Why Shane Carden makes East Carolina worth watching
Since last season, Shane Carden has been finding ways to distinguish himself from the pack.
The senior is calm under pressure, with the tools and makeup of a top-five quarterback. The East Carolina Pirates haven't had easy matchups through the first three weeks, two of them coming against ranked teams.
But Carden isn't fazed. After cruising to a 52-7 blowout against North Carolina Central in the opener, the Pirates traveled to Columbia to take on the No. 14 South Carolina Gamecocks, losing 33-23. Although everyone was talking about how much South Carolina underachieved, they should have been talking about how Carden kept them in that game: he threw one touchdown pass on 321 yards on 32 of his 46 attempts. But he threw two interceptions, and it wasn't good enough for him.
The Pirates came back with a second chance at an upset in Week 3. This time they capitalized, knocking then-ranked Virginia Tech out of the top 25 with a 28-21 victory. The only thing coach Ruffin McNeill could do was hug the kid.
"Coming back from adversity from last week, that's what that hug was about," McNeill told ESPN. "Staying the course and believing what you believe in, that's what that hug was about. Getting it done as one heartbeat, one breath, one mind, one Pirate ... that's what that hug was about."
Carden? Well, he fired three touchdowns on 427 passing yards. He also rushed a score for good measure. He has 1031 total yards on the season, placing him up there with BYU's Taysom Hill and Ole Miss' Bo Wallace. Not only that, but his tremendous play is contagious: senior receiver Cam Worthy had a milestone day, racking in 224 yards on six receptions against Virginia Tech.
The difference between Carden and his competition is that his team isn't of the same caliber - but they're creeping into the conversation. In AP's Week 4 Power Rankings, ECU received 44 votes after receiving none the week before. With North Carolina up next (82 votes), a win could potentially sneak them into the top 25.
These schools haven't met since last season, when ECU walked out of Chapel Hill with a decisive 55-31 victory. Carden threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns. But what makes Carden really special is a quality that you can't teach, nor recruit for, and it's only obvious when he has the ball in his hands.
"Just believing," Carden said when asked how the Pirates rallied against the Hokies' near-comeback. "Just continuing to believe. We just made some routine plays. They were playing some good defense there in the second half and we couldn't get a lot going. But we just kept believing, believing in our coaches."