NOTES AND QUOTES

Aug. 2, 2002

KEY GAMES: At Wake Forest, Sept. 7 -- Last year the Pirates opened the season with a surprising home loss to Wake Forest. This year, the Pirates open with Duke on Aug. 31 before playing at Wake, so they won't have any excuses.

At Louisville, Oct. 26 -- If the Pirates plan to contend for the Conference USA title, they need to win this game.

At Southern Miss, Nov. 30 -- If things work out right for East Carolina, this game could decide the conference championship, or at least decide what C-USA teams go to which bowls.

THE PIRATES WILL GO 10-2 IF: Paul Troth and Desmond Robinson develop into solid quarterbacks capable of making the right plays at the right time; the running game comes through; the defense does something to cut down on all the big plays it allowed last season, especially in the second halves of big games.

THE PIRATES WILL GO 7-5 IF: The Pirates never learn how to play with a decent lead; the defense continues to fall apart down the stretch in big games; Troth and Robinson fail to develop into consistent quarterbacks and the running game falters.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"Our offense is diverse enough that we'll simply accentuate different things depending upon who the quarterback is. We're not going to have to invent anything. Just like with David Garrard -- it became obvious that he was really effective throwing the ball really short or really long. He really wasn't as adept with the intermediate passing game. That kind of disappeared for us, but we also scored more points than we ever had." -- ECU coach Steve Logan, on adapting the offense to new quarterbacks.