 this time.
That's why ECU folks want to party like it's 1991, when the Pirates rallied past N.C. State 37-34 in the Peach Bowl and finished No. 9.
Blasts from the past
□ The season's second week increased optimism at Miami, which held Florida to nine first-half points before losing 26-3. Pessimism engulfed Maryland, which stumbled 24-14 at Middle Tennessee State, probably the most regressive day of Ralph Friedgen's tenure.
□ Although Duke (1-1) lost a squeaker to Northwestern, Coach David Cutcliffe's solid debut raises more questions about his bizarre dismissal at Mississippi in 2004. Ole Miss won four bowl games in five tries under Cutcliffe and finished 10-3 in Eli Manning's senior season. The Rebels slipped to 4-7 (3-5 SEC) the next year, with several close losses, yet Athletics Director Pete Boone wanted Cutcliffe to devise a rescue plan and change assistants. They couldn't agree, and Boone flushed Cutcliffe for Ed Orgeron. The results: 3-8, 4-8, 3-9 (0-8 SEC) and another firing. The talent level seems high enough for Coach Houston Nutt to surpass preseason forecasts of fifth in the SEC West.
□ Wake Forest (2-0) turned Riley Skinner's sharp passes, last-minute clock management and Sam Swank's 41-yard field goal into a 30-28 victory over Ole Miss. Cornerback Alphonso Smith said he had seen this movie before, citing season-saving comebacks over Duke in 2006 and Maryland in 2007.
End of an era
□ The Winston-Salem Warthogs closed out 56 years of minor-league ball at Ernie Shore Field with an 11-5 playoff loss to Myrtle Beach on Saturday afternoon. The last roundup blended into the sunny panorama of Wake Forest football next door and the Winston-Salem Air Show, which provided skywriters on nature's blue canvas overhead and low-flying planes beyond the outfield fence. For the record, the long Carolina League run ended when reliever Cory Gearrin struck out Winston-Salem's C.J. Retherford, who went down swinging and walked away clutching the fat end of the bat.
■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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