Logan just waiting for Garrard to blossom as his quarterbackBy Alan Wooten, The Daily Reflector
David Garrard's game is a lot warmer than the dead of
winter.
But head coach Steve Logan's job of patiently waiting for
him to blossom is about like waiting in January until the first week of April for your
azaleas. They'll be a sight to see once in bloom, but the time before then is filled with
anxiousness.
"In the huddle he's calm and doesn't say much,"
said veteran receiver J.J. McQueen. "He's starting to be a leader, (compared to) what
I've seen in the past with Marcus (Crandell) and Danny Gonzalez. He's starting to take
that role of responsibility."
Logan's plan for nurturing the gifted Southern Durham
High School quarterback has been well-documented. In addition to the traditional red-shirt
season Garrard had last year, Logan used him in relief of Bobby Weaver the first four
games of the season with the idea of showing him things on the sideline early in games.
Both player and coach said that was beneficial.
With Weaver injured the last three weeks, Garrard came
off the bench behind fifth-year senior Ernest Tinnin in the fifth game, made his first
collegiate start at Alabama - with the Pirates using a limited play selection for the
first half - and got his second start at arch rival Southern Mississippi.
Saturday's home game with Houston (3:30 kickoff) could be
Garrard's first start in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, unless Weaver is pronounced healthy enough
to play. Logan's latest word is he's unsure if Weaver will be ready again this week.
"He didn't do anything to hurt us and played within
himself most of the day," Logan said after Garrard's second start last week. "I
think he grew up a little bit more."
But the growing pains are tough. Garrard has thrown for
942 yards and five touchdowns, completing 67 of 119 passes (56.3 percent) with five
interceptions.
"They were two losses," Garrard said of his two
starts. "But I'm trying to stay positive. I think I'm still making my right
keys."
With the playbook a bit more open, Logan agreed.
"I didn't ask him to check too many plays at
Alabama," Logan said. "He checked almost every play at Southern Miss against a
very difficult scheme and missed two checks out of about 40."
But his 14-for-20 afternoon (102 yards) had its problems.
There were two sacks, no pass longer than 15 yards and one costly interception, plus what
Logan saw that showed up indirectly in the stats.
"What he did that hurt," Logan said, "when
we watched the film, the receiver was going out the back end of the secondary which he
never saw. It was a progressive read for him, he should have been getting there some time
with his eyes. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't.
"But the loss of those opportunities is what killed
us. Because in the design of things, you're designing a play to gives you a chance to
score. And when it doesn't happen, it's an opportunity lost."
But Logan is far from being a coach down on his player.
Earlier this month he noted that Garrard was ahead of the pace he observed when former
heralded quarterbacks such as Jeff Blake, Crandell and Gonzalez were Pirates.
Logan noted that in NCAA statistics, three freshmen
quarterbacks are ranked in passing efficiency. Georgia's Quincy Carter is 12th, Texas'
Major Applewhite is 22nd and Garrard is 37th.
"The kid at Georgia, obviously he's 21 or 22 years
old so he's been around, he's a bit of a unique deal there," Logan said. "But my
point is David has played really good football the last two football games."
But he's far from being the quarterback he can be. And
Logan, and his teammates, can only patiently wait.
"He's getting better and playing well," Logan
said. "His numbers are not bad. He's growing right along."
Reality check: Pirates trying to regroupBy Alan Wooten, The Daily Reflector
Postgame chats with East Carolina head coach Steve Logan
have seldom lacked emotion.
The seventh-year coach carries out his job the same as he
expects of his players - with passion. But his appearance in the Southern Mississippi
weight room last Saturday after a 41-7 defeat offered what at first appeared to be a
contrast.
The strain of being down by more than three scores for
the last 1 quarters to an arch rival was enough to sap anybody. And the way it came
about didn't make it any easier.
"I was disappointed in the score because I know the
score is not indicative of the difference in the programs," Logan reflected this
week. "And that bothered me. That's what I've been dealing with."
While he might have seemed numb or shell-shocked, the
real dilemma was his passion for success and another crossroads had met head on.
The first came after a 38-3 loss at Virginia Tech, when
he knew his team had shown enough positives despite defeat that a good season was still
ahead.
Despite a one-point loss at Alabama, incentive was not in
short supply for the trip to Hattiesburg, and nobody on the Pirates' sideline was
oblivious to the obvious - Tulane is all but bowl-bound, and Conference USA's other spot
in either the Liberty or Humanitarian bowls essentially boils down to the teams who were
fighting it out there in Roberts Stadium.
For all the Pirates could seem to do right, it never got
reflected on the scoreboard. And it seemed anytime Southern Miss caught a break, it
translated into points.
Wham! Didn't take long for a 34-point spread to develop.
And with it an unusual look into the face of a head coach who had to quickly try to get
his team focused on a young and hungry Houston team that visits Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium this
Saturday.
"That football game, they played very, very well and
we . . . here again, I can start to sound stupid, but when I watched the film,
we played very well," Logan said.
Southern Miss had two returns for touchdowns. The Eagles'
offense put up three TDs and a field goal - 24 points, or what Logan wants his teams to
get every week in order to post victories.
"We just had some very unfortunate things happen
that it's very difficult, very difficult for me to deal with because obviously I didn't
plan on it happening," Logan said.
The locker room didn't become a sideshow of frustration.
But a reality check was taking place individually.
"We did put a lot of our eggs in the same basket
last week," junior linebacker Jeff Kerr said. "But we're just going to have to
look past that. We've got to get over that. We can't go out there and feel sorry for
ourselves for losing that game and thinking that the season is over."
It is the true test of pride and character.
"This is exactly where it comes from," Kerr
said.
With or without bowls.
"We've just got to win the last four games and let
whoever handles that bowl stuff handle it," former D.H. Conley running back Jamie
Wilson said. "If we don't win, it doesn't make any difference."
Logan recalled a John Cooper line to best describe the
loss at Southern Miss.
"I think they (the players) think in their minds
that wasn't indicative of the difference in the programs," Logan said. "At the
same time, that's what it was that day.
"So you just get on past it, go to the next game.
It's a John Cooperism that there's nothing wrong that a victory won't cure. That's what we
need to do, go win one."
Pirates' Russell could be lost for the seasonBy Alan Wooten, The Daily Reflector
After Saturday's loss at Southern Mississippi, senior
offensive lineman Corey Russell was thought to have played his last game.
The Fairmont Heights, Md., senior left the field after
getting his knee twisted on the Pirates' final drive with a minute left. Head coach Steve
Logan was told by trainer Mike Hanley on the sideline it appeared to be a torn medial
collateral ligament, which is usually a five-week rehabilitation.
"On the sideline, Mike told me it was torn, and
(Sunday) Mike told me it was what he called a No. 2 strain, which is evidently bad, worse
than a No. 1," Logan said Monday at his weekly press conference. "They've got
him immobilized, but if he does come back, it'll probably be the last game of the
season."
Russell's value was far more than being the primary
backup to senior left tackle Dwayne Ledford. Logan said Russell was the only offensive
lineman who could play both sides at guard or tackle.
"Sherwin Lacewell is a swing guard and center,"
Logan said of his sophomore starting right guard. "But as far as tackle position, we
don't have anybody else that can do that."
Junior Derrick Gamble is the backup tackle for starting
sophomore Samein Jones on the right side. Bobby Parker, a 6-3, 280-pound sophomore from
Hyattsville, Md., will be moved into Russell's position behind Ledford.
"The value there was he was a true swing
player," Logan said of Russell. "He played left guard, right guard, left tackle,
right tackle. He played all of them all of his career. And really, he was playing some
good football for us."
Junior linebacker Jeff Kerr, who missed one season in
high school and one at ECU because of knee injuries, said he got chills when he saw
Russell go down.
"Whenever I see somebody go down with a knee injury,
that's all I can do is think back to when I sat on the sideline," Kerr said.
"It's absolutely heartbreaking.
"If you ever have the heart to want to go out there
on the field and play every single play, and then you see somebody go down like that, if
that doesn't take your game to another level and take everything to a different
perspective, I don't know what will.
"I sat out the season twice, and that's the worst
feeling in the world."
Senior tight end J.J. McQueen agreed.
"Corey has been in the fire a lot of games,"
McQueen said. "When he's called upon, he gets the job done. We're going to miss him.
"I had a good sense of urgency before, but it made
me pick it up a lot yesterday (Sunday) at practice because I know I had to carry more of
the load than I normally do, emotionally if anything."
Nix, USM keep East Carolina guessing on 'D'
By Alan Wooten, The Daily Reflector
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Last week East Carolina's defense
spent an unusual afternoon playing without leading tackler Jeff Kerr. Saturday the Pirates
had him, but not a good read on Southern Mississippi's offense.
Derrick Nix, the Eagles' true freshman running back,
turned into the big beneficiary, often running three yards past the line of scrimmage
before being hit as Southern Miss posted a 41-7 victory.
"All I know is we couldn't pick up on their runs,
where they were going to run or when they were going to run," said Kerr, who led the
Pirates with 10 tackles a week after missing the Alabama game because of a minor
concussion sustained in practice.
Southern Miss ran for 147 yards, with Nix getting 116 on
27 carries. His 1-yard scoring run on the first possession of the third quarter, during
which he made six carries, pushed the Eagles ahead 31-7 and basically sealed any chance
for an ECU win.
"I felt they had a lot of formations we didn't go
over in practice," added redshirt freshman linebacker Pernell Griffin, who was second
on the team with eight stops. "I guess we weren't prepared. Their offense is
something . . . I've never seen anything like it."
The Pirates gave up 342 yards to the Eagles (5.2 per
play). Southern Miss also converted 6 of 14 third-down chances and one fourth-down try.
"The thing is, we had more yards than they did at
the half," said ECU defensive coordinator Paul Jette. "The first series they
hurt us with the running game, but after that we adjusted and settled down and played
well.
"They didn't hurt us with a big pass until it was
31-7."
USM quarterback Lee Roberts completed 12 of 20 passes for
193 yards with no interceptions. He threw touchdowns passes of 4 and 26 yards to Sherrod
Gideon.
Returns are in - and they're winding up in ECU's end zone
By Alan Wooten, The Daily Reflector
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Election day is more than a week
away, but the returns are in on East Carolina.
Mostly in the end zone.
For the second week in a row, the Pirates were severly
hurt by a return to the end zone - this time twice - in Saturday's 41-7 loss at Southern
Mississippi. One week after giving up a two-point PAT return, the Pirates had a punt and
interception returned for touchdowns by the Golden Eagles duo of Eddie Shaw and Terrance
Parrish.
"The punt return was huge," former J.H. Rose
defensive back Kevin Monroe said. "We had just scored, had a big drive, and on the
punt return they came out and made a big play. That took the wind out of the sail of the
whole team."
The Pirates were ahead by a touchdown when Eddie Shaw
fielded a 42-yard punt from Andrew Bayes and went down the right sideline 54 yards. Bayes
had a shot at him on the ECU 22 but missed the tackle.
"I didn't do my job," Monroe said. "I'm
supposed to turn it back inside, and I didn't do it."
The Pirates' offense was revived a bit early in the
second quarter, but a drive into Eagles territory stalled. After a 5-yard delay penalty,
Bayes was barely wide on a 43-yard field goal.
The defense held on the next series, but two plays later
redshirt freshman David Garrard was about to be hit by blitzing linebacker Ty Trahan and
threw into the hands of Terrance Parrish, who returned 38 yards for the score.
Lee Roberts passed to Sherrod Gideon for the two-point
conversion, and the Eagles were in command to stay 21-7.
"We came out and started well," ECU head coach
Steve Logan said. "The punt return was a fundamental breakdown in what has been
coached by our contain player.
"It hasn't happened all year long. We give up the
punt return and the interception and they have scored 14 points without their offense
taking a snap.
"They are too good to do that to. They are a good
football team."
Southern Miss deals ECU's postseason hopes a serious blow with decisive
41-7 win
By Alan Wooten, The Daily Reflector
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Name anything for East Carolina, and
Southern Mississippi took care of it.
Eddie Shaw, Ty Trahan and Terrance Parrish carried the
biggest daggers, and the balance of the Golden Eagles shipwrecked the Pirates' hopes for a
postseason bowl 41-7 Saturday afternoon in M.M. Roberts Stadium. The Homecoming crowd of
24,020 that might have thought they'd come to see a Conference USA showdown instead saw a
meltdown that has left ECU on the outside looking in for the league's two postseason
berths.
"The standards are very rigid and high with the
particular situation there is with college football right now concerning us," East
Carolina head coach Steve Logan said of his team's postseason chances. "We've got to
hustle around and win as many games as we can win and see what happens."
The Pirates (4-3, 1-1 C-USA), who host Houston this
Saturday, are now behind both Tulane and Southern Miss in the C-USA, which sends teams to
the Liberty and Humanitarian bowls.
East Carolina was ahead in several categories at the half
but trailed miserably in the one that counted most - a score of 24-7. The Eagles (4-3, 3-1
C-USA), who visit Alabama next, were plus-2 in the turnover category - one going into
their end zone, and the other made in ECU's end zone.
The Pirates had their best day running the football since
1996, gained more yards than the Eagles and didn't let the heralded Southern Miss trio of
quarterback Lee Roberts and receivers Sherrod Gideon and Todd Pinkston do any major
damage.
But they also didn't need to. The haymakers were Shaw (a
54-yard punt return that wiped out ECU's brief lead) and Trahan, whose pressure on David
Garrard led to a 38-yard interception return for a touchdown by Parrish, giving Southern
Miss a 21-7 lead.
"We knew this was for the conference
championship," ECU junior corner Kevin Monroe said after a day spent mostly as a
shadow to Gideon (four catches, 92 yards) and Pinkston (three catches, 20 yards).
But the mountain of momentum that turned in the first
half was too much to climb. If the Eagles didn't end the game, they at least killed any
suspense by taking the second-half kickoff and marching 81 yards to a Derrick Nix 1-yard
scoring run for a 31-7 lead.
"You can't give 'em 14 points without them having to
earn them," Logan said. "And they just broke two plays right there. It's very
very hard to come out of.
"And then the nail was taking the opening drive of
the second half and putting it in the end zone. That was just about it right here. We were
playing well enough defensively if we would have held up in the other areas, but we
didn't."
Garrard, making his second start in as many weeks,
directed the Pirates 76 yards in nine plays after the opening kickoff. The drive was
sparked by Leonard Henry's 15-yard run and a 15-yard pass to Jamie Wilson. It ended with
Henry impressively carrying 17 yards for his first career score.
ECU's defense held the next possession, but Shaw turned
the momentum with his return against the nation's seventh-best net punting unit. Shaw
returned the next punt he got 13 yards, and the Eagles moved 49 yards to a touchdown from
Roberts and Gideon for a 13-7 lead.
Roberts' pass to Gideon, for 26 yards with 3:38 to play
in the first period, was the first time the duo had connected on the day. Pirates senior
Travis Darden blocked the extra point, but "'Ol Mo" never changed sidelines
again.
Southern Miss seized command with 9:07 to go in the half
when Parrish returned a Garrard pass to the end zone. Trahan blitzed up the middle as
Garrard looked for LaMont Chappell, and Parrish went practically untouched down the left
sideline. Roberts threw to Gideon for the two-point conversion.
"He was open going across the middle," Garrard
said. "And a guy (Trahan) hit my arm as I was throwing, and the ball popped up in the
air."
Tim Hardaway's 38-yard field goal 2:12 before
intermission pushed the halftime margin to 17. The Pirates threatened again before the end
of the half, with Jamie Wilson's 64-yard run moving them to the Eagles' 28.
But two snaps later on a halfback pass, Wilson underthrew
Chappell and Leo Barnes made the interception near the goal line.
"It was hard to play in this environment," said
Pirates redshirt freshman linebacker Pernell Griffin, whose eight tackles were second on
the team to the 10 of junior linebacker Jeff Kerr. "The crowd was on your back, the
band was on your back. It was hard to get the momentum after those two (return)
scores."
And the running of Nix made sure there would be no ECU
comeback. Nix finished with 116 yards on 27 carries.
USM capped ito ff with Hardaway's field goal of 35 yards
and Gideon's 4-yard scoring pass from Roberts in the fourth quarter - the first
final-period score allowed by ECU since the season opener.
"I was a little worried after their first possession
when they took it down the field and scored," Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower
said. "But they didn't score any more points because we adjusted defensively.
"It was a good solid win for us against a team that
was playing pretty good."
