East Carolina Hosts Tulsa For Homecoming
October 15, 2015 | Football
Oct. 15, 2015
| East Carolina Game 7: Tulsa | |
| Date | Saturday, Oct. 17 |
| Time | 12 Noon (EDT) |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking | Buy Tickets | Parking Information | New To Gameday |
| 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 | Tulsa | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  | Tulsa | The American |
| 2015 Football Statistics | East Carolina | Tulsa |
| ECU Football Central | Gameday | Roster | Fact Book | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| East Carolina | Tulsa | The American | |
| East Carolina | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) l Tulsa | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUPirates | #ECUFootball | #TulsaFB | #AmericanRising | #TULSAvsECU |
| East Carolina | Tulsa | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- It's Homecoming on the East Carolina University campus as the Pirates welcome Tulsa for their American Athletic Conference home opener at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday beginning at 12 noon. ECU will try to regain some momentum after a 45-38 road setback at BYU last week when it opens second half play - a portion of the schedule that features home games in four of the last six contests.
The Pirates will also attempt to move to 2-1 in league action for the seventh time in the last nine years and post their 10th-straight Homecoming win when they battle the Golden Hurricane on Bagwell Field for the second time in three seasons.
East Carolina Records and Streaks
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three-straight, eight of the last nine years) ...
- Has won 25 of the last 30 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 18 of the last 19 games when gaining 200 or more rushing yards ...
- Has won 25-straight games when leading at the half ...
- Has won nine-straight Homecoming games ...
- Has won 10 of the last 11, 14 of the last 16 (and 18 of the last 21) home games ...
- Has won 12 of the last 13 conference home games (dating back to 2011) ...
The Series
East Carolina owns a 7-5 advantage in a series which dates back to 1984 ... The Pirates currently enjoy a five-game win streak, which began with a 27-24 triumph in the 2008 Conference USA Championship Game at Chapman Stadium in Tulsa ... While the two programs have split six matchups at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, ECU has won four of the six games played in Oklahoma.
Montgomery Vs. East Carolina
All three of Philip Montgomery's career battles against the Pirates were as a member of the Houston staff ... As running backs and quarterbacks coach in 2003 and 2004, his Cougars posted 27-13 and 34-24 wins, respectively ... ECU posted a 37-35 victory in 2007 while as Montgomery served as UH's co-offensive coordinator.
McNeill Against Montgomery
Althought Saturday's meeting will be the first between ECU's Ruffin McNeill and Tulsa's Philip Montgomery as head coaches, the two men have stood on opposite sidelines on a pair of occasions as assistant coaches in the Big 12 Conference ... During McNeill's last two years on the Texas Tech staff, the Red Raiders posted victories over Baylor during Montgomery's first two campaigns working with the Bears' offensive unit
The American - Year Two
ECU has posted a 76-43 (.639) all-time mark against current members of the American Conference ... The Pirates currently own series records against Memphis (15-6), Cincinnati (12-6), Tulane (11-3), UCF (9-4), Temple (8-4), Houston (7-5), Tulsa (7-5), SMU (4-2) Connecticut (1-0), Navy (1-4) and USF (1-4).
At Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium - 17-3 Since 2012
East Carolina's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 179-87-1 (.672) ... The Pirates opened the facility on Sept. 21, 1963 with a 20-10 win over Brian Piccolo and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in front of 17,000 fans and celebrated the stadium's 50th anniversary in 2013 ... Before an early 2-0 record this fall, consecutive 5-1 marks in 2014, 2013 and 2012, a 3-3 ledger in 2011 and a 4-2 clip in 2010, ECU won a combined 10 of 12 home matchups in `09 (6-1) and `08 (4-1) ... Overall, East Carolina has turned in 39 winning campaigns at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium since 1963 ... The Pirates currently enjoy a run of victories in 10 of the last 11 games and 14 of the last 16.
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 stand second (in 2015) after the first five weeks of play ... Overall, ECU ranks 52nd nationally in average attendance (45,613) and 45th in capacity percentage (91.23) so far in 2015.
NOTE: The 40,712 and 50,514 figures announced for the Pirates' first two contests (Towson and Virginia Tech, respectively) marked the 11th and 12th-straight home games that East Carolina surpassed 40K in attendance.
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 (8/11), BYU, Navy and Temple. Collectively, the Pirates' opponents have gotten off to a 36-30 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, 159-148-4 in October, 136-115-5 in November, 9-9-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will try to regain their October productivity, a month in which ECU has won five of the last six ... In league play, the Pirates have taken eight of the last nine.
Shutout-Free ... 225 And Counting
ECU will enter the Tulsa game with an active streak of 225 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 225-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 339 (began in 1988).
Introducing This Year's First-Time Starters
There have been a combined 10 first-time starters in East Carolina's lineup so far this year -- five on the offensive side of the ball with QB Blake Kemp, OT Brandon Smith, OG Christian Matau, RB Shawn Furlow and QB James Summers, and five more on defense with NT Demage Bailey, ILB Jordan William, OLB Joe Allely, ILB Devaris Brunson and OLB Yiannis Bowden each making a starting debut.
Win Flip Or Let Others Defer
East Carolina has received the opening kickoff in 40 of the last 43 contests (the South Carolina and UCF games in 2014 and the SMU two weeks ago are the only exceptions) ... That said, the Pirates have cashed in their first offensive possession with touchdowns in only half the contests so far (Towson, Florida, SMU).
Scoring Quickly
Although East Carolina averages 7.5 plays per touchdown drive in 2015, it has only taken 2:52 to reach the endzone ... In fact, only one drive has exceeded the 5:00 mark (opener vs. Towson) -- 23 of the 26 successful possessions have been under 3:59.
Second And Four?
ECU has enjoyed notable production on first down so far this year, averaging 5.7 yards per snap ... The Pirates have had 194 first down plays, gained 1,112 yards, moved the chains on 52 occasions and reached the endzone nine times ... Against BYU last week, East Carolina picked up 261 yards on 38 first down plays (6.9 ypp), racked up 10 or more yards 13 times and scored twice ... In their last two games combined (SMU/BYU), the Pirates have collected 464 yards, 20 fi rst downs and three TDs on "1st-and-10" snaps ... Against Virginia Tech on Sept. 26, ECU had a season-high four scores on first down.
Surging Sack Totals Lately
East Carolina's defense has turned up the heat on its pass rush in the last two games, netting a combined 12 quarterback drops against SMU (8.0) and BYU (4.0) after collecting just a combined five in its first four contests ... Senior OLB Montese Overton has accounted for half of the total, producing a school single-game record-tying 4.0 vs. the Mustangs before adding 2.0 against the Cougars ... In addition to matching a school standard that had stood since 1997, Overton established a new AAC record and currently stands 11th nationally among all pass rushers (6.0/-52 yards) ... ECU was 99th nationally (1.3 spg) prior to its visit to Dallas and now ranks 19th (2.8).
Zay's Streak
Junior IR Isaiah Jones has caught at least one pass in 29-straight games heading into the Tulsa 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 effort at BYU last week represented his fifth double-digit reception outing, while his 130-yard performance against Navy on Sept. 19 was the seventh triple-digit yard total of his career
Additionally, Jones has 13 career touchdown receptions and the Pirates are 11-2 when he snares a scoring catch (only losses have comes against Florida and BYU on Sept. 12 and Oct. 10, respectively, this year) ... Of his 13 TD grabs, over half (seven) have been against non-conference opponents in two-plus seasons.
ECU's Double-Option Offense
Both East Carolina junior quarterbacks have delivered effective and impact-producing relief appearances over the last three weeks ... After Blake Kemp opened the Virginia Tech and SMU contests, James Summers came off the bench to help rally East Carolina to wins over the Hokies and Mustangs ... Last week, Summers made his first collegiate start at BYU and Kemp nearly completed an improbable comeback from a 17-point deficit in Provo ... A closer look at all three recent calls from the bullpen:
- James Summers - Against the Hokies, he posted the second-highest single-game positional rushing total in school history (169 yards, most by a Pirate QB since 1979) and threw his first career TD pass before finishing with 279 yards of total offense -- also accounting for three of ECU's five TDs ... Was 9-of-10 for 153 yards with a pair of TDs through the air at SMU, while also adding 85 yards and two more scores on the ground.
- Blake Kemp - Passed for a career-high 371 yards and two touchdowns against BYU ... Completed 77.8 percent of his throws (28-of-36) and engineered two fourth-quarter TD drives operating in the "two-minute drill" (85 yards/1:52, 63 yards/2:36) to erase a 17-point deficit and put the Pirates in a position to even game with 4:01 left.
American, Non-League Statistical Comparisons
In its two American Athletic Conference contests (1-1) this year, ECU has averaged 35.0 points, 193.0 rushing yards, 287.0 passing yards and 480.0 total yards per game ... By comparison, the Pirates booked 31.3 ppg, 123.5 rypg, 298.5 pypg and 422.0 ypg averages in their four non conference tilts in 2015 (Towson, Florida, Va. Tech and BYU).
Homecoming Festivities & Lucky Game 7
East Carolina is 50-10 (.833) all-time in Homecoming contests and are the owners of a nine-game win streak (last falling in 2005 via a 30-20 decision to UCF on Oct. 29) ... In addition, the Pirates also have won nine-straight Game 7s - dropping its last "second half opener" in 2005 (27-24 at Memphis a week earlier on Oct. 22).
On This Day In Pirates' History (6-3)
Oct. 17, 1953 -- East Carolina 26, Western Carolina 7
Oct. 17, 1959 -- Western Carolina 34, East Carolina 14
Oct. 17, 1964 -- East Carolina 33, Lenoir-Rhyne 14
Oct. 17, 1970 -- Southern Illinois 14, East Carolina 12
Oct. 17, 1981 -- East Carolina 35, SW Louisiana 31
Oct. 17, 1987 -- East Carolina 32, Virginia Tech 23
Oct. 17, 1992 -- East Carolina 42, Cincinnati 21
Oct. 17, 1998 -- Alabama 23, East Carolina 22
Oct. 17, 2009 -- East Carolina 49, Rice 13
