
{"id":21106,"date":"2011-09-29T12:14:56","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T16:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=21106"},"modified":"2011-09-29T12:14:56","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T16:14:56","slug":"passion-runs-deep-in-unc-ecu-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/29\/passion-runs-deep-in-unc-ecu-rivalry\/","title":{"rendered":"Passion runs deep in UNC-ECU rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/support-the-players-by-filling-kenan-stadium\/landreth-mug-30\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20318\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"landreth-mug\" width=\"100\" height=\"134\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-74x100.jpg 74w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>By Eddy Landreth<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><br \/>\nThis week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s football game for Carolina does not count in the ACC standings, but there will be passionate play on the field Saturday night in Greenville.<\/p>\n<p>The game, which kicks off at 8 p.m. at a sold-out Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, is the kind of backyard brawl in which emotions flow at a peak.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Being that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m from Kinston, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personal,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Quinton Coples said.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the players from both teams competed or played together in high school.<\/p>\n<p>Even the coaches are longtime friends. ECU head coach Ruffin McNeill and UNC interim head coach Everett Withers have been on several coaching staffs together. Their families are close.<\/p>\n<p>But no one wants to lose to their close friends.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve played down there a couple of times [while coaching other teams], and I always thought it was an atmosphere for a great football game,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Withers said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a rivalry game. Our kids know a lot of their players. I know half their coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It seems like every stop Ruffin has made, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Withers said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know Erlene, his wife, as well.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>What is great about Withers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 approach is that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just another week\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a team should not get up more for one opponent than another.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He acknowledged the nature and importance of this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game and the rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When you are the University of North Carolina, you want to beat every school in this state,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Withers said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We know what it is, and we have to make sure we handle our business. There is some emotion in this game. I believe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a rivalry, so let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s go play it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Carolina quarterback Bryn Renner is from Virginia. Although this game does not carry the same emotion as it does for his North Carolina-bred teammates, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to win any less. He said he can understand the passion that runs deeply for his teammates in this rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, the Tar Heels are coming off a bitterly disappointing loss at Georgia Tech last Saturday. That in itself is enough to get the team ready to play the Pirates.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Losing is always tough, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to get over it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Renner said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Luckily, we have a great opponent in ECU to play. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking forward to going on the road again.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We took a poll to see how many people knew a player for ECU,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Renner said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153About everybody in the room raised their hand.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Coples said the cell phones have been burning hot all week.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be unbelievable,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coples said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a constant argument about who is going to win. This whole week, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just back and forth. We just take it for what it is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>To win this game, the Tar Heels will have to slow ECU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wide-open spread offense. The Pirates run the ball, but their running game comes disguised as a passing game at times.<\/p>\n<p>The Pirates threw the ball 42 times for 361 yards and three touchdowns in their 28-23 victory against the University of Alabama at Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p>Getting to the quarterback will not be easy, but hitting him will be necessary. ECU Quarterback Dominique Davis gets rid of the ball quickly in an effort to avoid sacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some of their passing game is considered their running game,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Withers said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You have to look at it that way. You have to do what happened to us last week: You have to get them in third and 7-plus. Then you can get after the quarterback.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s football game for Carolina does not count in the ACC standings, but there will be passionate play on the field Saturday night in Greenville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":20318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-21106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21108,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21106\/revisions\/21108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}