ECU leaves Memphis with the blues

A 13-point halftime lead had ECU zoned in on a Liberty Bowl title, but at the end of the day, the Pirates were left filling vacancies in the Heartbreak Hotel as a late fumble lead to a 25-19 Kentucky victory.

"I hate the way the game turned out," said coach Skip Holtz. "I hate the way it ended."

ECU appeared to get the break it needed late in the fourth quarter when a Patrick Pinkney fumble that was returned for a touchdown by Kentucky linebacker Micah Johnson was overturned by instant replay officials. The replay confirmed that Pinkney's knee hit the ground before the ball became loose.

The overturned score proved to be of little significance however, as three plays later a Norman Whitley fumble was picked up by Wildcats' defensive end Ventrell Jenkins and returned 56 yards down the sideline to pay dirt for the winning score.

Jenkins' game-winning play was enough to earn him the Liberty Bowl MVP. The senior from Columbia, S.C. also collected four tackles on the day.

"I didn't like either one of them," Holtz said of Pinkney and Whitley's reviewed fumbles. "As I've told the players before, anytime you don't hand the ball to the official, you give them the opportunity to make the call."

While there is never a good time for a turnover, this one was especially sour for Whitley, not only because it eventually cost his team the game, but because it was his birthday.

The sophomore running back had, at times this season, created a spark at the tailback position but has recently battled a hip injury that cost him dear practice time in weeks leading up to the Liberty Bowl.

"He said to me, 'Coach, I was trying to make a play,'" Holtz said of Whitley, who finished the day with 31 yards on seven carries. "As a running back, your job is to hold onto it and turn and protect it. That's the No. 1 part of the plan. We let it down tonight. We laid it on the ground."

While Whitley's fumble and the runback by Jenkins proved to be the difference in the game, the Pirates had one last shot after the game-changing play to take back the lead.

After starting at its own one-yard line, ECU moved the ball to the 11-yard line after Pinkney found senior tight end Davon Drew. However, the Pirates would then go three-and-out after three unsuccessful pass attempts and be forced to punt. ECU never got another opportunity, as Kentucky was able to run out the clock on its ensuing possession.

"Everybody hates losing," said Pinkney, who finished the day 18-of-36 for 296 yards and one touchdown. "When you have a lead you want to keep moving in a positive direction and keep having the momentum, but that's the game of football. Sometimes you lose it but that's why you keep playing."

"This team never quit," Pinkney added. "We played 60 minutes. At the end we had the fumble, but hey, we still had another chance…we could have easily got down but we didn't. We kept playing."

Kentucky seized the momentum from ECU with the opening kickoff of the second half when senior cornerback David Jones scored on a 99-yard return-the first return of his career as well as the longest in Liberty Bowl history.

The Wildcats then tied the game at 16 when sophomore quarterback Mike Hartline threw a strike to sophomore wide receiver Kyrus Lanxter, who shook off a pair of would-be tacklers and eventually scored on a hookup of 19 yards. Hartline finished the day 19-of-31 for 204 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

ECU allowed only one touchdown on the day: Hartline's strike to Lanxter in the third quarter. Junior Pirate linebacker Nick Johnson had 13 tackles, a performance that earned him the ECU Defensive Player of the Game award.

Kentucky had 310 yards of total offense while ECU had 397.

The game had all the signs of an eventual ECU victory in the first half. Ben Hartman kicked a 22-yard field goal on the second drive of the game for the Pirates, while Brandon Simmons' 28-yard touchdown run gave ECU a 10-0 lead with 14:14 remaining in the half.

Kentucky answered on their following drive behind a 21-yard Lones Seiber field goal. Seiber also added a 34-yard boot in the beginning stages of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 19.

Following the Wildcats first scoring drive of the game, ECU wasted no time in answering the score as Pinkney hooked up with freshman wide receiver Daryl Freeney on the first play of the Pirates' possession for an 80-yard touchdown, the third longest in Liberty Bowl history.

Freeney, the offensive MVP for ECU, recorded 112 yards on five catches along with his touchdown before leaving the game late in the second quarter with a concussion.

While the loss for ECU was heartbreaking, the silver lining for Holtz was that his team proved it belongs on the same gridiron as a team from the almighty Southeastern Conference.

"I was really proud of this football team and the way they went out there and competed," Holtz said. "I think they showed physically, athletically and everything else. They showed they belonged on that football field."

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.