ALL HANDS ON DECK: Pirates deserve a packed house in their home finale'

This time two years ago, East Carolina’s football program was suffering through the second year of the John Thompson era. The Pirates were 2-7 and had only won three of their last 21 games. It didn’t take a genius to tell the football program wasn’t progressing at the rate it should, thus new East Carolina Athletic Director Terry Holland did the only sensible thing and asked Thompson to resign with two games left. The Pirates went on to finish the season at 2-9 and were undoubtedly one of college football’s laughingstocks.

Thompson and his staff had professed to the Pirate Nation that East Carolina could win the league title in 2003, which was the staff’s first year in Greenville. Not only did they not lead the Pirates to enough victories, going 3-20 in two seasons, but also there were too many times where his teams were not even competitive. Eight of his 20 losses were by 24 points or more.

The Pirates’ last bowl game was in 2001 when they relinquished a 38-8 halftime lead to Marshall, losing 64-61 in double overtime. It probably seems like much longer to Pirate fans though due to the depths to which their purple and gold clad heroes fell. Needless to say, the two years of the “JT” era were more like dog years. It feels more like 16 years without a bowl game rather than just four.

Now, only two years removed from two of the worst (if not the two worst) seasons in the history of East Carolina football, Skip Holtz and his staff have the Pirates at 5-4 and sitting atop Conference USA’s East Division. The Pirates, who have won three consecutive games—including road wins over old nemesis Southern Miss and UCF, are entering a critical three-game stretch run to close the season. It all begins this Saturday when ECU welcomes surging Marshall, who also only has two losses in conference play, to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

Holtz, who became captain of the Pirates’ ship in December of 2004, knew from the beginning that ECU had a ways to go in order to compete for the conference title. He was straightforward about the goals that he had for this program, but also brutally honest about the current state of the program. Despite the extreme lack of success that had been experienced, Holtz stated that the program’s infrastructure wasn’t as fractured as he thought it might be when judging by the team’s lack of success on the field.

Having said that, there were still plenty of issues left for Holtz and staff to address. The coaches’ have raved about how quickly the players bought into their program and their work ethic. However, despite their willingness to take the coaching, that doesn’t change the fact that a winning attitude had to be cultivated within the program.

That attitude has been forged by the combination of a few things. Number one, you have to have solid leadership. Effective leadership of an athletic program starts at the top and this is true at East Carolina, as Terry Holland sets the bar very high for how things will be done within his. He has instilled academic policies, specifically ones regarding class attendance, that aren’t present at other institutions.

Holland has also put together a very appealing non-conference schedule that is full of regional rivals for the Pirates to try their hand against over the next several years. Holtz and his staff didn’t mind in the slightest, stating that these games are great for the fans and are a good barometer of where their program is. They insisted that in order to get to where they want to go, these are the types of programs they are going to have to beat.

Holtz and staff came in and took the Pirates to within one play of a bowl game in their initial campaign, finishing 5-6 and one game shy of bowl eligibility. At any rate, they sowed a solid foundation while nearly doubling the win total of the two previous seasons. This year the Pirates are presently reaping some of the fruits of their labor.

The coaching staff’s results in 2005, while not as great as they wanted them to be, were good enough to show that they have this program headed back to where its been and beyond. The high school kids are taking notice of the “sleeping giant” that is awakening in the East and this was seen in Holtz and staff’s recruiting class of 2006. Many analysts, for what it’s worth, ranked this class tops in Conference USA.

The Pirates, who are 5-4 overall and 4-2 in Conference USA, are above .500 in November for the first time since the 2001 season.

It is so gratifying to see the seniors, who came to East Carolina with the hopes of winning CUSA titles and bowl games, finally getting to experience some sort of success. These young men have been through it all while in Greenville, but to their credit they have stuck with the program and now they are seeing the light at the end of what was a very dark tunnel.

They are true Pirates in every sense of the word. They stuck when it would have been very easy to jump ship and go elsewhere. As a result, Pirate Football is becoming fun again. Lets make sure we’re there to show them our personal appreciation on Saturday! Don’t underestimate what it means to them individually, as well as this football program and university as a whole.

What is on the line this Saturday? Our Pirates are playing for bowl eligibility, a CUSA East division title and title game berth, and their most wins since 2001. Oh yeah, it is also Senior Day and Troops Appreciation Day. How many more reasons do you need to be at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and the Pirate Walk on Saturday?

If you’re not on the ship yet, think about where this program has been and what strides it has made since that time. We are getting what we have wanted folks, now it is time to embrace it and turn out in numbers or sit down and shut up.