Pirates using bowl loss as motivation
Published 6:37 pm Wednesday, December 19, 2007
By Staff
By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
GREENVILLE — Last year’s 24-7 loss to South Florida in the PapaJohns.com Bowl is still fresh in the minds of several East Carolina football players.
The Pirates are using that as a motivating factor heading into Sunday’s Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.
ECU (7-5) will take on No. 24 Boise State (10-2) in the Hawaii Bowl.
Senior running back Chris Johnson, who earned All-Conference USA and All-America honors this season, wants to help lead ECU to its first bowl win since a 40-27 nod over Texas Tech in the 2000 galleryfurniture.com Bowl.
ECU head coach Skip Holtz said the Pirates, who left for Hawaii on Monday, will know what to expect since they played in a bowl last year.
Holtz said a bowl victory would give the team something to build on for the future.
A win would help the Pirates get rid of that sour taste they had after last year’s loss.