Pirates Host Rival Wolfpack

Oct. 13, 2010

GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina will play the last of three Atlantic Coast Conference opponents on its 2010 schedule when it welcomes North Carolina State to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday for a 12 noon nationally-televised contest.

With their last non-conference game scheduled against Navy next month, the battle against the Wolfpack also represents the final matchup against automatic Bowl Championship Series (BCS) qualifying members this season for the Pirates, who dropped earlier meetings at Virginia Tech and North Carolina. ECU also returns to Greenville for the first time since defeating Memphis on Sept. 11 and will open a two-game homestand that also includes a Conference USA tilt against the Marshall Thundering Herd on Oct. 23.

The Series
N.C. State leads East Carolina 16-10 all-time in a rivalry that dates back to 1970 ... Although the Pirates trail the overall series against the Wolfpack, ECU has had a slight upper hand lately - winning five of the last nine meetings since 1987 (and seven of the last 13 since '83) ... ECU and NCSU have split two contests at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, but the Wolfpack are 14-7 in Raleigh ... The Pirates have taken two of three neutral site matchups, two of which were played in Charlotte.

Ruffin McNeill Vs. N.C. State - As A Player
Ruffin McNeill squared off against N.C. State all four years during his his playing career at East Carolina ... As a safety under Pat Dye, McNeill enjoyed his freshman and sophomore matchups with Pirate victories before the Wolfpack evened the score with wins in 1978 and 1979 ... A closer look:

Date	Year	Pos.	ECU Coach	Score	Location
09/18/76	Fr.	SS	Pat Dye	ECU, 23-14	Raleigh, N.C.
09/03/77	Soph.	SS	Pat Dye	ECU, 28-23	Raleigh, N.C.
09/09/78	Jr.	SS	Pat Dye	NCSU, 29-13	Raleigh, N.C.
09/08/79	Sr.	SS	Pat Dye	NCSU, 34-20	Raleigh, N.C.

1976 note - played in second career game (did not record any tackles) as a freshman
1977 note - stood second on unit with 11 stops, one for lost yardage, and recovered one fumble
1978 note - tallied eight tackles, two of which were behind the line of scrimmage (-7 yards)
1979 note - credited with three solo hits and five overall stops

Standing Tall Among C-USA And Non-BCS Fans
In addition to leading Conference USA in average attendance this season, East Carolina also stands among the top two in non-BCS turnstile counts (does not include independent Notre Dame/80,795) ... Overall (120 programs), ECU ranks 48th nationally ... A closer look:

Conference USA
1. East Carolina .......................... 49,067
2. UCF ......................................... 39,225
3. Marshall ................................... 34,763
4. Houston ................................... 32,078
5. UTEP ....................................... 31,991

Non-AQ Bowl Championship Series
1. BYU .................................... 62,473
2. East Carolina ..................... 49,067
3. Utah ................................... 45,310
4. Air Force ............................. 44,010
5. TCU ................................... 40,864
East Carolina's opener against Tulsa Sept. 5 marked the Pirates' first inside 50,000-seat Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium after a 7,000-seat expansion project was completed during the off-season ... Despite the added room, ECU posted its seventh consecutive sell-out with a crowd of (50,010) before having the streak snapped a week later against Memphis (48,123) ... The Pirates sold out all six regular season contests a year ago with a best of 43,569 for a Thursday night matchup against Virginia Tech ... In addition, ECU currently (2010) stands 32nd nationally with a capacity percentage of 98.13.

A Notable Senior "Class"
With one more victory this season, the 2010 senior class can become one of just 10 groups in ECU history to reach the 30-win milestone:

Class	Years	Yearly Wins	Total Wins
1978	1975-78	8, 9, 8, 9	34
2009	2006-09	7, 8, 9, 9	33
1979	1976-79	9, 8, 9, 7	33
1976	1973-76	9, 7, 8, 9	33
1975	1972-75	9, 9, 7, 8	33
1977	1974-77	7, 8, 9, 8	32
1965	1962-65	5, 9, 9, 9	32
1966	1963-66	9, 9, 9, 4	31
1967	1964-67	9, 9, 4, 8	30
2010	2007-10	8, 9, 9, 3	29

Going For It
East Carolina is one of eight programs at the FBS level that possesses a 100 percent conversion rate on fourth down this season, yet the Pirates top the nation with eight successful tries (3-of-3 vs. TLS, 1-of-1 vs. MEM, 3-of-3 vs. VT, 0-of-0 vs. UNC, 1-1 vs. USM) ... ECU had seven conversions in 13 attempts the entire 2009 season.

Top-Ranked Redzone Results
By converting all three of their redzone opportunities against Southern Miss, the Pirates improved to 18-of-18 this season when inside the opponents' 20-yard line ... ECU is one of only three teams to have a 100.0 percent redzone efficiency rating and have the most chances of any of the trio (Illinois/16-of-16 and Memphis/8-of-8) ... East Carolina has also made the most of its 18 redzone trips with 14 TDs.

Keeping It Off The Ground
ECU has only lost one fumble in 2010, which ranks second nationally behind Oregon State (0) and matches Indiana, Miami (Fla.), Oklahoma and TCU.

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