Notebook: ECU's Lindsay fights through injuries

GREENVILLE — A knee injury cost him last season and a shoulder injury took two games this year.

An untimely bout with the flu cost him his lunch many times over and a painful ankle injury threatened to take even more.

It might look like Dominique Lindsay is falling apart, but the East Carolina running back has somehow managed to hold it together just enough.

Lindsay, a senior from Charlotte, is the Pirates’ leading rusher entering Thursday’s nationally televised game against Virginia Tech. Out of all the ailments he’s suffered the past two seasons, he said only his right shoulder — a separation of the AC joint that kept him out of games against North Carolina and UCF and will likely cause him pain for the rest of the season — still gives him problems.

“Besides that, everything feels good,” Lindsay said. “Winning is the best rehab. Winning makes everything feel a lot better.”

By his logic, Lindsay’s own performance has gone a long way toward self-healing. In six games this season, including the only five starts of his career, he has 570 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 5.8 yards per carry.

In a narrow 28-21 loss at SMU on Oct. 10, Lindsay rushed for a career-high 144 yards despite spending much of his time on the sideline vomiting, the result of an autumn flu bug that swept through the team.

A week later, he rushed for 78 yards before injuring his ankle during a 49-13 win over Rice. Last week in a 38-19 victory at Memphis, Lindsay played through the ankle injury to compile 139 rushing yards, placing him 30th in the nation with 95 rushing yards per game.

ECU quarterback Patrick Pinkney said Lindsay is capitalizing on windows of relatively good health.

“He’s hungry,” Pinkney, a sixth-year senior, said. “He had a lot of injuries early in his career and didn’t get a lot of plays. He’s getting his opportunity, and he’s taking full advantage of it.”

Lindsay said his ankle is “feeling great,” though he knows it is unlikely his shoulder will be 100-percent healed before his college career ends. The shoulder only hurts when it is hit at a certain angle, but Lindsay said it gives him problems when he’s trying to sustain a block.

“It just depends on how much you want to fight through it, how much pain you can take,” said Lindsay, who has fumbled once in 245 career carries. “So I just try to eliminate that and go out there and get it accomplished for 60 minutes every week.” 

The question

Lindsay’s 144 rushing yards against SMU were the most by a Pirates back this season. When was the last time an ECU player rushed for more yards in a game? 

Alive and kicking

On Sunday of last week, two days before the Pirates’ game at Memphis, ECU kicker Ben Hartman and coach Skip Holtz had a conversation to discuss their frustration with the team’s kicking situation.

Hartman, a senior and a three-year starter, was 7-for-11 on field goal tries and had had two kicks — including a 23-yarder — blocked. He was held out of the previous week’s game in favor of sophomore Ben Ryan, who missed his lone field goal attempt against Rice.

The talk with Holtz gave Hartman some things to consider.

“I went home and just kind of thought about stuff,” he said. “It’s not that I was letting myself down playing poorly, but I was letting my teammates down. He preached and preached about playing for the guy beside you, and I wanted to go out and give the effort that I’m capable of in making all my kicks.”

Hartman made all five of his PAT tries at Memphis and nailed a season-long 48-yard field goal, four yards shy of his career best.

“Ben Hartman kind of was back there with a little bit of swagger,” Holtz said this week.

Hartman, who has been kicking over a 10-foot-high net during practice to improve his trajectory, said a perfect performance at Memphis might have jump-started his season.

“I needed a game like that to get my confidence back, because I’ve had some misses this year and I’m responsible for a couple of blocks that should’ve been made kicks,” he said. “And so it really, really felt like a monkey got off my back.” 

On this date

The Pirates fell 40-10 at Miami (Fla.) on Nov. 4, 1989, on their way to a 5-5-1 season under Bill Lewis. 

Catching on

Darryl Freeney tied a career high with five receptions and set a new career mark with 115 receiving yards last week against Memphis, but the sophomore wide receiver stopped short of calling his performance a coming-out party.

Freeney, a Suffolk, Va., native, had 22 catches for 352 yards as a freshman, and last Tuesday marked the third 100-yard game of his young career.

“That was not necessarily a breakout (game), but just an eye-opener to try to get more confidence (from) the coaching staff and Patrick (Pinkney),” Freeney said.

But Freeney probably wishes Holtz would have blinked shortly after his 31-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter, when he turned a play from memorable to forgettable in a span of 2 seconds.

After holding on to a Pinkney pass in the end zone while taking a crushing blow from a Memphis defender, Freeney flipped the ball into the player’s face after he got up, resulting in a 15-yard penalty.

Holtz soon had an animated discussion with Freeney on the sideline.

“I wouldn’t want our players to be treated that way against an opposing team, and I certainly don’t expect our players to treat others that way,” Holtz said. “That was basically the gist of what I said — cleaned up a little bit and not in that tone.”

Freeney said he got the message.

“That was just a little boneheaded play that he’s talked to me about,” Freeney said, “and I can assure you that that won’t happen again.” 

The answer

Lindsay’s 144-yard rushing output was the largest by an ECU back since Chris Johnson ran for 223 yards against Boise State in the 2007 Hawaii Bowl.

David Hall can be reached at 252-559-1086 or at dhall@freedomenc.com.