A week after their thumping of Purdue, the Hokies head south to take on the East Carolina Pirates at what should be a raucous Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The Pirates (1-2) are coming off a grueling loss to Navy, making it back-to-back losses for ECU after a season opening win over Towson. This will be the eighth matchup in nine years between these two teams, leaving roughly the same amount of mystery as a 40-year marriage. In an effort to learn more about the Pirates' start to the season and what we might expect on Saturday, I once again had the pleasure of talking ECU with Nathan Summers of the Greenville Daily Reflector.
After losing starting QB Kurt Benkert to a season ending knee injury in late August, the Pirates turned to southpaw Blake Kemp to lead the offense. What strengths does Kemp bring to the table and what are some areas you would say need improvement?
Blake Kemp has been a pleasant surprise despite a couple of costly turnovers each of the last two weeks. His leadership and connection with the rest of the team is undeniable, and although his throws sometimes lack velocity, he has involved 10 different receivers and thrown six touchdown passes in three games. He is still finding a true comfort zone, but understands the flow and tempo of the offense and has shown some ability to throw the ball downfield.
Two weeks ago in Gainesville, the Pirates used a lot more short and intermediate routes to attack an aggressive and talented Gators' defense. After last year's aerial assault, should Bud Foster & Co. expect an approach similar to two weeks ago, or will the Pirates look to attack the Hokies with a more vertical passing game once again?
The Pirates' performances against the Hokies and UNC were arguably ECU's best in terms of stretching the field last season. Cam Worthy was ECU's greatest deep threat receiver, but sophomore Trevon Brown returns this week from an internal suspension and is a legitimate downfield target. Also watch for juniors Davon Grayson and Jimmy Williams on the outside. This offense has always been about the shorter inside slants, however, and the two biggest offensive weapons are inside receiver Isaiah Jones and tight end Bryce Williams.
Running back Chris Hairston appears to be a real focal point of this offense, attacking defenses both on the ground and in the receiving game. Tell us some more about Hairston's increased role and the impact it has had on the ECU offense under first year OC Dave Nichol.
In short, Hairston needs a big game against the Hokies in order to reestablish a credible rush attack. After 154 yards against Towson, Hairston was limited to 53 total the last two games. With sophomore Marquez Grayson out with an injury and Anthony Scott having a slow start, Hairston is indeed the focal point.
The Pirates defense is coming off an exhausting game against Navy and their grueling triple option-based attack. How do you see the ECU defense rebounding against a more balanced Virginia Tech offense?
For whatever reason, Navy usually wears out ECU physically and on the scoreboard. In truth, the Pirate defense matched up better against Florida and could likely have a stronger performance against Virginia Tech than it did against Navy. The team's veteran front seven helped the Pirates keep the game within reach until midway through the third quarter in Annapolis, but a failed fourth down attempt and a fumble by the offense proved to be the Pirates' undoing.
East Carolina has played a number of tight non-conference games to start the season. Take us through the first quarter of the Pirates' season and tell us a little more about what has surprised you and what has troubled you about this team.
So far, the offense with Kemp and first-year coordinator Dave Nichol has been promising but has stalled out for stretches of all three games. The addition of mobile QB James Summers will potentially open up the run game. The kicking game continues to struggle and be an area of concern. The ECU defense has also had strong spells but hasn't yet played a complete game.
Alright, time to put you on the spot. How do you see Saturday's game playing out and who emerges victorious?
35-28 is my predicted final score, though I can't decide who I think will score 35.
Comments
I always look forward to the game previous! Thanks again for doing these.
Did you provide responses for an article for the Greenville Daily in exchange? I know sometimes opposing writers don't respond in kind.
Just finished watching all 3 of those last night with The Mrs. Fett Man. There are definitely big plot holes in the series but the biggest one I just can't get over is why there was ever a need for the 2nd movie. If the future hasn't happened yet, why do we need to go back to the future to fix something? Still a good movie and it does set up the need for the 3rd movie. Also, by telling 50s Doc that he successfully creates a time machine and then showing it to him, shouldn't that dramatically alter the timeline of him building it? I mean, if someone showed me the time machine I built in 30 years, I don't think I would wait 30 years to build it. Also, side note, I never noticed how stupid Marty really is. He really doesn't understand the basis of time travel. This leads me to believe that he really was a slacker in high school.
I believe you'd enjoy this, good sir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-NEZC2uH-Q
Not a lot of content in their 6 minutes of blabbering. Well the two main points the protagonist of the video (who i'll name "glasses") brings up are in line with the assertion that the movie ignores major future events that should have altered the end of the movie, I don't think they would have near the same magnitude of my point above. Telling a black bus boy during the 50's that he will be the first black male wouldn't change things that much. People say stuff all the time to try and encourage other people to do things. Doesn't mean it happens. And just because it created the idea in his head, acceptance of a black politician in that time period would be the controlling force behind his election. Also, just because Chuck Berry heard his own future song being performed over the phone before he ever wrote it doesn't mean he is stealing the song. "Calvin Kline" doesn't actually exist so he's not patenting Johnny B Goode, therefore it won't be performed again until Berry writes it. Besides, Berry won't exactly remember that song and there was no way for him to record it over the phone at that moment. Musicians borrow ideas and themes when writing music all the time. I think Mr. Glasses is reveling a little too much over minor points that Marty spurred Black revolutions during the civil rights era that just can't be completely supported.
Also, who cares if Marty's mom had the hots for him in the 50s. He was a dreamboat but was really only in their lives for a couple days. I'm sure by the time she had Marty, she will have forgotten about it. Plus perspective and memories of people change. She had no pictures of him so it is really all based on her 30 year memory. Now, it is a little strange that Biff, the now manservant, groped Marty's mom in high school and still hangs out around their house, but I'm sure he had some major apologetic episode at some point with her between the transition from graduation to manservant.
I love analyzing movies. Pointless, yet entertaining.
Doc Brown was always worried about the preservation of the timeline, so he strikes me as the kind of guy that, if shown a time machine he built 30 years in the future, he would focus his entire life on making certain he was in a position to build it at the right point in time.
But Doc Brown also understood the value of human perception, evidenced by the fact that he realized wearing a bulletproof vest to save his life when the Libyan terrorists shot him wouldn't disrupt the timeline, because Marty had only seen him get shot and had no idea what his medical status was afterwards. So Doc could have made multiple time machines over the next 30 years, having tons of time-traveling adventures, so long as he kept Marty oblivious to it. Then when 1985 rolls around, all he would have to do is roll out the Delorian and act like it was his first attempt at time travel. Marty's none the wiser, and all the events that are mandated take place as they should.
Interesting point. I shall counter by saying, "really?" Doc brown states that time travel had become far to painful and dangerous and told Marty to destroy the time machine when finally returned to his time at the end of the trilogy. Then Doc shows up in his hover converted time machine steam engine. Obviously several years have passed as he now has I'm guessing two 6-8 year olds. Obviously Doc couldn't withstand the temptation to develop another time machine. His 50s self would never be able to withstand it either, especially having not done it before at that point.
Second, its true that doc could have spent those 30 years having numerous time travel adventures before even meeting Marty. But where would he get the refined plutonium to power the flux capacity? Even in '85, he still had to rip it off a Libyan terrorist group. Also, if this were the case, and he never met Marty, there would be no need for any of these movies.
I realize these are conflicting points and I've now come full circle. There is just no right answer.
There are an infinite number of possible ways to answer this question, and every single one opens up a new paradox.
I'm in total agreement with you that Marty was an idiot when it came to time travel, so Doc telling Marty to destroy the time machine might have just been Doc's final acceptance that Marty was too dangerous to be allowed to continue time traveling. Like you said, Doc kept time traveling himself, and it was possibly because he could do it without completely fucking everything up.
As for needing enriched plutonium, the 1985 Delorian used that as a power source. But 1955 Doc also knew that a bolt of lightning would be sufficient to power the flux capacitor. So there's one alternate power source he could have designed a new time machine around. My guess is a guy as smart as Doc could come up with other possible fuel sources. And even if he couldn't, all he'd need to do would be to design one lightning-powered time machine, go into the future, pick up a Mr. Fusion, and then it's all good.
So long as Doc remembered that he had to design the Delorian to use enriched plutonium, he wouldn't be jacking up the timeline.
The problem is, you never know when or where a bolt of lighting is going to strike. I suppose he could develop a machine that sits really high up with a lightning rod attached and just go sit in it during a storm. But theres a reason the car has to be moving at 88 mphs to make the jump, otherwise he would have made it similar to austin power's pimpmobile time machine that just goes when you push a button.
I don't know if the Doc could have found another power source in that time. Otherwise he'd have one the nobel prize multiple times. Which brings me to another plot hole. If the doc had the reaction chamber converted to Mr. Fusion, how is it that the car still runs on regular unleaded? You would have to think that if 2015 scientists developed a way to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity from trash, they would have figured out a new way to power the internal combustion engine. Hell, Elon Musk is powering a supercar with a battery and that's not exactly new technology.
He was taking young children with him, though. Anyone with kids knows that "follow these very strict rules and don't get noticed" doesn't mix well with young kids. Even the actors portraying them couldn't stay in character for five minutes.
Imagine for a moment that you're out and about and this family of four, two small kids, is nearby. One of the kids runs up to you and says, "My daddy has a flying train that goes through time. Mom mommy was born in the wild west!"
Your reaction would most likely be, "That's awesome, kid," and you'd go about your day as normal. Kids have a built in buffer to disrupting the timeline, because no one pays attention to the shit they say. They wouldn't be a liability so long as Doc knew the major historical events to keep them away from.
If I were Doc Brown, I would take no less than 25 trips back in time to watch Tyrod break Nebraska's heart in Lane Stadium, live.
You're welcome, glad to hear you enjoy them! We're lucky to have some great opposing writers willing to help us out.
There will not be a reciprocal exchange this week, but (fingers crossed) we should be in line to have one next week ahead of the Pitt game.
What does this comment have to do with Back to the Future? Stay on topic, please.
Did it hurt anyone else's heart when the guy said VT was one game where they were most successful stretching the field last year?
I don't think you can hurt that which is already broken by ECU. We need to resuscitate it on Saturday before it can feel.
34-14 Hokies. Please send beer if I'm right.
and bourbon if you're wrong
Good Good
I want every game to be a comfortable win, but ECU has gained hate status in my book. It's been said before, but we gain nothing from playing them and they lose nothing by losing to us. At this point, I want every game against them to be a statement: "You are not our rivals. You are a scheduling mistake. We will crush you." I want to blank these guys and score enough for the NCAA to consider instituting a slaughter rule.
Please note that I'm not saying this will happen. We have no room for hubris in this series precisely because this doesn't happen every time we play.
I hope you're right. FWIW I heard a player in class today say "ECU has another thing coming. We have a pretty big chip on our shoulder." So you know. #sources
This would beat the over/under from Halfwits & Wagers.
If carden and company couldn't score 35 on the Hokie defense I don't see this offense scoring 35. I don't think I see them scoring 28 either. Perhaps 21-24 pts to ECU with one score being meaningless, but making the game look closer than it actually was, late in the fourth qtr.
DBU remembers last year and won't let that happen again. I think ECU goes the short pass route to keep the ball away from Facyson and Fuller and keep Kemp from getting destroyed by our DL. However I think they stall on enough 3rd downs and Bud does Bud things and we hold them pretty close for the most part.
I think you are mostly right on this, but I do see ECU noticing that DBU hasn't exactly been DBU so far with Fuller not being 100% and with all the pass interference calls. I think they'll take their shots down field and hopefully Torian & Co. will have worked out the PI issues, rendering Kemp unsuccessful.
All the pass interference calls?
IMO we're not seeing more PI calls, we're seeing more QBs coached to throw short, and since our DBs don't turn, it results in PI. If/when we mix more cover4 and underneath zones with it on passing downs, we should see more picks, but the DBs will have to know on those downs to get out of the way of the WRs, and thus avoid the PI call.
I agree with this. On Fuller's PI call against Purdue, he was aiming for where a QB would normally the ball high and to the outside. However if Fuller turns around he's got a pick in his lap. That ball hit Fuller straight in the back.
The inside leverage seems to be important when we play 7 or 8 in the box and leave the corners in press-man coverage. From what I read above, ECU is not exactly running the ball strongly. This would be a good week to run some zone coverage schemes with Adonis as a robber.
Keep in mind those short pass routes are what Facyson feasted on two years ago, and what Motu scored on against Furman. If they want to try it and trust their offense to dink and dunk down the field, more often than not they're gonna stall out or Bud's gonna throw something new at them to get a turnover or a big sack.
Dadi drops back into coverage, notches an INT before he gets a sack this season.
Who would see that coming?
YOU!
In baseball parlance, ECU's qb is a serious 'pie thower'... Brewer comparatively has a cannon. If they try to throw it short I can see Fuller/ Facyson jumping routes for picks. This game has multiple picks for Buds crew written all over it.
I like pie.
So say we all.
And so say all of us.
Good prediction though
Bad loss. Worst officiated game I've ever seen. But we shouldn't have kept it this close at all. Overall, I'm pretty damn pissed off. Ridiculous.