The 15th ranked East Carolina Pirates have been without a doubt the best story in college football throughout the first three weeks of this young college football season. The not highly regarded team from Greenville, North Carolina has arguably had the most impressive wins throughout the first three weeks of the season. Unranked East Carolina beat the 17th ranked Virginia Tech Hokies, at a neutral site, during the first week of the season. They sealed the victory with a blocked punt returned for a touchdown by T.J. Lee in the waning moments of the game. The following weekend they faced the 8th ranked West Virginia Mountaineers. The Pirates steamrolled the Mountaineers and the game was essentially over by halftime. The final score: East Carolina 24, West Virginia 3. East Carolina had held Pat White and the West Virginia high-octane offense to without a touchdown, a first for the mountaineers since the 2001 season. This past weekend the Pirates went into Tulane and beat the Green Wave in maybe their toughest game of the season.
This season could end up being a very memorable one for the Pirates. East Carolina is ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 1999 and in beating the Mountaineers, they also be a top 10 team for the first time since 1999 as well. The key for the Pirates thus far has been the stellar play of quarterback Patrick Pinkney. Pinkey has a quarterback rating of 160.95 with four touchdowns compared to one interception. Not everything is great in pirate land though. The pirates just likely lost their top linebacker, Quentin Cotton, for the season with a right knee injury. The question now is if East Carolina can handle this adversity and finish the season undefeated. The schedule starts to look a little nicer now with their toughest opponent probably being UCF. Can the Pirates be BCS busters? It looks like we will just have to wait and see.
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