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Pirates hold cram session
By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
GREENVILLE — East Carolina football players may have finished up with exams, but they’re not yet done studying.
The Pirates will go through a bit of a “cram session” over the next three days as they prepare for No. 24 Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl. The game between the Pirates (7-5) and Broncos (10-2) will begin at 8 p.m. Dec. 23 and be televised by ESPN.
“We’ve had six practices up until this point (at noon Friday),” ECU coach Skip Holtz said at Friday’s media bowl luncheon. “We’ll end up with a total of 11. We’ll have our first pure Boise State practice starting (Friday).”
The third-year ECU coach said the Pirates will go “extremely hard” in practice through Sunday, which will include meetings and walk-throughs.
“It will almost be like a two-a-day mindset,” Holtz said. “We’re really going into a three-day cram session for everything we can get in with Boise State.”
Holtz said he’s hoping to get much accomplished before the team departs for Hawaii on Monday.
“I’d like to get as much of it done here as we can because, obviously, there will be some distractions when we get to Hawaii,” Holtz said. “I really don’t want to go over there and do all the game preparation.”
The Pirates will board a bus and leave ECU at 6 a.m. Monday. ECU players and coaches will board a plane at 8 a.m. in Kinston and take off for the 12-hour flight to Hawaii.
The Pirates are scheduled to land at 2 p.m. Hawaii-time Monday, where Holtz will immediately put his team to work. ECU will head to Aloha Stadium for a brief workout.
“We will go right to the stadium and have a light workout in shorts,” Holtz said. “We’ll run around and try to get some blood flowing.”
The Pirates will practice in Hawaii for five days leading up to the Dec. 23 bowl game. ECU will practice from 9:30 to 11:30 each morning and then hold meetings in the afternoon.
After a short practice Monday in shorts, the team will put on helmets and shoulder pads for Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s practice. The team will be back in shorts Thursday and Friday and then have a walk-through Saturday.
“The Boise State preparation will continue,” Holtz said. “I think it’s a balance when you go to a bowl game, especially going to some place like Hawaii, you really want to have a time period where you can really focus on what you have to get done from a football standpoint but, at the same time, I think the Hawaii Bowl does a great job with the functions and the way they orchestrated this entire thing.”
In between practices, the Pirates will have a chance to visit Pearl Harbor, go to a water park, experience a luau, hit the beach and take in the sights.
“They’re doing some great things for these players,” Holtz said. “I know it will be a phenomenal experience for our players and they will be lifetime memories.”
Holtz said the team will have to balance football and fun while in Hawaii.
“We’ll have to be mature and we’ll have to be focused,” Holtz said. “When it’s time for football, we have to come out and talk football. I don’t want to be on the practice field talking about the trip to the USS Arizona. When we’re on the bus going home after practice and they want to do that, that would be great. If they’re laying out on Waikiki Beach and getting their sun, I think that would be great. It would be great to have those experiences.
“I want them to have fun. I don’t want them to sit there for a week with a game-face on and a scowl on their face, but when we go to Aloha Stadium, they have to have that type of look on their face. It’s not about having fun, but it’s about what we came over there to do.”
Holtz said the trip to Hawaii is already a once-in-a-lifetime deal for many, adding that a bowl victory would add to it.
“As long as we handle this the right way, I think it can be a phenomenal trip,” Holtz said. “I think any time you go to a bowl game, it always makes the bowl game more rewarding at the end of the trip when you get to get on that plane with a (win).
“It always makes every event just a little bit more fun. You remember all the laughs and all the positive things that happened during the week. When you lose, you have a tendency to come home with a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth.”
HEALING
The time off between ECU’s last regular season game and the bowl game has been beneficial to those players who were banged up. Holtz was expecting linebacker Daniel Muhewzi to return to the practice field Friday. He also said linebackers Jeremy Chambliss and Nick Johnson should be good to go as well.
The only two players of significance out for the bowl game are defensive end Marcus Hands and offensive lineman Fred Hicks.
The Pirates will go through a bit of a “cram session” over the next three days as they prepare for No. 24 Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl. The game between the Pirates (7-5) and Broncos (10-2) will begin at 8 p.m. Dec. 23 and be televised by ESPN.
“We’ve had six practices up until this point (at noon Friday),” ECU coach Skip Holtz said at Friday’s media bowl luncheon. “We’ll end up with a total of 11. We’ll have our first pure Boise State practice starting (Friday).”
The third-year ECU coach said the Pirates will go “extremely hard” in practice through Sunday, which will include meetings and walk-throughs.
“It will almost be like a two-a-day mindset,” Holtz said. “We’re really going into a three-day cram session for everything we can get in with Boise State.”
Holtz said he’s hoping to get much accomplished before the team departs for Hawaii on Monday.
“I’d like to get as much of it done here as we can because, obviously, there will be some distractions when we get to Hawaii,” Holtz said. “I really don’t want to go over there and do all the game preparation.”
The Pirates will board a bus and leave ECU at 6 a.m. Monday. ECU players and coaches will board a plane at 8 a.m. in Kinston and take off for the 12-hour flight to Hawaii.
The Pirates are scheduled to land at 2 p.m. Hawaii-time Monday, where Holtz will immediately put his team to work. ECU will head to Aloha Stadium for a brief workout.
“We will go right to the stadium and have a light workout in shorts,” Holtz said. “We’ll run around and try to get some blood flowing.”
The Pirates will practice in Hawaii for five days leading up to the Dec. 23 bowl game. ECU will practice from 9:30 to 11:30 each morning and then hold meetings in the afternoon.
After a short practice Monday in shorts, the team will put on helmets and shoulder pads for Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s practice. The team will be back in shorts Thursday and Friday and then have a walk-through Saturday.
“The Boise State preparation will continue,” Holtz said. “I think it’s a balance when you go to a bowl game, especially going to some place like Hawaii, you really want to have a time period where you can really focus on what you have to get done from a football standpoint but, at the same time, I think the Hawaii Bowl does a great job with the functions and the way they orchestrated this entire thing.”
In between practices, the Pirates will have a chance to visit Pearl Harbor, go to a water park, experience a luau, hit the beach and take in the sights.
“They’re doing some great things for these players,” Holtz said. “I know it will be a phenomenal experience for our players and they will be lifetime memories.”
Holtz said the team will have to balance football and fun while in Hawaii.
“We’ll have to be mature and we’ll have to be focused,” Holtz said. “When it’s time for football, we have to come out and talk football. I don’t want to be on the practice field talking about the trip to the USS Arizona. When we’re on the bus going home after practice and they want to do that, that would be great. If they’re laying out on Waikiki Beach and getting their sun, I think that would be great. It would be great to have those experiences.
“I want them to have fun. I don’t want them to sit there for a week with a game-face on and a scowl on their face, but when we go to Aloha Stadium, they have to have that type of look on their face. It’s not about having fun, but it’s about what we came over there to do.”
Holtz said the trip to Hawaii is already a once-in-a-lifetime deal for many, adding that a bowl victory would add to it.
“As long as we handle this the right way, I think it can be a phenomenal trip,” Holtz said. “I think any time you go to a bowl game, it always makes the bowl game more rewarding at the end of the trip when you get to get on that plane with a (win).
“It always makes every event just a little bit more fun. You remember all the laughs and all the positive things that happened during the week. When you lose, you have a tendency to come home with a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth.”
HEALING
The time off between ECU’s last regular season game and the bowl game has been beneficial to those players who were banged up. Holtz was expecting linebacker Daniel Muhewzi to return to the practice field Friday. He also said linebackers Jeremy Chambliss and Nick Johnson should be good to go as well.
The only two players of significance out for the bowl game are defensive end Marcus Hands and offensive lineman Fred Hicks.
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