East Carolina football has arrived.  Actually, they’ve been coming for some time. Their head coach, Skip Holtz, has his team rolling.  Two straight bowl game appearances.  Not bad.  Now they’re ranked in the top 15 in the nation.  Even better.

My first trip to Greenville, North Carolina was Wednesday.  When you beat Virginia Tech and West Virginia, you get a visit from WAVY-TV. 

Wednesday, they practiced until 6pm.  I got there at 5:30 and started shooting some video of practice.  Some teams do not let you do this.  They think there are too many spies out there.  Thankfully, ECU didn’t have a problem with it.  It just makes our stories look better when we can shoot our own video of the team, even if it is just practice.  Now, I did get a little instruction before I started shooting.  Holtz came right over to me and said, “Make sure you shoot the players, not the plays.”  See, even ECU is already getting a little antsy.  That’s what happens when you get good.  I didn’t care.  I wasn’t a scout.  Just a journalist.

After practice I talked with a couple of Hampton Roads players who play for the Pirates.  One of the guys was Khalif Mitchell.  He used to play at First Colonial High School in Virgnia Beach.   He transfered to ECU from North Carolina after they were going to make him redshirt after his sophomore season.  So, he figured he’d just switch schools.  ECU came calling along with some other schools like Arkansas.  Looks like Mitchell made a good decision.  Now he’s playing for a national power.  Well, emerging national power I guess.

After practice I talked with Holtz about recruiting.  He said this was helping him tremendously.  After their last win, they got four verbal commitments right after the game.  I told him I was from Hampton Roads, and his eyes lit up.  I think his mouth started watering, too.  You see, coaches love the talent that is in our area.  He would love this success to help get more of our kids to consider the purple power to our south.  We’ll see if it works.