East Carolina Overcomes Mid-Season Swoon, Beats Tulsa, Wins Conference USA Title

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.

David Johnson had a shot at breaking the single-season passer rating heading into this game and everyone and their brother with a prophetic mouthpiece was picking Tulsa to head towards Memphis.

But then Skip Holtz's defense happened, and Johnson, one of the most turnover-free passers in the nation (hence the rating) threw an insane five interceptions -- one of which was returned for a touchdown --and fumbled once. The Pirates still didn't blow out the Golden Hurricane, despite all the freebies from Johnson.

Patrick Pinkney was just good enough (10-of-24 with a pretty abysmal 5.1 YPP), especially compared with Johnson, and an interception returned for six by Travis Simmons was enough to push Petey's crew past the Canes.