Associated Press
GREENVILLE ó East Carolina had already locked up its spot in the Conference USA championship game and had little to gain in Friday’s home finale against UTEP.
Still, the Pirates sure didn’t look like a team playing a meaningless game.
Brandon Simmons ran for three scores and had a touchdown catch to help East Carolina beat UTEP 53-21, giving the Pirates plenty of momentum and confidence heading into next week’s league title game.
Patrick Pinkney threw for 228 yards and two touchdowns for the Pirates (8-4, 6-2 Conference USA), who finished with season-highs in points and total offense. Darryl Freeney added 106 yards receiving and a touchdown catch as East Carolina scored on nine of 10 offensive possessions, didn’t have to punt all day and got three interceptions from its defense.
“I think it speaks volumes for this football team,” ECU coach Skip Holtz said. “When they say there’s nothing to play for, you can’t tell these guys they couldn’t go out and play for pride. And they did it and put together one of their better football games.”
East Carolina scored the first 24 points and scored on all five first-half drives to take a 30-7 lead into halftime. The Miners (5-7, 4-4) got no closer after the break, ending their push to become bowl eligible for the first time in three years.
This was the kind of performance the Pirates hadn’t turned in since their early-season upsets of Virginia Tech and West Virginia, which thrust East Carolina into the national rankings and headlines. But a three-game losing streak at midseason ended all the crash-the-BCS talk and put the Pirates’ focus back on winning their first East Division title, which had eluded them in each of the past two seasons.
They accomplished that with last week’s 17-13 win at UAB, making this game little more than an opportunity to play for pride. Still, Holtz promised that it was not a “throwaway” game even as he had to find a way to keep his players motivated instead of taking a sigh of relief.
Whatever he did, it worked.
“I felt pretty confident,” Holtz said. “You can tell when they’re going through the motions and when they’re really into it (during practice). We had to start practice over a couple of times when we didn’t go out there with exactly the right tempo, but I thought they were really focused and dialed in. I felt like they’d play hard.”
Simmons finished with a career-high 111 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns in the first half, the last a 7-yard reception from Pinkney with 22 seconds left. Then East Carolina ran the ball nine straight times in the second half before Simmons scored for the fourth time on a 2-yard run to push the margin to 37-7.
Simmons, a senior, also had a career-high 27 carries.
“The offensive line really takes pride in opening up holes,” Simmons said.