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East Carolina head coach Skip Holtz holds up the championship trophy as team members celebrate their victory in the NCAA Conference USA championship college football game in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday.

AP
East Carolina's Travis Simmons runs after picking up a Tulsa fumble during the first half of the NCAA Conference USA championship game in Tulsa, Okla.

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C-USA Championship game

Pirates win in Tulsa

By By Nathan Summers

Saturday, December 06, 2008

TULSA, Okla. — Defense won this championship.

East Carolina, a near two-touchdown underdog to Tulsa in Saturday’s Conference USA championship game, defied the odds from the first play of the game and stunned the nation’s most potent offense on its own field.

Gone for Tulsa were the 579 yards per game and the dominant play of quarterback David Johnson. The C-USA-best Pirate defense intercepted Johnson five times — including one on the first play of the game and another late in the fourth quarter to seal Tulsa’s fate — in a 27-24 stunner at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

The win vaults the Pirates (7-2 C-USA, 9-4 overall) into the Jan. 2 Liberty Bowl against a Southeastern Conference opponent.

“With the significant amount of injuries to a number of starters and everything else, and the way one player after another has had to step up on this football team during the year, I’m just very proud of them,” fourth-year ECU coach Skip Holtz. “It’s a real tribute to these players for the way they competed and the way they fought to turn this program around the last three or four years.”

The game was tied at 17-17 at the half after three of Tulsa’s seven total turnovers gave the Pirates an early boost. But it was late in the second half that ECU notched its first-ever C-USA title, and the Pirates did it the same way they did twice earlier this season, on a Ben Hartman field goal.

The Pirates, who led 14-0 in the first quarter before Tulsa rallied to knot the game by the intermission, took their second lead of the day in the third quarter. Sophomore tailback Norman Whitley exploded through his blocks for a 69-yard score that made it 24-17 ECU.

Along with a touchdown drive in the first quarter, Whitley’s scoring charge was one of just a couple of blips offense for the Pirates, who were out-gained by the Golden Hurricane in total yards, 399-278.

The ECU lead stuck until the fourth quarter, as the Pirate offense tried and failed to create some cushion.

Tulsa’s offense was never far from trouble, but manufactured a 12-play scoring drive when it needed to. Johnson fired his one and only touchdown pass of the game, an 8-yard out to Jacob Collums, to deadlock the game, 24-24, with 8:56 to play.

But senior quarterback Patrick Pinkney responded by moving his team down the field and, with 1:43 to play, Hartman split the uprights for the decisive 36-yard field goal.

A final Tulsa rally attempt met the same fate as six of its other drives. Safety Van Eskridge — already with one pick in the game along with Dekota Marshall, Leon Best and Travis Simmons — snared his second interception after wide receiver Brennan Marion fell to the turf with an injury.

Whitley finished the game with 104 rush yards, while Tarrion Adams rolled up 120 for Tulsa (7-2, 10-3).

On another day in which a conservative offense succeeded, Pinkney threw for 122 yards. Johnson threw for 195 yards, 110 less than his season average, in a forgettable outing.

“You turn the ball over (seven times) and you’re not going to win a whole lot of games,” Johnson said of his performance. “I put it all on me.”

The Pirates forced three critical first-half turnovers, each of which accounted for points at the other end and allowed ECU to forge a 17-17 tie at the break.

The Pirates silenced most of the 22,740 in the stands by charging up a 14-0 lead with 6:59 to play in the first quarter.

Marshall picked off Johnson on the first play from scrimmage, and Pinkney and the Pirates rolled the other direction for the first touchdown of the game.

A nine-play, 83-yard drive ended with fullback Kevin Gidrey’s brilliant left-handed catch on his way to the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Pirate lead.

Tulsa’s second drive ended the same way as the first, but with even more immediate results for the ECU defense.

The Hurricane offense screeched to a halt when Johnson again threw behind his receiver along the right sideline. Simmons not only read the floating pass, but he was in full flight toward the Tulsa end zone when he made the interception for a 72-yard touchdown.

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espn watcher

12/07/2008 09:57:48 PM

the ticker on espn just said that according to Lou Holtz, Skip is meeting with Syracuse Athletics on Monday.

can't blame him for wanting to leave eastern carolina.

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