East Carolina’s good; Good for C-USA
Neil Callaway doesn’t like to say he told you so, but he did. He wasn’t sleeping on East Carolina before the Pirates started pillaging their way through the rankings.
Callaway knew East Carolina had a good football program. He started his coaching career there as a part-timer under Pat Dye. Alone among the Division I-A schools in its state, Callaway said, “East Carolina is a football school.”
Wake Forest and the rest are just passing time until Midnight Madness.
Callaway also knew East Carolina had a good football team. ECU 41, UAB 6 told him that last October.
But even the UAB coach, despite his C-USA pride, needed convincing that ECU was one of the top 25 teams in the nation this season.
Callaway didn’t put East Carolina on his preseason ballot in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. Nor did he rank the Pirates after they beat No. 15 Virginia Tech at its own game with a late blocked punt in the opener.
“I started to (rank them) the first week,” he said, “but I said, `No, we’ll wait one more week to see if that was a one-time deal.”
al.com
9/9/08
