Published: September 07, 2008 02:10 am            

Purple daze

East Carolina dominates WVU in upset victory

GREENVILLE, N.C. — The color purple was everywhere in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium here on Saturday afternoon, except on the faces of the West Virginia Mountaineers.

They were red.

Red with anger, red with embarrassment, for Skip Holtz’s upstarts from East Carolina did everything to expose their weaknesses except depants them in upsetting the nation’s No. 8 team, 24-3.

West Virginia was outplayed in every aspect of the game save for the punting game, and it is fair to assume that the team whose No. 1 weapon is its punter isn’t going to win many football games.

The game was so one-sided that West Virginia was outgained 386 to 251 yards. East Carolina had 20 first downs to the Mountaineers 12 and completed a staggering 23 of 29 passes for 243 yards, which would have been bad enough had not their running backs run through the WVU defense as if they were not there.

The victory vaulted East Carolina, which last week upset No. 17 Virginia Tech and now has three consecutive victories over Top 20 teams, into the national picture and into the favorite’s role in Conference USA.

“I don’t think you can put it into words,” Holtz said while basking in the post-game glory. “I am so proud of these players, the way they have come out and competed the last few weeks. We played two elite programs and I am just proud of the way our team has grown.

“They are playing with desire, passion and togetherness. It is so fun now to stand on that sideline and watch our defense play as good as it is. Every facet of our team from the offense to the special teams was fantastic tonight. The players believe in themselves right now.”

It went unsaid in the West Virginia locker room, but the absolute reverse is true of a hesitant, mistake-prone Mountaineer team that is playing poorly and without passion and has to be questioning itself.

As badly as West Virginia was outplayed, the truth is that the game did have a turning point, although it was far too early to notice.

ECU had taken the opening kickoff and marched down the field, successfully converting a third-and-1 play and a third-and-9 to begin a trend that would end with 8 of 16 third-down conversions. The Pirates scored on Jonathan Williams’ 5-yard run and it was 7-0.

The Mountaineers seemed pointed to answer, getting a 23-yard run from quarterback Patrick White, moving to the ECU 39 where it was third and 5 White again broke toward the sideline, where he was hit. It was going to be close to a first down and he stretched out to try to make it to the first-down marker.

The ball seemed to hit the ground and come free. Furthermore, replay seemed to show that White’s right hand hit out of bounds before the play was over.

That was two reasons why this wasn’t a fumble, none of which seemed to bother the officials, who ruled it a fumble with ECU recovering.

“I reached out for the first down and I thought I was down. They didn’t. You can’t argue,” White said.

No, you can’t. But coach Bill Stewart could have called a timeout there to give the officials time to think about looking at a replay, something they never did do.

“I didn’t see Patrick White’s fumble,” said Stewart. “I thought the ball was down. They told me they it was already looked at and they reviewed the play. That was a big, big turning point, dadgone it. We couldn’t get back into rhythm.”

East Carolina had more to do with that than did the lack of a replay, although you never know how a team will react if it scores on its first possession.

After that “fumble,” it was pretty much all East Carolina. West Virginia’s pass defense was, shall we say, passive.

East Carolina make it 10-0 when Ben Ryan hit his first collegiate field goal from 42-yards out and after Patrick McAfee had gotten the Mountaineers on the board with a 26-yard field goal, WVU gift wrapped yet another score for the Pirates.

With the clock ticking down toward the final minute of the first half, White completed a short pass to Jock Sanders, who was hit so hard that he was lucky the football was all he lost. That fumble, recovered by ECU at the WVU 35, gave quarterback Patrick Pinkney another shot.

As he had all half, he was up to it, hitting Alex Taylor for 22 yards and a first down at the WVU 13 and then connecting with him on a high fade over cornerback Brandon Hogan, who showed his inexperience at the position when he was used in the nickel package.

By halftime, Pinkney was 15 of 17 passing. He would finish the game with 23 completions in 28 attempts.

WVU had a couple of sparks on the ground from Noel Devine, who finished with 94 yards rushing on just 12 carries, and 97 from White, who jumped from sixth to fourth on the all-time quarterback rushing list. By the time the Colorado game ends he should be third all-time, needing just 10 yards to put himself behind Missouri’s Brad Smith and Indiana’s Antwaan Randle El.

But this was East Carolina’s day, a day when their students got to rush the field, about 20,000 strong, hooping and dancing and hollerin’ as the band played, the dance team wiggled and the police stood helplessly by, arresting a few that they could stop.

But their hearts weren’t into the arrests any more than WVU’s hearts seemed to be in stopping the ECU ball carriers.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@ hotmail.com.

        

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