ECU Releases 2005 Football Schedule
February 24, 2005 | Football
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Early season contests against Atlantic Coast Conference members Duke and Wake Forest highlight East Carolina's 2005 football schedule released Thursday.
In addition, the Pirates will face defending Big East Conference co-champion West Virginia for the fourth consecutive year to finish their season-opening, three-game non-conference schedule.
East Carolina will officially open the Skip Holtz Era Sept. 3 by welcoming the Blue Devils to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for the first time since 1999. Although the Pirates have posted victories in two of the last three matchups, Duke recorded a 23-16 win in the last meeting between the two programs in Durham during the 2002 campaign.
After an off week, ECU will play its first road contest of the season in Winston-Salem against Wake Forest Sept. 17. The Pirates and Demon Deacons have met annually since 2001 in the closely-contested seven-game series which the average combined win margin for both teams has only been 7.6 points.
The Pirates will travel to Morgantown the following week on Sept. 24 to meet perennial Top 25 member West Virginia, preparing East Carolina for its eight-game realigned Conference USA schedule, which begins Oct. 1 against Southern Miss in Greenville.
In addition to continuing its long-standing rivalry with the Golden Eagles, ECU will also host Rice (Oct. 8), UCF (Oct. 29) and UAB (Nov. 26) at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium while facing SMU (Oct. 15), Memphis (Oct. 22), Tulsa (Nov. 12) and Marshall (Nov. 19) on the road.
For the second straight season, the Pirates will have two off weeks during the course of the campaign, the first on Sept. 10 and the other Nov. 5. ECU will also play four of its last six games on the road.
"I'm excited to finally have our first schedule completed," said Holtz, who was appointed to head the ECU football program last Dec. 3. "I feel the two open dates help us from a first-year standpoint. Obviously, there will be a lot of local and regional interest in our first three games and, without a doubt, we are looking forward to having the chance to compete for a Conference USA championship."
The 2005 season will present the Pirates with inaugural meetings with Rice and SMU while renewing competitive series' with UCF (4-0), Tulsa (2-3) and Marshall (4-2).
2005 EAST CAROLINA FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Date, Opponent
09/03, DUKE
09/17, at Wake Forest
09/24, at West Virginia
10/01, *SOUTHERN MISS
10/08, *RICE
10/15, *at SMU
10/22, *at Memphis
10/29, *UCF
11/12, *at Tulsa
11/19, *at Marshall
11/26, *UAB
Home games in ALL CAPS; *Conference USA game; game times will be established upon future television scheduling needs
