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Pirates using bowl loss as motivation
By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
GREENVILLE — Last year’s 24-7 loss to South Florida in the PapaJohns.com Bowl is still fresh in the minds of several East Carolina football players.
The Pirates are using that as a motivating factor heading into Sunday’s Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.
“Last year we were just happy to go to a bowl game,” linebacker Fred Wilson said. “We were more worried about going to a bowl game than winning a bowl game. This year we’re happy about going to a bowl game, but we want to come back with a victory. We’re going there to take care of business.”
ECU (7-5) will take on No. 24 Boise State (10-2) in the Hawaii Bowl.
Senior running back Chris Johnson, who earned All-Conference USA and All-America honors this season, wants to help lead ECU to its first bowl win since a 40-27 nod over Texas Tech in the 2000 galleryfurniture.com Bowl.
“If you look at the score of last year’s game and if you watched the game last year, you know how we’ll use that as motivation,” Johnson said. “We went out there and we really didn’t do anything on offense.
“We’re going into this bowl game thinking that it will still be a fun experience, but we know we have to work hard and we can’t do what we did last year.”
ECU head coach Skip Holtz said the Pirates, who left for Hawaii on Monday, will know what to expect since they played in a bowl last year.
“A year ago, we were excited to go to a bowl game,” Holtz said. “We say it all the time, ‘act like you’ve been there before.’ But when you think about last year’s team and they had gone 1-10, 2-9, 5-6 and then 7-5, it’s hard to act like you’ve been there before when you never have been there before.
“For them, I think they were just really excited to have the opportunity to go to a bowl. We did not play very well. I think they played hard, but I don’t think we had the type of focus that we needed during the course of the week to get ready.”
Holtz said a bowl victory would give the team something to build on for the future.
“I think this team is really trying to help the program grow and take another step,” Holtz said. “They understand that it’s not enough just to go to a bowl game, but we have to do what we need to do in order to find a way to compete with a great team like Boise State.”
A win would help the Pirates get rid of that sour taste they had after last year’s loss.
“That bitter taste of defeat, you never lose that,” ECU quarterback Rob Kass said. “You never want to have that again.”
The Pirates are using that as a motivating factor heading into Sunday’s Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.
“Last year we were just happy to go to a bowl game,” linebacker Fred Wilson said. “We were more worried about going to a bowl game than winning a bowl game. This year we’re happy about going to a bowl game, but we want to come back with a victory. We’re going there to take care of business.”
ECU (7-5) will take on No. 24 Boise State (10-2) in the Hawaii Bowl.
Senior running back Chris Johnson, who earned All-Conference USA and All-America honors this season, wants to help lead ECU to its first bowl win since a 40-27 nod over Texas Tech in the 2000 galleryfurniture.com Bowl.
“If you look at the score of last year’s game and if you watched the game last year, you know how we’ll use that as motivation,” Johnson said. “We went out there and we really didn’t do anything on offense.
“We’re going into this bowl game thinking that it will still be a fun experience, but we know we have to work hard and we can’t do what we did last year.”
ECU head coach Skip Holtz said the Pirates, who left for Hawaii on Monday, will know what to expect since they played in a bowl last year.
“A year ago, we were excited to go to a bowl game,” Holtz said. “We say it all the time, ‘act like you’ve been there before.’ But when you think about last year’s team and they had gone 1-10, 2-9, 5-6 and then 7-5, it’s hard to act like you’ve been there before when you never have been there before.
“For them, I think they were just really excited to have the opportunity to go to a bowl. We did not play very well. I think they played hard, but I don’t think we had the type of focus that we needed during the course of the week to get ready.”
Holtz said a bowl victory would give the team something to build on for the future.
“I think this team is really trying to help the program grow and take another step,” Holtz said. “They understand that it’s not enough just to go to a bowl game, but we have to do what we need to do in order to find a way to compete with a great team like Boise State.”
A win would help the Pirates get rid of that sour taste they had after last year’s loss.
“That bitter taste of defeat, you never lose that,” ECU quarterback Rob Kass said. “You never want to have that again.”
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| Washington boys remain undefeated on the year |
