2011 East Carolina Pirates Football Preview

It was quite a rollercoaster ride for the East Carolina Pirates on the gridiron in 2010. Their season started with a miraculous Hail Mary victory on the final play of the game against Tulsa, and it ended with a blowout loss to middling Maryland in the Military Bowl. In between, a constant parade of – well – inconstancy left this program without a strong sense of identity under a new head coach.

The one thing that could be counted on in ECU’s 2010 campaign was that nothing could be counted on. Just when this team began to fly, it came down to earth. Just when misery was setting in, a ballsy victory lifted the Pirates, sustaining this team long enough to get a bowl bid. ECU soared to a 5-2 record after reeling off three straight wins in the middle third of the season, but then the air went out of the balloon in Greenville, North Carolina. The Bucs surrendered 49 points to eventual Conference USA East Division champion Central Florida and then conceded 76 points in a no-show of a performance against Navy. ECU rebounded from that humiliating afternoon against the Midshipmen to win a shootout at UAB, but if you had thought the Pirates turned a corner in that contest, you were wrong. East Carolina returned to its marshmallow-soft ways against Rice, allowing 62 points to the not-so-high-flying Owls. This team never acquired any dimensions of predictability other than its swiss-cheese defense, which became a regular liability in the month of November

All in all, the Pirates’ 2010 season was valuable in that they found a budding star in Conference USA Newcomer of the Year Dominique Davis, a quarterback who accounted for 46 of East Carolina’s 60 total touchdowns. The defense, on the other hand (and as hinted at above), was a complete travesty. The Pirates gave up an astounding 44 points per game. Head coach Ruffin McNeill, who was the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech before becoming the head man at ECU last season, needs to figure out a way to stop the opposition. The Pirates simply can’t afford to give up that kind of production to their opponents. Seven starters return from the defense and the coaching staff is hoping for improvement from each sub-unit of the defensive eleven. It’s ironic that ECU suffered on defense under the guidance of a defense-first head coach. The fact that McNeill emphasizes that side of the ball should give East Carolina cause for a small bit of guarded but genuine optimism heading into 2011.

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The other reason for high hopes in Greenville is the man the Pirates will turn to under center: Davis threw for nearly 4,000 yards last season and with 1,000 yard receiver Lance Lewis returning to campus as well, the Pirate offense should own the kinds of weapons that can keep pace in oh-so-familiar Conference USA shootouts. ECU returns six starters on offense, a decent haul for a team trying to make an upward climb in its division after owning the East in recent years under former coach Skip Holtz.

The Pirates are active in non-conference play, scheduling three BCS opponents and independent Navy. East Carolina opens the season with games against South Carolina and Virginia Tech. North Carolina also comes to town. The Pirates certainly have a terrific home slate, enhanced by the fact that Central Florida also travels to Greenville. The out-of-conference slate is a beast, but if ECU can go 6-2 in conference play, this year will be looked on favorably by the Pirates’ fan base.