ECU Travels To SMU In AAC Tilt
October 01, 2015 | Football
Oct. 1, 2015
| East Carolina Game 5: SMU | |
| Date | Saturday, Oct. 3 |
| Time | 4:00 PM (EDT) |
| Location | Dallas, Texas (Gerald J. Ford Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking | Ticket Information | Parking Information |
| Live Game Coverage |  Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | ECU Pirates On Demand (Listen Live) TuneIn Radio Online (within the app search ECU or Pirate IMG Sports Network) Television: ESPNews | WatchESPN |
| Internet Options | GameTracker |
| Official Web Sites | East Carolina | SMU | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  | SMU | The American |
| 2015 Football Statistics | East Carolina | SMU |
| ECU Football Central | Gameday | Roster | Fact Book | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| East Carolina | SMU | The American | |
| East Carolina | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) l SMU | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUPirates | #ECUFootball | #PonyUpTempo | #AmericanRising | #ECUvsSMU |
| East Carolina | SMU | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- After posting its fifth-straight victory against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent with a 35-28 win over Virginia Tech last week, East Carolina will return to American Athletic Conference action when it travels to SMU to battle the Mustangs at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in a 4:00 p.m. (EDT) matchup Saturday.
The meeting against SMU will also open another two-game road swing for the Pirates, who will face BYU in Provo, Utah next week to close out their 2015 non-league schedule. ECU will try to capture its fifth consecutive triumph in the month of the October when it makes its first trip to Dallas in the Ruffin McNeill era.
East Carolina Records and Streaks
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three-straight, eight of the last nine years) ...
- Has won 24 of the last 28 games when scoring 30 or more points ...
- Has lost 14-straight games when scoring 20 or less points (19-14 vs. UCF in `09/last win) ...
- Has won 17 of the last 18 games when gaining 200 or more rushing yards ...
- Has won 25-straight games when leading at the half ...
- Has won four-straight games played in the month of October ...
- Has won nine of the last 16 regular season road games ...
- Has lost three of the last four American Athletic Conference road games ...
The Series
East Carolina leads 3-2 ... The Pirates and Mustangs both turned in respective sweeps as Conference USA inter-divisional opponents - ECU taking 2005 and 2006 matchups before SMU posted consecutive victories in 2009 and 2010 ... The Pirates captured the opening American Athletic Conference meeting a year ago.
Against The Lone Star State
The Pirates have won 19 of 30 all-time matchups (19-11) against FBS programs from the state of Texas ... ECU is 7-5 against UH, 3-1 vs. UTEP, 3-2 vs. SMU, 2-2 vs. Rice, 2-1 vs. TCU, 1-0 vs. Texas Tech and 1-0 against North Texas ... East Carolina has never faced current Big 12 members Baylor and Texas, nor the SEC's Texas A&M on the gridiron ... Ruffin McNeill is 3-4 against Texas-based FBS institutions as the Pirates' head coach.
The American - Year Two
ECU has posted a 75-43 (.636) all-time mark against current members of the American Conference ... In addition to their five-game series with SMU (3-2), the Pirates have also squared off against Memphis (15-6), Cincinnati (12-6), Tulane (11-3), UCF (9-4), Temple (8-4), Houston (7-5), Tulsa (7-5), Connecticut (1-0), Navy (1-4) and USF (1-4).
On The Road - Wins In Nine Of The Last 16 (Regular Season)
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, East Carolina is 52-70 (.426) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... Before an 0-2 start this season, a 3-4 mark last year and a 5-2 record in 2013, the Pirates were 3-4 in 2012, 2-4 in 2011, 2-5 in 2010, 3-4 in 2009 and 5-4 in 2008 ... When the Pirates topped the Ohio 37-20 at the Beef `O' Brady's Bowl inside Tropicana Field to close out the 2013 campaign, it marked wins in five of seven "away" contests - ECU's top road ledger since 1991 (5-1) ... From a regular season standpoint, the Pirates have won nine of the last 16 road contests dating back to 2012 (6-5 in conference play, 3-2 in non-conference action).
Missing The Pirate Nation - 7.7 Million Strong
East Carolina has always been able to claim plenty of hometown support, even more so when playing at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium during the fall - establishing itself as a conference attendance leader on an annual basis ... In all, a total of 7,775,267 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963, and in the last seven-plus years, ECU has averaged 45,888 (1,973,204/43 regular season games) ... Since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 that pushed Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium's capacity to 50,000, the Pirates have drawn 1,503,981 fans - recently cracking the 1.5 million mark when 50,514 watched ECU down Virginia Tech on Sept. 26 ... ECU set back-to-back school records in total attendance and season average attendance in 2011, breaking `10 marks (297,987/49,665) with 300,069 and 50,012 figures that year.
NOTE: ECU's student ticket allotment of 15,000 ranks ninth nationally, trailing only Texas A&M (31,000), Ohio State (28,333), Penn State (21,500), Florida (19,500), Alabama (17,500), Texas (17,000), Florida State (16,000) and Georgia (16,000).
Attendance Leaders
In addition to departing Conference USA as a six-time attendance champion - 2008 (42,016), 2009 (41,742), 2010 (49,665), 2011 (50,012), 2012 (47,013) and 2013 (43,985), as well as topping the American Athletic Conference during its first year of membership, East Carolina has also led all non-AQ BCS Conference (now referred to as the "Group of Five") members in attendance the last three seasons and currently stands second (in 2015) after the first four weeks of play ... Overall, ECU ranks 52nd nationally in average attendance (45,613) and 47th in capacity percentage (91.23) so far in 2015.
Tops In The American
As previously mentioned, ECU opened competition in the American Athletic Conference last fall and immediately took command of the attendance title ... The Pirates' average of 44,786 easily ranked ahead of UCF (37,812), Memphis (33,851), USF (30,694), Cincinnati (29,686), Houston (28,311), Connecticut (28,218), Tulane (25,892), Temple (23,370), SMU (21,528) and Tulsa (19,647).
Analyzing The 2015 Schedule
East Carolina's 2015 schedule consists of games against two conference champions (UCF and Cincinnati/American co-champs), six bowl participants (Florida/W, Navy/W, Virginia Tech/W, BYU/L, UCF/L, Cincinnati/L) and four programs either currently ranked or earning votes in the two major Top 25 polls - Florida, BYU, Navy and Temple ... Collectively, the Pirates' opponents have gotten off to an 24-20 start thus far this season.
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, ECU is 3-2-0 in August, 121-110-2 in September, 158-147-4 in October, 136-115-5 in November, 9-9-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will try to maintain their October productivity, a month in which ECU has won 13 of its last 20 battles dating back to 2010 ... In league play, the Pirates have taken seven of the last eight ... East Carolina posted an October sweep (3-0) a year ago - the program's first since 1991.
Shutout-Free ... 223 And Counting
ECU will enter the SMU game with an active streak of 223 games of not suffering a shutout -- a school record (previous mark was 110 set from `71 to `81) ... The last time the Pirates were blanked was on Oct. 4, 1997 (56-0 at Syracuse) ... ECU's 222-game run currently ranks 14th among all active FBS streaks and is the 24th-longest in the all-time annals ... Florida currently sits atop the active leaderboard with 338 (began in 1988).
Introducing This Year's First-Time Starters
There have been a combined seven first-time starters in East Carolina's lineup against Towson, Florida, Navy and Virginia Tech to open the season - three on the offensive side of the ball with QB Blake Kemp, OT Brandon Smith and OG Christian Matau, and four more on defense with NT Demage Bailey, ILB Jordan William, OLB Joe Allely and ILB Devaris Brunson each making a starting debut.
Get The Ball First Mentality
East Carolina has received the opening kickoff in 39 of the last 41 contests (the South Carolina and UCF games in 2014 are the only exceptions) ... The Pirates cashed in their first possession with touchdowns during the initial two outings (Towson, Florida) before stalling out at the Navy 37-yard line and getting picked off by Virginia Tech the last two weeks, respectively.
Is Time Really Money ...
The Pirates have been on the short end of the possession clock in each of their first four games this season ... In all, East Carolina has had ball nearly 30 minutes (29:02) less than its opponents, but still owns a 2-2 record and only 16 points separate the scoring column (4.0 ppg) ... Ruffin McNeill's 2010 squad "endured" a run of nine-straight games in the minus column and finished the year 75:30 in the proverbial red.
... If You Score Quickly?
Although East Carolina averages 8.1 plays per touchdown drive in 2015, it has only taken 3:09 to reach the endzone ... In fact, only one drive has exceeded the 5:00 mark (opener vs. Towson) -- 13 of the 15 successful possessions have been under 3:59.
Second And Five
ECU has enjoyed notable production on first down so far this year, averaging 5.3 yards per snap ... The Pirates have had 122 first down plays, gained 648 yards, moved the chains on 32 occasions and reached the endzone six times ... Against Virginia Tech last week, East Carolina picked up 163 yards on 29 first down plays (5.6 ypp), racked up 10 or more yards five times and scored four touchdowns.
Rick's Picks
Rick Smith's leadership of the ECU defense - most notably his influence in the secondary --resulted in a return to national prominence as one of the top interception units on the FBS level ... The Pirates have picked off a pass in 24 of 30 games since Smith's return to Greenville prior to the 2013 campaign (after previously serving from 2005-09).
Zay's Streak
Junior IR Isaiah Jones has caught at least one pass in 27-straight games heading into the SMU contest ... The streak, which began with a two-catch, 27-yard effort vs. North Carolina on Sept. 28, 2013, currently ranks 13th among active receivers ... His 10-catch, 130-yard performance against Navy two weeks ago represented the fourth double-digit reception outing and seventh triple-digit yard total of his career ... Additionally, Jones has 12 career touchdown receptions and the Pirates are 11-1 when he snares a scoring catch (only loss was against Florida on Sept. 12) ... Of his 12 TD grabs, six have been in league games (four C-USA, two AAC) in two-plus seasons.
On This Day In Pirates' History (4-3)
Oct. 3, 1953 -- East Carolina 13, Catawba 6
Oct. 3, 1959 -- East Carolina 34, Catawba 7
Oct. 3, 1970 -- West Texas State 42, East Carolina 30
Oct. 3, 1981 -- Duke 24, East Carolina 14
Oct. 3, 1987 -- West Virginia 49, East Carolina 0
Oct. 3, 1998 -- East Carolina 30, Army 25
Oct. 3, 2009 -- East Carolina 21, Marshall 17
