By By STEVE FRANKLIN, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — East Carolina went back to the drawing board in its final bye of the 2008 season.
And with five games remaining on the Pirates’ Conference USA slate, the two-deep depth chart looks a lot different than it did when ECU broke training camp two months ago.
The Injury bug has taken its toll on the Pirates, who are 4-3 (2-1 in conference) and atop the Conference USA East Division standings.
Defensively, East Carolina will be without seven guys who began the season on the two-deep depth chart.
Offensively, the Pirates are without two of their top three running backs that began the season, after sophomore Jonathan Williams was suspended during the bye week following a pair of arrests, to go along with the knee injury sustained by top running back Dominique Lindsay in training camp. ECU is also down a pair of receivers as D.J. McFadden (hamstring), joins Jamar Bryant (suspended for undisclosed disciplinary reasons) as inactives for the upcoming contest against Central Florida.
Holtz also noted that the upperclassman will be relied on heavily for ther leadership roles this week against the Golden Knights.