By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — The buzz and excitement is exponentially growing around Pirate Nation with each day East Carolina gets closer to its showdown with No. 22 Virginia Tech on Thursday night (7:30 p.m.) at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The anticipation for the nationally televised (ESPN) matchup with the Hokies (5-3, 3-1 ACC) drew more media to ECU coach Skip Holtz’s weekly press conference than usual, and even took on a more serious, intense tone.
There is no doubt games like this bring expanded attention, and fuse it with a playoff-type atmosphere. It’s the type of environment Holtz and the rest of Pirates’ supporters dreamed about when he signed on five years ago.
“There is an awful lot of buildup for this game and a lot of excitement,” Holtz said. “To have the opportunity to play it in this venue, in this arena and this atmosphere; I think Greenville will come alive this Thursday. … We are really excited about not only having the opportunity to play Virginia Tech, but to play Virginia Tech here at home at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Thursday night with a national television audience. It will be a great atmosphere and we are looking forward to it.”
The Pirates head into the matchup with their spirits raised after thumping Conference USA patsies Rice 49-13 and Memphis 38-19 in consecutive weeks.
It wasn’t too long ago that East Carolina’s offense looked challenged, but putting up big point totals has no doubt raised its confidence.
Whether the big numbers are fools’ gold or not will be determined over the course of the next few weeks. For now, the Pirates and their 5-3 (4-1) record sit on top of C-USA East by themselves, and enter Thursday’s game on a high note.
“They are gaining quite a bit (of confidence),” Holtz said. “I think a lot of it is the fundamental development of the offensive line and the job (co-offensive coordinator) Steve Shankweiler is doing with those guys.
“(Running backs) Dominique Lindsay and Giavanni Ruffin are playing with confidence right now. They are hitting (the holes) and believing in their offensive line. … I think they are developing a lot of confidence.”
While the Pirates are feeling good about themselves, the Hokies aren’t so happy. Virginia Tech, which has achieved a ranking as high as four in the AP Poll, has plummeted the last two games after losses to then No. 19 Georgia Tech and North Carolina in consecutive weeks.
On top of that, there is no doubt VT head coach Frank Beamer and his crew have not forgotten the 27-22 last-minute upset from a year ago and will use that as motivation.
“Coach Beamer has done this for a long time,” Holtz said. “There is a way to prepare a team when you are undefeated and there is a way to prepare your team when you are coming off a loss. That football team will bounce back. They will come in here and be eager, they will be ready to play and excited. I think after the first series on both sides, what’s happened the last three weeks has absolutely noting to do with what’s going to happen in this game.”
The Hokies are led by quarterback Tyrod Taylor, as well as freshman running back Ryan Williams. Williams has had five 100-yard rushing games this season and has 970 yards on the season.
Injury report
Pirates’ strong safety Levin Neal was taken to the hospital after complaining of headaches and vision problems the morning of the Memphis game.
“We were in the hotel and that morning we had to take him to the hospital because he was having trouble with his eyes and his head a little bit,” Holtz said. “They went over and took some precautionary measures and everything checked out and he was cleared to play. I thought he stepped in and played a really nice game for us.”
Holtz said the initial fear was that Neal had suffered a concussion, but said that his ailments were not a result of a concussion.
“That was one of the concerns with the headaches and the sensitivity to light, but it turned out that it was not (a concussion),” Holtz said. “We took him in and put him through all the tests, but it was a headache that continued to grew on him. They were worried about a lingering concussion, but they went and did all the tests on him and it was not. At this point he is fine.”
Holtz added that Neal has not had any of those problems since that day.
Senior WR Jamar Bryant is listed as questionable with a left shoulder injury, along with WR Michael Bowman (left arm), CB Darryl Reynolds (right shoulder) and DE Josh Smith (right shoulder).
Running back Jonathan Williams (knee) is out along with DT Antonio Allison, DE A.J. Johnson, and LB Matt Thompson.”
What is a Hokie?
Many Pirates fans may be wondering what is a Hokie. Well, the truth is that it’s nothing. According to Virginia Tech, the term Hokie was made up by a student named O.M. Sull in 1896 when the school was called Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and then changed its name to Virginia Polytechnic College (its official name to this day).
With the change in name, the school needed a new cheer and held a contest for one. Sull, with his submission “The old Hokie,” won the first prize in the contest.
When Sull was asked if the word Hokie had any meaning, Sull answered, again this is according to Virginia Tech, that the phrase had no meaning and he made it up to get attention. It worked, as all Virginia Tech sports teams are called Hokies.
So just to be clear, Virginia Tech decided to name its sports teams after something some guy made up to win a contest in 1896.
It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Here is Mr. Sull’s gem in its original form:
Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy!
Tech!, Tech! Tech!
Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah
Polytech-Vir-gin-i-a!!
Rae, Ri, VPI!
Simply awesome. Makes you wonder what came in second.