NCAA Football east carolina Pirates

Turkey Legs to Go is FanHouse's complete travel guide for all of the 2008-2009 college bowl games. Here, we cover the Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tennessee), which pits Kentucky against East Carolina.

Overview/Matchup: A strong finish by the East Carolina Purple Pirates -- including a Conference USA championship -- has them headed to a rare post-New Year's bowl game. Skip Holtz -- who already announced he would return to Greenville next year -- has a tough matchup in Kentucky, if only because the Pirates are so dinged up. It would be tougher but Wildcat signal caller Randall Cobb appears to be out for this contest, and that will make a Beale Street victory that much tougher to come by for UK.

Hotels: There isn't much in the way of luxury accommodation near the stadium, so downtown near Beale Street is the next best thing. The five-mile drive to the stadium is well worth it. The Westin Memphis Beale Street is a trendy new downtown establishment with modern design, luxurious guest rooms and good quality on-site dining. The Doubletree Hotel Memphis is a great midrange hotel with a good location. The guestrooms are comparable with the much ritzier Peabody, but at a much more reasonable price. Budget-minded travelers should stay at the Artisan Hotel. The hotel is just two miles from the stadium and offers rooms for less than US$100 per night.

You know, for a program that had announced back in mid-November that they were looking for a new coach, Syracuse has really struggled to find someone, anyone to take the job. First Al Golden would rather stay at Temple than consider the Syracuse gig (though, that may not be entirely true). Now East Carolina's Skip Holtz has apparently rejected the Syracuse overtures.

East Carolina officials will announce later this afternoon that Skip Holtz has declined interest in the Syracuse University head coaching position.

The announcement is expected shortly before Holtz appears in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl press conference.

This is a big blow to Syracuse's coaching search. All signs pointed to Skip Holtz being the top target of Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross. He met with Holtz at least twice in New York City the last couple of days, when Holtz was there for the induction ceremony of his father Lou Holtz to the College Football Hall of Fame. A couple days ago, the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician took note of a curious video running on the Syracuse Athletics website of Lou Holtz singing the praises of his son.

Just not a good thing for the Orange. Whether Holtz was the best choice or not, it seems clear that he was their top choice. Getting rejected on top of the dismal season, and after they had plenty of time to figure out their coaching search just suggests how screwed up Syracuse football is right now.

On the bright side, Auburn hasn't offered their job to Buffalo's Turner Gill yet. The Orange might want to move on that front soon. Of course if they were to be rejected by the head coach of Buffalo as well...

Skip Holtz is kind of god-like in Greenville, N.C. After all, he has taken the East Carolina Pirates from "always-ran" to "false hope BCS team that made it to the GMAC Bowl."

Of course, with that success comes, inevitably, other schools that play the role of suitor. And the latest news, as is incredulously being "broken" by his own father Lou Holtz -- whose journalistic credibility knows no bounds -- is that Syracuse is really interested in Skip and that he has agreed to sit down and talk about their vacancy.

"I know he has not met with them thus far," Lou Holtz said tonight. "I know he wouldn't do that with so much riding on his team (going to the Conference USA championship game). We're going to be in New York. Notre Dame is having a dinner for me tomorrow night which (Skip) and wife are coming up as well. Syracuse will be there. I think they're going to talk. He hasn't met with them. He's going to talk to them. I know they want to talk to him. I think they've asked permission. I'm not in the middle of negotiations. I'm not an agent. I'm just trying to hang on to my job and do a TV show".

Asked if Skip has interest in the Syracuse job, Lou said he did.

Syracuse? Really, Skip?

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.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a feel good story if there ever was one, are in a precarious position with regard to their head coach, Charlie Weis. See, in case you missed it, Weis has been stinking the joint up since he got to South Bend. But the Irish just can't punt on Ole' Slim, because they'll owe him an insane amount of money.

On the other hand, they've got a pretty good shot of landing East Carolina head coach Skip Holtz, should they pounce now, and frankly, about anything seems like a viable option compared to Weis. But Chuckles doesn't think he'll be gone next year. In fact, he's telling recruits (via the unfathomably awesome Mouthpiece Blog) that he'll be back next year. Specifically, Shaquelle Evans.

"I asked him about his job status," Evans told the web site after Weis visited him Sunday. "He told me he's good to go; he'll be there. He said he made sure he's good before he left and it's just the media spreading that he's going to get fired. He said if he didn't know if he was going to be there or not he would tell me. It makes me feel good that he'll be there."

See? I told you he was being honest -- if he knew he was gone, he would tell Evans. But clearly Weis doesn't know if he's gone or not, because he doesn't meet with his boss until December 8. But imagine that you were in charge of a company that was failing miserably and you had to meet with your investors in a week: would you be confident of your job status?

East Carolina running back Jonathan Williams' legal problems continue.

On Tuesday, hours after news broke about Williams being arrested on Oct. 5 for resisting a police officer, the ECU running back was back in the custody of Greenville police, this time facing two charges for assault with a deadly weapon.

Police allege that on Sunday, the Pirates' leading rusher was involved in an assault at a house party in Greenville. It is alleged that Williams used a beer bottle to strike a male victim in the back of the head, and also struck a female victim in the arm with a beer bottle.

He turned himself into Greenville police on Tuesday evening, and was released on a $2,500 unsecured bond. He faces a November 19 court date for his latest arrest.

ECU coach Skip Holtz didn't become aware of Williams' Oct. 5 arrest until Tuesday. Williams was not at practice the last two days and Holtz would only release the following statement.

"We have just been made aware of the situation and we are certainly going to gather facts from an internal standpoint and let the judicial system take its course," Holtz said. "Any charge filed against an ECU football player is something that we take very seriously, but since this is a legal matter, any further comment on our part would be inappropriate at this point.

East Carolina running back Jonathan Williams is facing criminal charges for the second time in the last six months.

A report surfaced Tuesday that Williams, the Pirates' leading rusher, was arrested on Oct. 5 by the Greenville Police Department for resisting an officer after a domestic call.

He was released on a $1,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 5.

The arrest comes on the heels of Williams' DWI arrest in early April.

It didn't take long for East Carolina quarterback Patrick Pinkney to go from early Heisman hopeful to sideline cheerleader.

The Pirates' senior quarterback was the talk of college football after completing better than 78 percent of his passes in leading East Carolina to wins over No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 8 West Virginia to open the season. But, after three straight losses in which Pinkney completed just 52 percent of his passes, the Pirates' gunslinger has traded in his purple helmet for a clipboard and ball cap.

Pinkney got the start versus Memphis on Saturday, but after two ineffective series was lifted in favor of junior Rob Kass with ECU trailing 7-0.

Although East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said before Saturday's game that the Pirates will likely platoon the two quarterbacks, Pinkney did not see the field again after Kass got the hot hand.

Kass was at the helm of all five Pirates scoring drives and threw for 159 yards and two touchdowns in the second half , as ECU scored 23 unanswered point after intermission to rout Memphis, 30-10.

Afterwards, Holtz said that Pinkney and Kass will continue to split playing time as the season progresses.

"Right now, we'll go back and break down the film and evaluate it," Holtz said. "I suspect we'll give them both looks, then after three or four series, we'll go with whoever has the hot hand."

Remember a month ago when East Carolina Coach Skip Holtz became the "name" for replacing coaches on the hot seat? Things certainly change quickly. Now, it looks like only Syracuse might be competing with ECU for his services.

Key injuries on defense and now the suspension of the second leading receiver, have the Pirates spiraling. Where there was briefly talk of them being another non-BCS team to compete for a BCS bowl slot, the Pirates have to hope they can win the Conference USA East Division.

They have lost two straight, and are presently getting blown out by Virginia 28-6 at halftime. A team that has only 1-A win, and was blown out by Duke. The Pirates have struggled to move the ball and aren't stopping the Cavs offense. That Virginia has turned the ball over twice in the first half is the only reason the game isn't more lopsided.

ECU Will. Not. Go. Away.

After a fairly unpalatable morning set of games, we had some intriguing matchups this afternoon; Georgia, East Carolina, Oregon, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech -- the latter by default because the ACC is horrible -- all had BCS aspirations heading into the third week of college football.

Four of those teams still do, but it wasn't for a lack of trying to fail.

Georgia needed a last second interception by Chris Smelley (Dugout Name and license plate: SMLLYCOX) to overcome what really is looking like a disturbingly stout South Carolina defense (it wasn't just NC State, we swear!). The 'Cocks held Knoshown Moreno to just 79 yards on 20 carries even though he punched one in, and Matthew Stafford was hardly effective. But the Dogs held on and their BCS chances prevail.

Exciting recap I know, but that's because I spent most of the afternoon watching a shoddy YouTube-like feed of East Carolina squaring off against Tulane. ECU AD Terry Holland had oh-so-generously offered to play the game in Greenville as Ike, et al approached the coast (what a guy, huh?) and Tulane oh-so-obviously declined the invite.