Bulls Spoil ECU's Homecoming, 46-30
October 19, 2002 | Football
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| Running back Art Brown rushed for a career-high 188 yards and scored two touchdowns |
The Pirates led, 17-15, early in the third quarter, but South Florida responded with three quick touchdowns set up by big plays and ECU miscues.
The win improves USF to 5-2 while ECU falls to 2-4.
Following are highlights of today's game:
Postgame Quotes East Carolina Head Coach Steve Logan
Opening Statement
?We turned the ball over four times and didn\?t generate any turnovers and that\?s what got us into the fix that we are in. We aren\?t mature enough to cure that; we have to keep coaching and find a way to generate turnovers.?
On Physical Play
?I was proud of the physical way we played the football game. We were very physical and that was a very physical football team we played and they did a good job of answering after we scored.?
On Art Brown
?Art really stepped it up and was a warrior today. We put Vonta Leach [blocking] in front of Art several times and that was a pleasant addition to the offense. It helped get Art into the secondary and gave our offense a little bit of punch.?
On the loss of Chris Moore to a knee injury
?Chris tore his ACL and MCL, it looks like. It\?s a terrible, terrible injury and that would impact most football teams. That\?s one of your better defenders right there and a great kid. It\?ll be a full surgery and a full rehab so maybe next year at this time we can get him back out there.?
On ECU\?s defensive effort
?They [ECU\?s defense] played with a short field several times and were just exquisite. I was really proud of the defensive kids. In the second half when we took the lead, [USF] came back with an explosion play on a scramble, got behind our secondary, and that\?s just a tough thing to deal with. They answered all of our scores and that was to their credit. Our defense flew around and played physical, but their offense, man, they made a lot of plays.?
USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt
Opening statement
?We knew it would be a tough game. We talked to our kids about three things going into the game. First was no Florida team had ever come up here and won. Second was that it was homecoming and the odds were against us. And third, they had two weeks to prepare. I thought their coaches did an outstanding job of getting them ready. Their schemes and formations were right on with our mistakes. Their offense did a great job against our defense and they were very well coached. ECU has a heckuva football team and I think they will do very well in the conference. I see no reason why they can\?t roll through the conference.?
On South Florida\?s defense
?We got a little tired so we used our timeouts to rest. Our pass defense wasn\?t very good. You have to give them credit. No. 7 [Terrance Copper] caught passes and hit our seams for big plays. We didn\?t play very disciplined, obviously, today. Penalties hurt us, but we still were able to beat a good football team, which tells me that if we could ever become disciplined, we could become a pretty good football team.?
On USF\?s offense
?We have to give our offense a lot of credit today. Marquell [Blackwell] did an outstanding job of running the team. Our receivers dropped balls in the first half and I told them at halftime that if we catch passes we will win. We made some plays in the passing and running game, but you have to give credit to our punt return team. We worked very hard on that all week. I\?m also proud of our kickoff team. I was definitely worried about ECU\?s kickoff return team and I thought we did a good job against that.?
On big plays
?Field position played a big part in the third quarter. The field goal that put us up 16 in the fourth quarter was huge. I told our kids the first play would not decide the game but the last play will.?
