ECU Hosts Towson In 2015 Season Opener
September 03, 2015 | Football
Sept. 3, 2015
| East Carolina Game 1: Towson | |
| Date | Saturday, Sept. 5 |
| Time | 6:00 PM (ET) |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking | Game 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: ESPN3 | DirecTV (Channel 788) | Time Warner (Channel 392) |
| Internet Options | Gametracker |
| Official Web Sites | East Carolina | Towson | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  | Towson | The American |
| 2014 Football Statistics | East Carolina | Towson |
| ECU Football Central | Gameday | Roster | Fact Book | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| East Carolina | Towson | The American | |
| East Carolina | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) l Towson | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUPirates | #ECUFootball | #TowsonFootball | #AmericanRising | #TOWvsECU |
| East Carolina | Towson | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- East Carolina, which has made bowl appearances in eight of the last nine seasons, will open the new campaign under the direction of sixth-year head coach Ruffin McNeill when the Pirates battle Towson in a non-conference matchup at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The contest against the Tigers will mark the sixth time in the last seven years that ECU will open a season at home. The tilt will also represent the first of four non-league games on the Pirates' 2015 schedule, preceding meetings with Florida (Sept. 12), Virginia Tech (Sept. 26) and BYU (Oct. 10).
East Carolina Records and Streaks
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three-straight, eight of the last nine years) ...
- Has won 23 of the last 27 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 held seven of last 13 opponents to less than 100 rushing yards ...
- Has won eight of the last nine, 12 of the last 14 (and 16 of the last 19) home games ...
- Has won six of the last eight regular season non-conference games ...
- Has won six of the last seven season openers ...
- Has won nine of the last 10 home openers ...
The Series
Saturday's contest will mark the first meeting (0-0) between East Carolina and Towson in the sport of football ... Additionally, ECU will play one other "inaugural" game during the course of the 2015 campaign when it faces BYU in Provo, Utah on Saturday, Oct. 10.
Against Non-Conference Opponents
Since accepting membership in a conference, the Pirates have produced a 28-45 (.384) regular season nonleague record ... East Carolina claimed its first winning non-conference mark since 1999 (a program-best 5-0 clip) with a 3-1 ledger in 2013 before following with an identical mark a year ago.
Non-League Statistical Comparisons
In its four regular season non-conference contests last year, ECU averaged 43.3 points, 189.5 rushing yards, 392.0 passing yards and 581.5 total yards per game ... By comparison, the Pirates booked 34.1 ppg, 153.4 rypg, 355.0 pypg and 508.4 ypg averages in their eight conference tilts in 2014.
East Carolina Against The FCS
The Pirates currently own a 23-game win streak and have recorded an all-time 23-1 record against programs that currently compete or competed on the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly NCAA Division I-AA) level when the game was played ... The lone setback, which occurred in the "first" contest, came against Eastern Kentucky (28-16) on Nov. 15, 1980 ... Among all of the Pirates' previous FCS opponents, Appalachian State (2-0), Georgia Southern (3-0), UCF (2-0), Southwest Texas State (1-0, now referred to as Texas State), have since made the transition to the FBS level.
What's Back ... Productively Speaking
Offensively, the Pirates return 53 percent of their rushing yards (1,108 of 2,094), but none of their passing yards (0 of 4,835) from a year ago after losing Kurt Benkert to a preseason knee injury. On defense, East Carolina welcomes back nearly 60 percent of its tackles (569 of 971) and 63 percent of its turnover production (12 of 19; 9/14 interceptions and 3/5 fumble recoveries) ... From a scoring standpoint, players who accounted for 163 of ECU's 466 points last season are on the 2015 active roster (35 percent).
The Pirate Nation -- 7.6 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 7,684,041 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963, and in the last seven years, ECU has averaged 45,902 (1,881,978/41 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 1,412,755 fans - cracking the one million mark in 2013 with a crowd of 50,096 that watched the Virginia Tech game on Sept. 14 ... 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 ... Overall, ECU ranked 51st nationally in average attendance (44,786) and 50th in capacity percentage (89.57) in 2014.
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 five programs earning votes in the preseason top 25 polls -- Florida, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, UCF and BYU.
Shutout-Free ... 219 And Counting
ECU will enter the Towson game with an active streak of 219 games of not sufferring 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 219-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 334 (began in 1988).
First-Time Starters?
There could be as many as four first-time starters in East Carolina's lineup against Towson Saturday - one on the offensive side of the ball (at QB, either Blake Kemp or Cody Keith) and three more on defense (NT Demage Bailey, ILB Jordan Williams and OLB Joe Allely) ... Secondary members Rocco Scarfone (CB) and Travon Simmons (FS) will look to make it two in row in the 2015 calendar year after making their initial start against Florida in the Birmingham Bowl on Jan. 3.
Losing Their (Red) Shirts
Ruffin McNeill's "play immediately" count is currently at 21 during his ECU head coaching tenure ... A program-high nine (9) players had their redshirts removed last year - TE Steve Baggett, OWR Trevon Brown, ILB Joe Carter, OWR Terrell Green, IWR Quay Johnson, DS Colton Oliver, DB Cody Purdie, RB Anthony Scott, ILB Ray Tillman -- to join a list of 12 others beginning in 2010: 2010 (4), 2011 (2), 2012 (1) and 2013 (5).
Hoping To Repeat Fourth Quarter Dominance
ECU enjoyed a distinct upper hand in fourth quarter action during its American Athletic Conference schedule last year, outscoring SMU, USF, UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, Tulane, Tulsa and UCF by a combined 109-32 clip (+77) ... Overall (13 games), the Pirates enjoyed an 154-63 edge in the final 15 minutes ... The +91 margin ranked first nationally (Nevada/+79 was second).
Admittedly, That's Tough To Match
East Carolina amassed 988 points and 13,015 yards during the past two seasons, per-game averages of 38 points and 500.6 yards, respectively.
Rick's Picks
In addition to notable per-game average improvements, 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 21 of 26 games since Smith's return to Greenville.
Zay's Streak
Junior IR Isaiah Jones has caught at least one pass in 23-straight games heading into the 2015 season ... The streak, which began with a two-catch, 27-yard effort vs. North Carolina on Sept. 28, 2013, currently ranks 16th among active receivers.
Among The Nation's Best
Senior ILB Zeek Bigger led all American Athletic Conference defenders and stood ninth nationally last year with 140 tackles ... Among (active) returners at the FBS level, Bigger will open the 2015 campaign ranked sixth:
| No. | Player | School | Total Tackles | TPG |
| 1. | Dakota Cox | New Mexico | 116 | 12.9 |
| 2. | Nate Holley | Kent State | 137 | 12.5 |
| 3. | Jovan Santos-Knox | Massachusetts | 143 | 11.9 |
| 4. | Scooby Wright III | Arizona | 163 | 11.6 |
| 5. | Great Ible | Eastern Michigan | 133 | 11.6 |
| 6. | Zeek Bigger | East Carolina | 140 | 10.8 |
