Two teams battling for bowl berths and still in need of two more wins in their last three games will both try to get one of them tonight inside the Sun Bowl.
East Carolina and UTEP — both 4-5 overall — will cross paths at 8:05 p.m. EDT in El Paso, Texas, for the first time since a memorable first-ever tussle between the two teams back in 2007.
At the time, the Pirates were in the midst of a metamorphosis back into a winning football team. Their thrilling 45-42 overtime win over head coach Mike Price’s Miners kick-started a memorable 5-2 finish to the season that ended with a triumph over Boise State at the Hawaii Bowl.
Tonight, the Pirates span two time zones in need of some similar late-season magic.
ECU had won three straight games and upped its Conference USA record to 3-1 before last weekend’s home collapse against Southern Miss, which for now leaves the Pirates in second place in C-USA East behind the now 8-1 Golden Eagles.
The 48-28 disappointment for ECU — characterized by four non-offensive Southern Miss touchdowns in the first half — means an immediate refocus on trying to garner six total victories and qualify for a school-record sixth straight bowl game.
“We want to finish strong, and we feel that last year we didn’t finish strong,” second-year ECU head coach Ruffin McNeill said of his team, which stumbled into the Military Bowl after losing four of its last five regular season games. “Bowl eligibility is one of the big things that I mentioned (in team meetings this week).”
After leading the nation in turnovers during a 1-4 start to the season, the Pirates’ consecutive wins over Memphis, Navy and Tulane featured much cleaner efforts on offense and some promising defense.
Disaster struck early against the Golden Eagles, though, as they overturned an early 7-0 Pirate lead with a punt block TD, a punt return score and two long interception returns against quarterback Dominique Davis and the Pirate offense.
“There was a lot attention on this football game for us and the kids, and they wanted to play well, and the momentum changed and that’s what swung the game,” McNeill said of the forgettable Pirate performance last weekend.
Tonight, Davis will try to put some distance between his 17 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions, but it won’t be easy without leading receiver Lance Lewis (team-high 60 receptions, 600 yards, eight TDs), who will miss his second straight game with a foot injury.
Davis (2,604 pass yards) has run the ball more in recent weeks, scoring four times on rushes in ECU’s last four games, but that’s also been influenced by continued injuries in the backfield. Leading rusher Reggie Bullock (team-high 428 yards, four TDs) will miss his fourth game in the last five with a thigh injury.
Up front, an offensive line which also played much better during the ECU winning spurt will likely be without center Doug Polochak (doubtful, knee) and possibly right tackle Grant Harner (questionable, ankle). Starting guard Adhem Elsawi (knee) will miss his fifth straight game.
Trying to make up for the loss of Lewis on the outside receiving lanes will be sophomore Reese Wiggins (18 rec., 242 yards, 72-yard TD against Southern Miss). On the inside, redshirt Justin Hardy (48 rec., 500 yards, four TDs) and freshman Danny Webster (36-364-1) will be joined again by sophomore Justin Jones who returned last week from injury.
In Bullock’s stead, sophomore rushing duo Torrance Hunt (298 yards, TD) and Michael Dobson (152 yards, two TDs) will need to keep picking up steam.
The Miners, losers of two straight to Southern Miss and Rice, have slid to ninth in C-USA in total defense after allowing 453.8 yards per game to this point, including 189.8 on the run and 264 on the pass.
The UTEP pass rush is powered by sophomore Louisville transfer Horace Miller, a Baltimore native who leads the Miners with 6.5 tackles for loss and four sacks.
Senior linebacker Isaiah Carter has 44 tackles, 4.5 TFL and a sack, and in the secondary, junior DeShawn Grayson has a team-high 60 tackles to go with a pair of picks and five pass breakups and senior Trevaun Nixon has 36 tackles and a team-high three interceptions.
“They have a lot of athletes on defense and they play a lot more man (than zone),” McNeill said of the UTEP defense under coordinator Andre Patterson. “They do a lot of movement, a lot of man concept. Horace Miller is a guy they move around a lot, kind of like (Jamie Collins) for Southern Miss.”
The East Carolina defense spent little time on the field in the first half last weekend after forcing a three-and-out on the first series of the game. After that, the defense could only watch as Southern Miss built a 38-14 halftime lead.
Redshirt inside linebacker Jeremy Grove still managed to get his stops against the Southern Miss offense, leading ECU with 13 tackles and running his season tally to 95. Second-leading tackler Daniel Drake (58 tackles, sack) played a limited role, but should see regular rotation again today with sophomore Kyle Tudor (41 tackles, sack).
At the back end, senior corner Emanuel Davis wrapped up eight tackles against the Golden Eagles and has 43 stops, an interception and four pass breakups from the boundary position, while senior field corner Derek Blacknall (18 tackles, INT, five pass breakups), sophomore free safety Damon Magazu (55 tackles, three INTs) and senior strong safety Bradley Jacobs (51 tackles) have pushed the Pirates to 21st nationally in pass defense (188.8 yards/game).
The Pirates enter the game ranked 49th in total defense (369.9 yards/game), up from 120th last season.
Behind junior college transfer QB Nick Lamaison (1,495 yards, 11 TDs, nine INTs), UTEP boasts the fifth-best scoring offense in C-USA with an average of 28.3 points per game.
Last year’s rushing leader is back in senior Joe Banyard (550 yards, three TDs), backed by senior Vernon Frazier (341-3). The lead pass target is JUCO product Mike Edwards, who’s tallied 36 catches for 559 yards and three touchdowns, all team highs.
ECU is a perfect 2-0 against the Miners, having also notched a convincing 53-21 win over them in 2008 in Greenville.
“They’ve had some tough games, but they’re right at the same position we are,” McNeill said of the Miners. “They’re making sure they’re finishing strong.”
Contact Nathan Summers at nsummers@reflector.com or 252-329-9595.
The Miners roster is littered with transfers, and Miller has proven to be one of the best so far for head coach Mike Price. The first-year player and former Louisville transfer leads the defense with 6.5 tackles for loss and four sacks, and ECU head coach Ruffin McNeill compares him to Southern Miss bandit player Jamie Collins, who gave the Pirates fits last week. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound Miller, a Baltimore native, also has six QB hurries, a couple of pass breakups and a forced fumble.
One of the finds out of JUCO recruiting pipeline Mt. San Antonio College, Lamaison will try to build on last week’s 294-yard, three-touchdown effort in a frantic 41-37 loss to C-USA West rival Rice. But it hasn’t been a prolific season in terms of stats for the 6-1, 210-pound West Covina, Calif., native. Lamaison has thrown for 1,495 yards, and has 11 touchdowns versus nine interceptions. His lone 300-yard passing game to date was in the Miners’ season-opening overtime win over Stony Brook.
Another procurement from Mt. SAC, Edwards has also proven a worthy investment in his first season in El Paso. The 5-10, 190-pound Edwards leads the Miners with 36 receptions, 559 yards and three touchdowns. Last week, he proved he has relocated the rhythm he had with Lamaison with the Mounties last year when they posted a 13-0 season. Against the Owls, Edwards posted a career-long 74-yard reception as part of his banner seven-catch, 187-yard, two-touchdown performance.
McNeill has spoken at length about the next man rising to the occasion when injuries befall starters, and Wiggins (18 receptions, 242 yards) did so within the first minute of the game against Southern Miss. A sophomore outside receiver playing in place of injured star Lance Lewis, Wiggins reeled in a seemingly innocent screen pass on the second play from scrimmage. He read his blocks well and dashed 72 yards for an ECU touchdown. Tonight he’ll start in place of Lewis again.
Another lingering injury has forced the Pirates’ pair of sophomore tailbacks — Dobson and Torrance Hunt — to try to provide a one-two punch out of the backfield. With JUCO transfer and leading rusher Reggie Bullock out again tonight with a thigh injury, it will be up to Dobson (152 rush yards, two TDs, eight receptions for 72 yards) and Hunt (298 yards, TD) to carry the load for a rush offense that hasn’t amassed 1,000 yards as a group against a rush defense ranked ninth in C-USA (189.8 yards/game).
Despite the Pirates’ 4-5 overall record, the exponential growth and improvement continues on the ECU defensive front seven, as evidenced by the surge of new faces like Geary. The starting outside linebacker spot manned by JUCO transfer Chris Baker is now — thanks to Baker’s lingering knee injury — in the hands of Geary for the second week straight. The redshirt freshman, one of many new starters on the defense, pounced on a fumble in the fourth quarter three weeks ago against Tulane.
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