Tony Conty:  What is your current height, weight, and projected 40 time?

Patrick Pinkney:  Right now, I think I’m 6’1”.  A lot of people will say I’m 6’0”, but I am 6’1”.  Projected 40 time is in the 4.5/4.6 range.


Tony Conty:  Let’s go back.  What factors led you to choose East Carolina?

Patrick Pinkney:  Family history.  My dad and uncle played there and I had a lot of friends from my area of Fayetteville, North Carolina that played there already.  That was a couple of reasons why I came to ECU, plus the family atmosphere.  God put at ECU and I’m loving it.


Tony Conty:  As far as this year is concerned, you’ve obviously had a great deal of the spotlight.  You had a great game against West Virginia and you received a lot of nominations for Player of the Week from a conference that most people forgot.  Talk about receiving all of that attention out of nowhere.

Patrick Pinkney:  That’s the game of football.  When you do good things on the field, the press and media come with it.  At the same time, you have to separate that from the game and, when you get out on that field, it’s nothing but business and you have to help your team win.


Tony Conty:  It has been an interesting order of business, I would say.  Describe the emotions of a team.  You came out of nowhere to receive a national ranking, reach 3-0, but then faced three tough losses.  Describe the emotions of the team right now.

Patrick Pinkney:  We’re positive and focused.  Our goal is still at hand and that is to win the Conference Championship.  We’re taking another step this Saturday against Memphis.  You want to win all of the games, but people don’t understand that most of the games we had we had a chance to win in the 4th quarter, but we didn’t finish.  When you know that you can with those football games, you stay positive and know that we have to finish in the 4th quarter.  Finish games.


Tony Conty:  As far as you’re concerned, you are the man with the ball the most.  True or False: Quarterbacks take too much blame and receive too much credit.

Patrick Pinkney:  Both.  Like I said, it’s a team game.  The line has to block and the receivers have to catch the ball.  The running back has to run hard.  If you don’t have that team effort.  The offense needs to play hard for the defense and the defense needs to play hard for the offense.  The Quarterback touches the ball the most for your offense.  Everybody is watching that Quarterback when he’s got the ball.  But, when someone else has the ball, it’s important that they do something good with it.  When the linemen miss a block, that’s going to be stinging, so, like I said, everybody needs to do their job.


Tony Conty:  What has practice been like as far as eliminating the turnovers and the    little mistakes?

Patrick Pinkney:  Just execute and finish plays.  I had a couple of fumbles.  Last week against Virginia was a close call, but that’s the game of football.  We only have but 4 interceptions on the year, me with 3 and Rob having one.  We’re throwing to the right team.  Now, it’s just a matter of me holding on to the ball when I am being tackled.  We just need to execute and believe that we can win the game, no matter what is going on. If the game isn’t going our way, just keep playing hard and staying positive.


Tony Conty:  What should we expect this week against Memphis? We had kind of an inconsistent team against Virginia where you probably saw a lot of new things on film that were different.

Patrick Pinkney:  The Defensive Side, on their side of the ball, they are playing a lot of Man:  Cover One, blitzing a lot, and just playing physical.  You can tell that they have that belief that they are going to win every game.  They have a lot speed when you watch them on film and they played hard against the teams that they lost against.  Like us, they had a chance to win the game, but they didn’t finish.  On the offensive side, they like spreading it out.  They have tall receivers that can catch the ball and make plays for them and they have a good Quarterback giving them the ball who doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.  At the same time, we have to worry about East Carolina football and that’s playing 60 minutes, starting fast and finishing strong.

Tony Conty:  You helped us out a lot there getting into the X’s and O’s. Describe the different challenges that you face against a 3-4 alignment like you did last week.

Patrick Pinkney:  It’s not really a lot of challenges with the linebacker coming out of the box.  They didn’t do a lot of movement.  It can be confusing when they do a lot of movement and Virginia didn’t do a lot of movement.  With Coach Fitch, our Quarterback Coach, what he stresses to us is just read the secondary coverage, the safety structure.  That tells you what the defense is in and we do a good job with that.  We are just calling plays, looking at the structure to see what they are going to do with their tendencies.


Tony Conty: You are learning a lot from your coach.  You mentioned your Quarterback Coach, but Skip Holtz also received a lot of attention.  Describe your relationship with him.

Patrick Pinkney:  Oh, great.  We have a lot of side conversation.  Being one of the Captains of the team, we have a lot of conversations that make you want to stay positive and stay focused, because the team looks up to me and they follow me.  He’s a great leader…not just a great coach, but a great leader, and when you are a great leader, your players are going to follow you, no matter what is going on or how your season is going.  When you have that relationship with your coach, everybody’s job is a lot easier.  Everybody’s in it together and we have that at East Carolina.


Tony Conty:  You mentioned this earlier when you talked about your height.  What would you say to those who are of the belief that you have to be above 6’1” to play Quarterback at the NFL level.

Patrick Pinkney:  Look at it now.  You got Doug Flutie and Drew Brees playing now.  Drew Brees is, what, 6’0”, 6’1”.  He’s not that tall and he’s being successful.  What a lot of people don’t understand is being a Quarterback is about making great decisions.  The great ones like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady: Peyton doesn’t have a strong arm.  He’s about 6’5”, but he makes great decisions.  When you’re in the pocket, the arm and the height help, but it is the decision that you make.  It’s all about making decisions and when a team follows you.  When you are playing the game and it’s fun, it doesn’t matter the size, because you have the heart and the determination.  When you do your job, a lot of good things will happen for you.


Tony Conty:  Here at our website , we had you lower at first.  We gave you the mobile Quarterback label.  The tape that really helped me move you up the rankings in my mind was against Tulane.  I know that was a game where you had to come from behind.  Obviously, there were some mistakes, but I liked the poise that you showed in the topic and your ability to come from behind.  If you had to pick one tape to send to scouts to show what you could do as a Quarterback, which game would it be?

Patrick Pinkney:  My ECU career? Starting from last year? I would probably say the North Carolina game from last year.  There are a lot of good games that I have played, but you would think that most of the scouts will look at mostly all of the games, right? Every game is different, but as far as being productive as not making a lot of mistakes, I would say Carolina from last year, but there are other games that I played well in.


Tony Conty:  They will look at the intangibles and the mechanics, but they want to see a leader at the Quarterback position.  Describe yourself in the role of the leader.

Patrick Pinkney:  Do extra work, extra film work.  Talking to my receivers and my Offensive Line.  When they see a Quarterback that is poised and always staying positive, that helps your teammates play better.  They’ll play harder and harder for you.  It occurs to me that when you’re not playing well, they’ll tell you, because they want you to be the best that you can be.


Tony Conty:  You talk about working hard and doing extra work.  You have also played through injury.  You had an ankle problem.  How does it feel now?

Patrick Pinkney:  You talking about my shoulders? Oh, yeah, 810%.  I think that my shoulder feels better before I hurt it.  After I had my second surgery, my arm feels really good and I just thank God for that.


Tony Conty:  Well, that’s what rehab is supposed to do.  You talked about Peyton Manning and you talked about Drew Bress.  Which NFL quarterbacks do you admire and is there one to whom you would compare your style of play?

Patrick Pinkney:  Drew Brees.  I watch him a lot and we have a lot of similarities.  He can get out of the pocket, too, if he needs to, but most of the time, he gets the ball out of his hands quickly and I think that has helped him throughout the season.  He just makes good decisions and he is really smart behind the Center.


Tony Conty:  Who are the most dominant defensive players that you have faced?

Patrick Pinkney:  In Conference-USA, I would say the Defensive End from Tulane,
Reggie Scott.  He’s really good.


Tony Conty:  Do you that roughing the passer penalties are consistently enforced?

Patrick Pinkney:  I think so.  There was one game against where it should have been called but wasn’t, but referees are human beings just like us.  They are not perfect.  All of the calls that we think need to get called aren’t going to get called, but we need to respect them and they need to respect us and respect the game.  I think that they are being consistent.


Tony Conty:  Do you think that the new excessive celebration penalties have been fair?

Patrick Pinkney:  It’s kind of crazy.  When you get into the end zone, that’s a special thing getting into the end zone.  It’s getting to a point where you can’t overdo it.  Spiking the ball, throwing the ball to a fan, that’s understandable.  Maybe you’re doing a little dance or something, nothing serious.  I think that should be allowed, but you have to keep the integrity of the game.  I guess you should just celebrate with your teammates.  That’s why I do, because those are the guys that you get into the end zone with.


Tony Conty:  What do you think about the focus on character that Roger Goodell has taken in the NFL?

Patrick Pinkney:  It has to be enforced.  It has to be more punishing.  A lot of players don’t understand that they have an effect on a lot of people’s lives, especially the kids.  When you are doing negative stuff, that’s not good on the league.  When you have the discipline in place, keeping the players under control, that’s a big plus.  At the same time, life is about making decisions.  How do you want to be represented and how do you want to be remembered? Just not as a great player and great athlete, but players need to recognize that there are a lot of people watching them.


Tony Conty:  Self-promote.  Why would teams consider Patrick Pinkney in next year’s draft?

Patrick Pinkney:  First, great leader.  Makes great decisions.  Has a love of the game and is just hard-working.  When you have that mindset, that determination, you just go out there and play your heart out.  You can’t coach that.  When you have players like that on the team, you inspire the others to play that way.