Spring Break
Opinion: Pirates will have to get physical in Charlottesville
Ronnie Woodward, Asst. Sports Editor
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Sports
Don't expect to see many five wide receiver sets from Virginia this Saturday. The five players who are most important to the Cavaliers offensive are the five who make up the offensive line.
With a formation similar to coach Ed Henry and the Marshall High School team in the state championship game of Remember the Titans, Houston out-finessed the Pirates two Saturdays ago with the shotgun formation and spread offense.
UVA will probably take a different approach this Saturday. The Cavaliers have been successful in years past-and this year-when they physically dominate the opposing team and win the battles in the trenches. With four of its five starters at least 6-foot-6 and over 300 pounds, UVA's offensive line looks especially menacing, which ECU coach Skip Holtz pointed out at his Monday press conference.
The most impressive thing about the Pirates' season opening wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia was the way they dominated physically. ECU hasn't played well since then, and there are a ton of reasons why: there have been key injuries, it's been an emotional roller coaster and ECU hasn't played with the same physical attitude as it did in the season's first two games.
To win in Charlottesville this weekend, ECU will have to regain that same swagger it played with over a month ago.
"When they get into that two-back offense, we're going to have be stern up front," said Holtz of UVA. "It's going to be a very physical football game and a real challenge for our linebackers and defensive lineman, because of their size and athleticism with their offensive lineman. Defensively, they try and stop the run and on offense they try and line up and run the ball. They have that type of mindset and they do a good job with it."
The Cavaliers definitely had that type of mindset in a 31-0 domination of Maryland this past Saturday.
UVA came into the Maryland game struggling on offense, trying to find an identity, as it had only scored 20 total points against Division-I competition.
With a formation similar to coach Ed Henry and the Marshall High School team in the state championship game of Remember the Titans, Houston out-finessed the Pirates two Saturdays ago with the shotgun formation and spread offense.
UVA will probably take a different approach this Saturday. The Cavaliers have been successful in years past-and this year-when they physically dominate the opposing team and win the battles in the trenches. With four of its five starters at least 6-foot-6 and over 300 pounds, UVA's offensive line looks especially menacing, which ECU coach Skip Holtz pointed out at his Monday press conference.
The most impressive thing about the Pirates' season opening wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia was the way they dominated physically. ECU hasn't played well since then, and there are a ton of reasons why: there have been key injuries, it's been an emotional roller coaster and ECU hasn't played with the same physical attitude as it did in the season's first two games.
To win in Charlottesville this weekend, ECU will have to regain that same swagger it played with over a month ago.
"When they get into that two-back offense, we're going to have be stern up front," said Holtz of UVA. "It's going to be a very physical football game and a real challenge for our linebackers and defensive lineman, because of their size and athleticism with their offensive lineman. Defensively, they try and stop the run and on offense they try and line up and run the ball. They have that type of mindset and they do a good job with it."
The Cavaliers definitely had that type of mindset in a 31-0 domination of Maryland this past Saturday.
UVA came into the Maryland game struggling on offense, trying to find an identity, as it had only scored 20 total points against Division-I competition.
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