FanHouse PatrickPinkney

I tell you what -- "East Carolina is your conference champion" is not a phrase I really planned on hearing (or wanted to hear, for that matter) in 2008. However, after the Purple Pirates defeated Tulsa, 27-24, on a late field goal to win the Conference-USA championship and a Liberty Bowl berth, it's just a phrase everyone is going to have to get used to hearing.

The Pirates, though, without delving into some ridiculous coming-of-age type of storyline, are once again fun to root for; the first few weeks of this season, the Pirates were America's sweetheart, rising up in the polls as they continued to upset bigger name teams.

And people whispered those magic "BCS" letters, because the Pirates, could have, conceivably, run the table in their Conference and landed in a big January bowl. They didn't make it all the way to the top, but a resurgent second half of the season has them headed towards the Liberty Bowl now (as I predicted elsewhere).

Oh yeah -- the game itself was interesting too.

It didn't take long for East Carolina quarterback Patrick Pinkney to go from early Heisman hopeful to sideline cheerleader.

The Pirates' senior quarterback was the talk of college football after completing better than 78 percent of his passes in leading East Carolina to wins over No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 8 West Virginia to open the season. But, after three straight losses in which Pinkney completed just 52 percent of his passes, the Pirates' gunslinger has traded in his purple helmet for a clipboard and ball cap.

Pinkney got the start versus Memphis on Saturday, but after two ineffective series was lifted in favor of junior Rob Kass with ECU trailing 7-0.

Although East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said before Saturday's game that the Pirates will likely platoon the two quarterbacks, Pinkney did not see the field again after Kass got the hot hand.

Kass was at the helm of all five Pirates scoring drives and threw for 159 yards and two touchdowns in the second half , as ECU scored 23 unanswered point after intermission to rout Memphis, 30-10.

Afterwards, Holtz said that Pinkney and Kass will continue to split playing time as the season progresses.

"Right now, we'll go back and break down the film and evaluate it," Holtz said. "I suspect we'll give them both looks, then after three or four series, we'll go with whoever has the hot hand."

ECU Will. Not. Go. Away.

After a fairly unpalatable morning set of games, we had some intriguing matchups this afternoon; Georgia, East Carolina, Oregon, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech -- the latter by default because the ACC is horrible -- all had BCS aspirations heading into the third week of college football.

Four of those teams still do, but it wasn't for a lack of trying to fail.

Georgia needed a last second interception by Chris Smelley (Dugout Name and license plate: SMLLYCOX) to overcome what really is looking like a disturbingly stout South Carolina defense (it wasn't just NC State, we swear!). The 'Cocks held Knoshown Moreno to just 79 yards on 20 carries even though he punched one in, and Matthew Stafford was hardly effective. But the Dogs held on and their BCS chances prevail.

Exciting recap I know, but that's because I spent most of the afternoon watching a shoddy YouTube-like feed of East Carolina squaring off against Tulane. ECU AD Terry Holland had oh-so-generously offered to play the game in Greenville as Ike, et al approached the coast (what a guy, huh?) and Tulane oh-so-obviously declined the invite.