Memphis Roar

 

 

 

Last week: 

Memphis Tigers Lost 36-16 @ Southern Mississippi

East Carolina Won 49-13 vs. Rice

Latest Line:  ECU -4

Coaches:  Tommy West, 10th season (49-58 overall)    Skip Holtz, 5th season (33-25)

 

INTERESTING STORYLINE:

 

You would not be alone if you believed that a 2006 early season matchup between the Tigers and the Pirates was a turning point for both teams.  In the third game of the season, the Tigers, who where in their first post-DeAngelo Williams season where trying to continue the winning ways that had been established, while the Pirates had won only 3 games in the previous 2 seasons and where led by first year head coach Skip Holtz.  The Tigers jumped out to a 20-7 first half lead, but the Pirates rallied to win 35-20.  Since then, the Pirates have steadily climbed in the CUSA rankings culminating with last season’s CUSA title and Liberty Bowl appearence.  Meanwhile the Tigers have never seriously challenged for the East division title, finishing only as high as second during the 2007 seaon.

 

TIGERS:

 

The Tigers continue their attempts to bounce-back from a rough start to this season. Memphis enters their 9th game of the season against a familiar Conference USA foe in the East Carolina Pirates. Unfortunately, Memphis has been sputtering through the season with inconsistent play and plagued by injuries to the quarterback position. Having lost 3 of 4 including last weeks disappointing 36-16 loss in Hattiesburg, the Tigers enter tonight’s game with their 3rd starting quarterback of the seasons.  Will Hudgens will be starting his 3rd straight after replacing the injured Tyler Bass who had season ending shoulder surgery earlier this month.Will Hudgens, a 6th years senior has taken the reigns under center. Hudgens provides plenty of experience throughout an injury-riddled career at Memphis. The top priority for this Memphis offense is to POUND THE ROCK; establish the run with Curtis Steele. Steele missed some time with injury returned last week against Southern Miss logging 136 yds on 24 carries. Steele has been the workhorse in his short Memphis career and hasn’t slowed down when he is healthy and is making his case for being a potential big time player at the next level.

 

The Tigers rushing attack will be bolstered by T.J. Pitts, who will spell Steele occasionally when he needs a breather. The coaching staff must trust in Steele  to run the ball with authority and eat the clock. He has two straight hundred yard games, and the anticipated weather forcast may force the Tigers to rely on Steele’s legs once again who currently leads the team with 359 yards and 12 total TD’s. For Hudgens to be effective, the offensive line must, absolutely must, get a huge push up front and provide him ample time to go through his reads and utilize his oversized wide receivers in Duke Calhoun and Carlos Singleton. Duke Calhoun is the top WR in C-USA with 40 receptions for 666 yards and 5 scores. His counterpart is Carlos Singleton who has rebounded from a slow start to produce 17 receptions for 284 yards.

 

PIRATES:

 

The Pirates roll in the boasting a 4-3 record with wins over Central Florida, Appalachian St., Marshall, and Rice. One year after shocking the country with surprising victories over Virginia Tech and West Virginia, the Pirates have somewhat struggled to repeat the same success. ECU quarterback Patrick Pinkney has accounted for a solid number of yards, but has not been equally impressive  through the air with only 7 touchdowns to 8 interceptions. Although Pinkney’s play has been abysmal, the Pirates running game has been in full effect with a running back by committee in Dominique Lindsay(431 yds, 3 TDs) and Brandon Jackson(264 yds, 3 TDs).

 

Obviously, the Pirates offense begins with the running game with Lindsay and Jackson, but one weapon the Pirates do have at their expense is Dwayne Harris. Harris, a similar player to Ole Miss’ Dexter McCluster, is coming off a monster game against Rice with nine catches for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns. Memphis may have to use double coverage on Harris to contain him, because he will get his touches, whether it be at wideout or running the ball out of the backfield. On the defensive side of the ball, Memphis must beware of LB/DE C.J. Wilson who can rush the passer from either the strong side or weak side linebacker position or he can stick his hand in the dirt and take on a tackle.

 

STRUGGLING DEFENSES

 

The ECU defense has fallen off of last years pace as the league leader in both yards and points, which led to the Liberty Bowl birth.  This years defensive unit ranks 4th in overall yards (359 yds/game) and 5th in points (24.8 pts/game).  However their rushing defense has been exceptionally stingy yielding only 117 yards/game.  This will surely test Steele and Memphis’ young offensive line.  On the other hand the Pirate’s secondary has been more generous ranking only 9th out of 12 CUSA schools while giving up almost 240 yards/game through the air.  Should the weather hold up Hudgens, Calhoun, Singleton and company may be able to exploit this part of the ECU defensive unit.

 

Likewise the Tigers defense has fallen back from last year’s resurgency.  Currently the Tigers defense ranks 9th in overall yards at 412 yds/game and 7th in points allowed at 28 pts/game.  While the Tiger’s pass defense has been better than earlier in the season, currently allowing 228 yds/game, the run defense has been pourous giving up 184 yds/game.  The Tigers’ front seven must contain Pinkney and the Pirates’ rushing attack tonight if Memphis is to break the Pirates’ four game winning streak in the series.

 

WHAT WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?

 

 

One area the Tigers have really struggled in is special teams, and that is a strength of Skip Holtz’s team. The return game has been especially favorable for the Pirates as they are #1 in C-USA in punt returns and #4 in kickoff returns, with ECU’s Dwayne Harris having two scores on kickoff returns. Memphis is #12 in the league on punt returns and #11 in the league on kickoff returns. Memphis must reverse the special teams miscues to have a chance to pull off the upset.

 

Special teams play may ultimately decide the game.  Senior kicker Matt Reagan has been a nice find as the new punter, but has continued to struggle with his place kicking making only 5 of 9.  Additionally, his punts have tended to be low and flat.  While the distance of the punts have been more than acceptable, the lack of hang time has given returners a chance to set up blocks.  Additionally new kickoff ace Paulo Henriques has been disappointing with the team’s kickoff return yardage ranking 80th in the country.  An overall lack of touchbacks by the Memphis kickers has plagued the team since that guy named Gastkowski left.  This will be amplified tonight as return ace Dewayne Harris, who has returned kickoff’s for touchdowns in two straight games, will test the Tigers’ kick off coverage team.  Memphis must contain Harris and the rest of the Pirates’ return team to give the defense better field position and keep the Pirates’ from getting cheap points.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Overall this game could be decided by the abilitiy of Tigers’ run game to move the ball against the Pirates’ run defense.  Expect Pinkney and company to have some success against the injury depleted Tiger secondary, but containment can be accomplished using field position and QB pressure.  Finally, look for the Tigers’ receiving corps to severly test the Pirates’ secondary.  With tonight’s line at only 4, you can see that this game is expected to be much closer than some are predicting.  As you probably know, Vegas knows more about matchups than most of us.  Expect a close game decided by a play late in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This story was co-written by staff writers Larry Mosley and Zach Paxton.