In the grand timeline of college football, Florida narrowly edged East Carolina just two games ago, leaving an understandable bitter taste in the mouths of some Pirate football players.
In reality, it was eight months ago, and no one is more mindful of that than ECU head coach Ruffin McNeill.
On Monday, McNeill said there is little to be gleaned from January’s Birmingham Bowl, a 28-20 Gators victory, that will be useful when the teams clash again at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville.
“This is a whole new team,” McNeill said at Monday’s weekly news conference of the meeting between 1-0 teams.