Bruins' Speight verbals to ECU

Beddingfield High senior defensive end Reece Speight gave his verbal commitment to East Carolina University last week. If Reece does become a Pirate, he will be the first Bruins to ink with an FBS program since Everette Brown signed with Florida State in 2005.

Familiar names on college football rosters

Several former area players are on Atlantic Coast Conference football rosters this fall. The list includes freshman Qwen Ballard, a walk-on at N.C. State who played at Hunt. Also, former SouthWest Edgecombe running back Jerome Dupree is with the Wolfpack.

North Carolina has 2011 Charles B. Aycock graduate Jarrod James on the offensive line while Kwamaine Battle, the 2006 Wilson Times Ironman of the Year, is a redshirt-senior defensive lineman at Virginia Tech. Battle redshirted last season after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the Hokies' second game last fall.

Also, former Fike standout defensive tackle Leroy Vick is at East Carolina but will redshirt this season after a knee injury incurred in the Pirates first spring scrimmage. Vick earned National Junior College Athletic Association preseason All-America acclaim last fall at Georgia Military and enrolled at ECU in January.

Time to move on for Christmas and college football

Is it just me or are there a lot of private homes and businesses with Christmas decorations still up? There seem to be more than a few homes and businesses still sprouting holy wreaths, plastic Santas and those weird animated wire reindeer.

Now I'm not one of these people who arises early on Dec. 26 to take down every last stitch of yuletide decor but, growing up, we always adhered to the policy that by New Year's Day, it was time to move on.

I hold that philosophy when it comes to college football as well. I'm sitting here on Jan. 7 watching the BCS "national championship" game and that's just wrong just like the Super Bowl in February or the World Series in November or, for that matter, high school football games in the middle of August. Everything wants to overstay its welcome these days.

Here's the drill: you finish up college football on Jan. 1, except for the all-star games which nobody cares about anyway. Then you deal with January's dismal weather by focusing on college basketball and the NFL playoffs, which should wrap up neatly by the end of the month. Then February, the focus on college hoops intensifies but, at the same time, you have spring training to offer the eternal hope that it will be warm again real soon.

By March, it's all college basketball, which concludes just as it's time to start playing baseball, just like the way just before it hit the ground and exploded, the Road Runner would step out of a phone booth Wile E. Coyote had pushed off a cliff. It's seamless.

I can't get into NBA and NHL playoffs when they're still going on after Memorial Day. I used to but I just can't do it anymore. Sports are about seasonal rhythms for me. Just like that old song by The Byrds (which I think was taken from a Bible verse) : "To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven."

Right now, it's time to watch the ending of a game I very nearly turned the channel on an hour ago. The Legend of Garrett Gilbert (or is it Gilbert Garrett?) is about to be written.

Despite what Davis says, Heels can't be excited

Sometimes you just have to wonder if what you read coming from someone's lips is the truth. Now, I'm not about to suggest North Carolina head football coach Butch Davis is anything less than an honest, upstanding fellow but a quote from Davis caught my eye in The Associated Press story Sunday on his team accepting a bid to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte.

Davis was quoted in the AP story: “Our players are excited to continue their season and play so close to home. We had tremendous fan support at the game in 2008 and we will need that again this year against an outstanding Pittsburgh team.”

The Tar Heels will play in the Meineke Bowl for the second straight year as they make their third consecutive trip to the game in Charlotte, called the Continental Tire Bowl in 2004 when UNC made its first appearance. The Heels have lost both previous meetings and it was my understanding, after speaking with the father of a player from The Wilson Times readership area, the UNC players did not want to return to Charlotte. After all, it's hardly a reward to play in a bowl less than 100 miles away in the same state in cold weather.

North Carolina might have gone to the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., to play Kentucky but when the Gator Bowl decided to give Florida State and its retiring head coach Bobby Bowden the spot it would typically hand to the ACC runner-up, in this year's case, Clemson. That pushed Clemson to the Music City Bowl and UNC was facing either the Emerald Bowl or the Meineke Bowl. The Emerald Bowl in San Francisco chose Boston College to play Southern California.

Now I know the thinking in Chapel Hill is that there will be lots of fans in Charlotte and travel expenses are much lower than going to San Francisco. But I wonder if the UNC players think playing in Charlotte against Pittsburgh (another team that lost to N.C. State) is better than spending a few days in one of the world's most scenic cities and facing one of college football's most storied programs.

But hey, the Heels can only blame themselves as losses to Virginia and State put them in this situation, along with Bowden's retirement. I just wonder if Davis' statement was a typical public relations put-a-good-spin-on-it utterance or if the Carolina players really are happy going back to Charlotte. Or maybe they've just fooled him.

Bowden's retirement means ACC bowl shakeup

Bobby Bowden's announcement that he is retiring as Florida State University's football coach after 34 seasons looks to have repercussions throughout the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Bowden said Tuesday he will step down after the Seminoles' bowl game and that's where it gets sticky. Stewart Verney of The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area reported Wednesday the Gator Bowl is courting FSU but not with the blessing of the ACC.

The Gator Bowl wants FSU because it will be the legendary Bowden's last game but that means the Gator won't take the loser of the ACC title game Saturday between Georgia Tech and Clemson, which it is not contractually obligated to do, Verney reports.

The ACC wants FSU in the Champs Sports Bowl and if that doesn't happen, the ensuing shakeup might move North Carolina out of the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., where the Tar Heels are reported to be going. That means the Tar Heels could either go back to the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte or the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. My guess is the UNC players would prefer to munch on sourdough bread as they take in the gorgeous views of San Francisco Bay from a cable car instead of playing for the second time in three years in Charlotte, which isn't much different from a regular-season game.

The players don't make the final decision on what bowl bid a team accepts. There's way too much money at stake for that to happen. Carolina will play in a bowl game, if invited, and it could mean the Meineke. But if it is, and I'm not a betting man, I'd wager on the Tar Heels' opponent that day.

Radford vs. Radford: who gets your vote?

Brothers Chris and Brian Radford made their marks at kickers for the Hunt High football team and both went on to play at the University of Richmond.

Well, now both brothers are on the ballot for the All-UR Stadium Team and you can vote for them as well as other Richmond players at each position. The school is building a new stadium and this is the last year for UR Stadium, formerly called City Stadium. As a season-long celebration, the university is holding an online contest to select its All-UR Stadium team.

Brian, now a senior at Richmond, was a big part of the Spiders' national championship season last year while older brother Chris was an all-conference punter. I'm told by their dad, Mike Radford, they will have a hard time beating former Washington Redskin great Mike Bragg (he of the single-bar helmet in the 1970s), who played at Richmond in the mid-1960s.

But you can help by visiting the Web site and casting a vote for your favorite Radford punter. The punter ballot is only up this week but you can vote as often as you want.

Boyette back on track

Duke redshirt senior running back Re'quan Boyette seems to have hit his stride already.

The 2005 Fike High School graduate peeled off a 55-yard scoring romp in the Blue Devils' 85-play scrimmage Friday morning in Wallace Wade Stadium.

That's good news for Boyette, who had 68 yards on six carries, who missed all last season with a leg injury after leading Duke in rushing in each of the previous two seasons.

The Blue Devils, who went 4-8 in head coach David Cutcliffe's inaugural season last fall, will play their annual Spring Game on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Wallace Wade. There is no admission charge.

ECU announces 2009 football schedule

East Carolina University released its 2009 football schedule Wednesday and the Pirates will face seven bowl participants, including Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia Tech in a Thursday night game in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

ECU also meets West Virginia, North Carolina and Appalachian State as part of its non-conference schedule. The Pirates also have a Tuesday night game and a Sunday night game. Half their 12 games are in Greenville.

Here is the complete schedule with everything but game times which aren't announced until a week before the games in most cases.

2009 EAST CAROLINA FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Sept. 5 - APPALACHIAN STATE
Sept. 12 - at West Virginia
Sept. 19 - at North Carolina
Sept. 26 - *UCF
Oct. 3 - *at Marshall
Oct. 10 - *at SMU
Oct. 17 - *RICE
Oct. 27 - *at Memphis (ESPN/Tue.)
Nov. 5 - VIRGINIA TECH (ESPN/Thurs.)
Nov. 15 - *at Tulsa (ESPN/Sun.)
Nov. 21 - *UAB
Nov. 28 - *SOUTHERN MISS
Dec. 5 - C-USA Championship Game (ESPN)

*Conference USA game

UPDATED: ECU to play Kentucky in Liberty Bowl; State gets Rutgers in Papajohns.com Bowl

N.C. State has agreed to play in the third annual Papajohns.com Bowl on Dec. 29 at 2 p.m. in Birmingham, Ala., against Big East Conference foe Rutgers.

East Carolina will play Southeastern Conference opponent Kentucky in the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2 at 5 p.m. in Memphis, Tenn.

Both games will be broadcast by ESPN.

East Carolina knew it was headed to Memphis, Tenn., for the Liberty Bowl when the Pirates defeated Tulsa 27-24 on Saturday in the Conference USA championship game.

The Pirates (9-4) will make their third appearance in the Liberty Bowl, which celebrates its 50th anniversary as they take on the Wildcats (6-6) making their first appearance in the game. This will be the second ever meeting between ECU and UK. The Wildcats won that matchup 6-3 on Nov. 13, 1993, in Lexington, Ky.

From ECU Sports Information:

ECU will have ticket, travel, and other ancillary information available on Monday, December 8th. All seating will be assigned using the Pirate Club priority point system. When ordering online Pirate Club member must login first and then place the order. Tickets will be available through the Athletic Ticket Office and by phone at 1-800-DIAL-ECU. Office hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Orders may also be placed online through the Online Ticket Center.

This will be the 24th bowl appearance for the Wolfpack, who finished 6-6. State was 4-4 in the ACC after an 0-4 start. Rutgers brings a 7-5 overall mark and finished 5-2 in Big East games.

From N.C. State Sports Information on getting tickets to the Papajohns.com Bowl:

There are 10,000 seats available to Wolfpack fans through the NC State Ticket Office beginning tonight on GoPack.com. Tickets are $40 and orders received before Dec. 12th will be mailed prior to Christmas. Orders received after Dec. 12th will be seated on a first-come, first-serve basis and available only at will-call options in Birmingham. Stay posted to GoPack.com for details about ticket will-call options.
NC State Faculty/Staff can order up to two discounted seats at $32 by showing a valid NC State ID at the NC State Ticket Office during normal business hours. Students may order tickets for $20 ($40 for guest tickets) online through their ticket account. .
Fans wishing to book official NC State travel packages can visit www.WolfpackClubTravel.com or call 1-800-924-9993 for information. Space will be limited.

Webster to serve country

I got word Thursday that Wilson's own Mike Webster will have a Very Important Duty come Saturday.

Mike will referee the Army-Navy football game, one of many plum assignments he's had as a college football ref. But the bigger aspect of Saturday's duty will come before the game when Mike and the head referee will serve as escorts to the guy who will flip the coin, one George W. Bush, the President of the United States.

Apparently, Mike had to get a security clearance from the Secret Service to handle this job. That's one heckuva thing to tell your grandkids and I'm sure Mike is pretty excited about it. I've known him since I was a little squirt playing football, basketball and baseball at the Rec when he was the athletic supervisor there.

What an honor for Mike, who is probably the first Wilsonian to escort a sitting president onto a football field to flip a coin. I don't know of any others. His fellow members of the Greater Wilson Rotary Club are proud of him as we all should be.

The game will be televised on CBS at noon Saturday so be sure to tune in and watch!

Syracuse standout has Wilson ties

It's been a rough season for the Syracuse University football team but one of the Orange's bright spots on defense has ties to Wilson.

Junior starting inside linebacker Jake Flaherty is the son of former Hunt High School principal Todd Flaherty, who was the school's second principal coming after John W. Jones.

The younger Flaherty, who was born in Rhode Island, is second in tackles with 60 for Syracuse, which is 2-7 overall and 1-4 in the Big East Conference.

Jake had an interception in the Orange's 35-17 loss at Rutgers on Saturday and was featured on the cover of the game program for Syracuse's home game against Louisville on Nov. 1.

Duke's Boyette to miss rest of season

In a not surprising but still disappointing announcement Wednesday morning, the Duke football program announced senior tailback Re'quan Boyette would not return from a knee injury this season.

Boyette, a former Fike High School star and the 2005 Wilson Daily Times Athlete of the Year, underwent surgery on Aug. 9 following an injury suffered in preseason practice. He will have one year of eligibility remaining.

Boyette was named one of four captains for the Blue Devils. He led the team in rushing in both his sophomore and junior seasons and has 1,072 career rushing yards.

"While we are disappointed that Re'quan will not get on the field this season, we are excited about him returning in 2009," Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said in a statement. "We are not going to play a young man if he is not ready, and with five games to play, Re'quan is not to the point where he could contribute. What is undeniable is Re'quan's commitment to our program. He has been an outstanding leader for our team."

Former Fike principal Jimmy Tillman told me Monday night at the Golden Demons' game against Northern Nash that Boyette is on pace to graduate in May. But Re'quan can enroll in graduate school at Duke, which would mean another year of free education.

In my four-plus years at the WDT, Boyette has been one of the most outstanding young athletes and men I've been privileged to cover. Here's to a full recovery for him and a chance to come back next season when the expectations for the Blue Devils should be markedly higher than this preseason now that they've already won four games, matching their victory total from the previous four seasons combined.

Pirates, Mountaineers to renew rivalry

East Carolina University announced Tuesday it will renew its football rivalry with Appalachian State University next September.

The game will be played in Greenville on Sept. 5 and revive an in-state rivalry that began in 1932. The Mountaineers have won 29 of the 39 meetings. The last time the teams played was Nov. 3, 1979.

Now all we need is for Barton College to bring back its football program and get on the schedules of these two old rivals...

Hoo boy! Here we go, State and ECU fans

Apparently there is a communication breakdown between the athletic departments at N.C. State University and East Carolina University.

Wolfpack athletic director Lee Fowler said on 99.9 FM The Fan on Wednesday the in-state rivals were only going to meet three times over the next eight seasons. Fowler also opined the reasons behind it were that ECU athletic director Terry Holland and head football coach Skip Holtz wanted to be sure ECU could "win and do some things properly."

Holland responded via an ECU press release on Wednesday afternoon.

While I have no first hand knowledge of the circumstance of the comments made on a radio talk show, these are the absolute facts as I know them regarding future football games with NC State:

1. Skip Holtz and Terry Holland want to play the other public Football Bowl Subdivision institutions in our state (NC State and UNC) as often as possible. These are great rivalry games that are good for the economy of this state and for eastern North Carolina in particular.

2. If NC State and UNC called today and told us that they would each play us home and home every year, we would do whatever necessary to make that work, as we did in 2006 when we moved the Virginia Tech series back a year in order to play at NC State in 2006 and have NC State and UNC in Greenville in 2007. We believe those games are that important to the
future of this area economically and otherwise. We are therefore TOTALLY committed to playing games against those institutions whenever the opportunity arises for us to play them.

3. Last spring, NC State and ECU began discussions about moving games around to allow each to achieve their desired home and away "balance." ECU specifically asked about moving the 2009 game scheduled for Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium to the 2010 season. We wanted the local rivalry game with NC State in 2010 when we expect to have completed our East End Zone project that could add between 5,000 and 7,000 seats to our stadium. Our only contracted non-conference home game for the 2010 season is Navy, and having NC State in that particular year would obviously make our season ticket package more attractive for the 2010 season.

4. There have been a number of suggested resolutions to achieve each institution's desired balance, including playing once every three years in the short term while leading to a longer term agreement to settle the issue of future games when the current coaches and athletics directors are not likely to be in their present positions .

5. However, the bottom line is that ECU and NC State have a signed contract to play in Greenville in 2009, 2012 and 2016 and in Raleigh in 2008, 2010, and 2013. Until there is a different schedule mutually agreeable to both teams, ECU is prepared to continue honoring that contract and expects NC State to do the same.

Ouch! UNC's Yates out for 6 weeks

Bad news for North Carolina football fans. The Associated Press reported a short time ago that Tar Heels quarterback T.J. Yates has a broken ankle and will be out of action for six weeks.

Yates was hurt in the third quarter of UNC's 20-17 loss to Virginia Tech in Kenan Stadium on Saturday. Yates played for another play then came off the field. He had thrown for 181 yards and a touchdown before being replaced by redshirt freshman Mike Paulus, who was 3 for 8 for 23 yards with a pair of costly interceptions.

Caught on tape: Police repelling Pirates fans

Here's an interesting clip from YouTube taken by a fan in the stands after East Carolina upset then No. 8-ranked West Virginia 24-3 on Saturday.

Police turn back exuberant Pirates fans

There is allegedly a shot of one officer punching a fan although, to be honest, it's hard to make out what is going on. The university is looking into these allegations.

Bad news for Boyette

Duke running back Re'quan Boyette, a Fike High School product, suffered a knee injury during Saturday's practice and underwent orthoscopic surgery Sunday, Blue Devils head coach David Cutcliffe announced.

Boyette, a senior who led Duke in rushing the past two seasons, will be out indefinitely. He has 1,072 yards for a 4.3 per-carry average in 33 career games.

The 2005 Wilson Daily Times Athlete of the Year will be replaced in the Duke lineup by his roommate of three years, Clifford Harris.

""We're certainly disappointed for Re'quan, but we know that he'll do
everything in his power to return to the field," Cutcliffe said. "We'll
now turn to Clifford Harris for senior leadership at running back and
see who among the younger players will step forward and take advantage
of this opportunity."

Duke opens its 2008 season Aug. 30 against James Madison in Wallace Wade Stadium.

Boyette sparkles in Duke scrimmage

The past three seasons haven't been especially kind to Duke football.

The Blue Devils have won exactly two games while losing 33.

But with new head coach David Cutcliffe taking over for Ted Roof, there is fresh hope in Durham. Perhaps there is also a chance for senior Re'quan Boyette to recapture some of the glory he experienced as a star running back at Fike High School.

Boyette is certainly off to a good start as he ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday's 90-snap scrimmage in Wallace Wade Stadium. Boyette, the 2004-05 Wilson Daily Times Athlete of the Year, peeled off a 65-yard scoring jaunt and averaged 7.7 yards per carry.

He has led Duke in rushing the past two last fall and has accumulated 1,072 yards in his three seasons — almost half of what he piled up in his senior season with the Golden Demons in 2004.

I remember Re'quan's 78-yard run to the end zone as a freshman against Florida State in 2005. It remains the 10th-longest scoring dash in Duke football history. Maybe with a new offensive system under Cutcliffe, Boyette will have a chance to show his speed more than he has the past few years.

The Blue Devils' conclude spring practice with the Spring Game on Saturday in Wallace Wade. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.