East Carolina‘s matchup with South Florida is as big as it gets.
It may not look like it on paper, but each game is a playoff-type game for the Pirates. By no means am I saying ECU will get a chance to reach the College Football Playoff this year, but rather a play-in game for the New Year’s six bowl games.
To the casual observer of college football, ECU is a pretty good football team. In Week 1, ECU played North Carolina Central and won 52-7. That didn’t get much attention because nobody really knew what ECU was about.
Week 2 saw ECU on the road against a South Carolina that was embarrassed the week prior, and the Pirates took it to the Gamecocks, but fell short 33-23. A little more notice for that purple pirate team out of Greenville, North Carolina.
ECU gained more momentum in Week 3 as it shocked the ACC by going up 21-0 on the road against No. 17 Virginia Tech and would eventually win 28-21. Now the nation had taken notice and the Pirates followed that win up with an even better performance in Week 4 against a North Carolina team that was preseason Top 25, blowing the ‘Heels out 70-41 at home. The Pirates followed up that huge win with its first AAC victory against SMU.
All of that play has earned the Pirates a No. 19 ranking in the AP Top 25. I know that this sounds like rehashing, but I need all of this information to be remembered to make my point.
To validate the great non-conference games and continue the dream season, ECU needs to win (obviously), and its need to win convincingly.
If you don’t follow me on Twitter (shameless plug @legendgary62), you wouldn’t know I mentioned earlier this week that ECU got some radio love on the airwaves of Utah. Claiming that the Pirates will be the only non-Power 5 conference team in those six big bowl games played on New Year’s Day.
For the Pirates to get to one of those games, it’s not enough to just slide by and with close victories. ECU is capable of rolling the opposing teams and need to do just that each week to make the case for one of those games.
East Carolina has entered the big boys club by being ranked so high. To show that it belongs, it needs to dismantle its opponents just like the Power 5 teams would against these “lesser” opponents.
South Florida may not pose a threat to ECU because the Pirates are superior in almost every way, but they must follow that coaching cliche and take it one game at a time.
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