Spring Break
Running back question remains as spring football gears up
Hart Holloman
Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: Sports
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Major League Baseball opens spring training in Florida and Arizona as brackets are agonized over and filled out for March Madness and college football teams around the country begin spring practice.
The Pirates began their springtime regiment last week with high expectations, coming off a year in which they won nine games and a conference championship, but narrowly missed out on a Liberty Bowl victory against SEC opponent Kentucky. Here's a look ahead to a few of the big storylines people will surely be talking about when autumn rolls around.
The schedule. The Pirates' schedule will look a little different this fall than it has in recent years. For starters, Appalachian State was added while N.C. State was dropped. This will be the first time ECU has faced the Mountaineers since 1979 and should prove to be a fierce in-state match-up with plenty of drama. The Mountaineers are continuing their crusade against other North Carolina schools for respect, so Pirate fans should expect a battle and not just on the field. There are also some odd game dates the Pirates will have to contend with. The Pirates will play three straight games on ESPN and none of them will be on a Saturday. They will travel to Memphis for a Tuesday night game before coming back to Greenville for a highly anticipated Thursday night tilt verses Virginia Tech the following week. Then, another 10-day lay-off awaits before a showdown with Tulsa in Oklahoma.
"The back half of the schedule is also different since we do not have a real open date built in with everything," said head coach Skip Holtz. "Instead, we have three 10-day periods between games in which to prepare for upcoming opponents. It will be a great stretch for us in terms of opponents we play and the national exposure that those three games will give us. Playing Memphis, Virginia Tech and Tulsa all on ESPN will provide a chance for us to showcase our university."
Patrick Pinkney. The quarterback who took the majority of the snaps for the Pirates last season was granted another year of eligibility due to an injury sustained in 2005. He will enter the season as the starter; however, like last season, don't expect him to take every snap this fall either. Coach Holtz still plans on utilizing Rob Kass and athlete Dwayne Harris under center during the season. Also, look for redshirt-freshman Josh Jordan to take some snaps when games are at hand.
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