East Carolina University
UCONN
Gameday: ECU Hosts UCONN Saturday At 12 Noon
October 27, 2016 | Football
| East Carolina Game 8: Connecticut | |
| Date | Saturday, Oct. 29 |
| Time | 12 noon (EDT) |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Bagwell Field at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking | Game Tickets | Parking Information | New To Gameday |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPNews/Watch ESPN |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | East Carolina | Connecticut | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | East Carolina (PDF) | Connecticut (PDF) | The American (PDF) |
| 2016 Football Statistics | East Carolina | Connecticut |
| ECU Football Central | Roster | Fact Book (PDF) | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| East Carolina | Connecticut | The American | |
| East Carolina | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) l Connecticut | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUPirates | #ECUGameday | #ECUndaunted | #ECUFootball #UConnNation | #AmericanRising | #UConnvsECU |
| East Carolina | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – It's Homecoming on the East Carolina University campus as the Pirates welcome Connecticut for an American Athletic Conference clash at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday beginning at 12 noon. ECU remains in search of its first AAC win of the 2016 campaign and will try to snap a five-game losing streak - the program's longest since 2003. The Pirates will be looking to post their 11th-straight Homecoming victory when they battle the Huskies on Bagwell Field for the second time in three seasons. The contest against UConn will also be the ECU's first at home since Oct. 1 after having its Oct. 13 tilt versus Navy postponed (Hurricane Matthew flooding).
EAST CAROLINA RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three of the last four years) ...
- Has won 29 of the last 34 games when scoring 30 or more points ...
- Has lost 21-straight games when scoring 20 or less points (19-14 vs. UCF in '09/last win) ...
- Has won 19 of the last 22 games when gaining 200 or more rushing yards ...
- Has racked up 400 or more yards in seven-straight games (only once in previous six games) ...
- Has won 28 of the last 30 games when leading at the half ...
- Has lost seven of the last eight conference games ...
- Has won 13 of the last 18, 17 of the last 23 (and 21 of the last 28) home games ...
- Has won 12 of the last 14 conference home contests played in the month of October ...
- Has won 10-straight Homecoming games ...
THE SERIES
Series tied 1-1 ... The Pirates scored 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to break a 21-21 deadlock in the first-ever meeting between the two programs at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in 2014 before the Huskies used a stifling pass defense that netted four interceptions to even the series with a 31-13 win a year ago.
THE EAST HAS BEEN A BEAST
East Carolina owns a 1-7 mark (0-4/home, 1-3/road) against American Athletic Conference opponents in its own East Division since the league began divisional play in 2015 ... The Pirates' 44-7 win against UCF in their '15 road finale represents the only triumph ... In all, ECU is 1-1 vs. UCF, 0-2 vs. USF, 0-2 vs. Cincinnati, 0-1 vs. Connecticut and 0-1 vs. Temple while competing as division mates ... On the flipside, East Carolina is 2-1 against foes in the West Division so far (wins over SMU and Tulsa, loss against Navy).
AMERICAN, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
In its three American Athletic Conference contests (0-3) this year, ECU has averaged 23.3 points, 140.7 rushing yards, 359.7 passing yards and 500.3 total yards per game ... By comparison, the Pirates booked 29.2 ppg, 155.8 rypg, 368.0 pypg and 523.8 ypg averages in their four non-conference tilts in 2016 (Western Carolina, NC State, South Carolina and Virginia Tech).
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM - 2-1 IN 2016 & 20-7 SINCE 2012
East Carolina's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 182-91-1 (.667) ... 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 a 3-3 record last 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.
PIRATE NATION - 8 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 and "Group of Five" attendance leader on a near annual basis ... In all, a total of 8,084,608 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963 (ECU cracked the 8 million mark when 50,719 watched ECU down NC State Sept. 10) ... Since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 (to push capacity to 50,000), the Pirates have drawn 1,813,322 fans.
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 led all Group of Five members in attendance from 2012 to 2014 before following with a third-place standing in 2015 and a current first-place slot after the first eight weeks of the 2016 season ... Overall, ECU ranks 47th nationally in average attendance (46,974) and 43rd in capacity percentage (93.95) after Week 8.
ANALYZING THE 2016 OVERALL SCHEDULE
East Carolina's 2016 schedule consists of games against two conference divisional champions (Navy and Temple/American West co-champs and East champs, respectively), eight bowl participants (NC State, Virginia Tech, USF, Navy, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Tulsa, Temple) and five programs that are either currently ranked or earning votes in the two major Top 25 polls (Associated Press/USA Today Amway Coaches) - Navy (22/22), Virginia Tech (25/25), SMU (RV/--), USF (--/RV) and Tulsa (--/RV). Collectively, the Pirates' opponents this season are a combined 48-38 (.558) after the first eight weeks of action.
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, ECU is 3-2-0 in August, 123-112-2 in September, 160-153-4 in October, 137-117-5 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 now split its last 12 games ... In league play alone, the Pirates have taken six of the last 11 (and nine of the last 15) ... At home, East Carolina has won 12 of the last 14 conference contests in October.
MANY FIRST-TIME STARTERS SO FAR
There have been a combined 16 first-time starters in East Carolina's lineup so far this season - seven on the offensive side of the ball with TE Stephen Baggett, WR Deondre Farrier, WR Terrell Green, G Garrett McGhin, T Messiah Rice, T Justin Sandifer and RB Anthony Scott, and nine on defense as OLB Kiante Anderson, DE Justin Brown, SS Bobby Fulp, OLB Kendall Futrell, CB Colby Gore, OLB Pat Green, DE Mike Myers, CB Corey Seargent and SS Devon Sutton have each made their respective starting debuts ... While OG Will Dancy (2/North Carolina) and QB Philip Nelson (16/Minnesota) have also made their inaugural Pirate appearances, both did own previous collegiate starting experience before transferring into the ECU program.
SPREADING THE WEALTH & TRIPLE-TRIPLES
ECU has featured a 100-yard receiver (nine times by three different players – Zay Jones/5, Jimmy Williams/3 and Quay Johnson/1) in six of seven games this season ... Williams (145), Jones (137) and Johnson (113) all surpassed the century mark against UCF on Oct. 1 - a first in school single game history ... Most recently, Williams bounced back from a one-catch, three-yard effort at USF with a team-high 129 yards at Cincinnati.
ZAY'S STREAK
Senior WR Zay Jones has caught at least one pass in 42-straight games heading into the Connecticut contest ... The streak, which began with a two-catch, 27-yard effort vs. North Carolina on Sept. 28, 2013, currently ranks fourth among all active receivers (Robert Davis/GSU, Corey Davis/WMU each have a 44-game run, Zach Pascal/ODU is at 43) ... His 11-catch night at Cincinnati represented his 14th double-digit reception outing, while his 145-yard day at USF was his 15th triple-digit yard total at ECU … In his last five games (SC/VT/UCF/USF/CIN), Jones has made 78 receptions for 656 yards - an average of 15.6 grabs and 131.2 yards per game.
KEEPING THE FLAGS AT A MINIMUM
East Carolina has only been flagged 28 times (6th nationally) for 247 yards (8th) in 2016 ... The penalty total is the second-lowest recorded by the Pirates after seven games in the last 10 years (24/'12), while the yardage is the fewest in the same span.
NOT WASTING ANY TIME
Although ECU averages 7.0 plays per touchdown drive so far in 2016, it has only taken 2:35 to reach the endzone ... In fact, only two drives have exceeded the 4:00 mark – the game-winner vs. NC State/6:02 and the first score vs. UCF/4:58 ... Twenty of the 22 successful possessions have been under 3:59 (recently, 0:49 and 2:49 vs. Cincinnati).
MAKING PROGRESS IN THE REDZONE
Despite still ranking last among all FBS units in redzone efficiency (64.5 percent), the Pirates have rebounded with a perfect 5-of-5 combined performance vs. USF (3-3) and Cincinnati (2-2) in their last two games ... ECU got off to a slow start by converting only six-of-16 RZ trips (37.5 percent) in contests against South Carolina, Virginia Tech and UCF.
ANSWERING THE BELL (IN THE THIRD QUARTER)
ECU has been outscored 102-22 in the first half of its last five contests, but countered with a combined 45-33 edge in the third quarter against the Gamecocks, Hokies, Knights, Bulls and Bearcats ... Overall, the Pirates have owned the third period with a 73-36 ledger through the first seven outings this year, surrendering only four TDs.
HOMECOMING FESTIVITIES
East Carolina is 51-10 (.836) all-time in Homecoming contests and are the owners of a 10-game win streak (last falling in 2005 via a 30-20 decision to UCF on Oct. 29).
THIS AND THAT
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: OL J.T. Boyd (30 games) and FS Travon Simmons (20) own the program's longest starting streaks on their respective side of the ball entering the UConn game ... WR Zay Jones has caught multiple passes in 44 of 45 career games (none vs. VT in 2013) ... Of his 336 career receptions, 140 have gone for 10 or more yards (39 for 20-plus) ... He's also hauled down at least one pass in 26 of 28 quarters this season (none vs. WCU/4Q and CIN/3Q) ... WR Jimmy Williams recorded his third career (and season) 100-yard receiving outing with a 129-yard effort at Cincinnati ... With two TD grabs vs. Bearcats (28 and 37-yarders in the second half), he extended his 2016 team lead to five ... The pair of scoring catches also marked his second career multi-TD game (other was at Virginia Tech/2) ... Sandwiched around a 3-yard day at USF are 179 yard, 145-yard and 129-yard performances vs. Virginia Tech, UCF and Cincinnati, respectively ... In his last two games (starts at RB against USF and Cincinnati), RB James Summers has rushed for a combined 209 yards (104.5 ypg) on 39 carries ... After registering his second career 100-yard rushing game with 114 yards on 18 carries vs. the Bulls, he added 95 yards on a career-high 21 attempts against the Bearcats ... He's also accounted for 16 career TDs (11/rushing, 5/passing) ... OLB Yiannis Bowden (eight), CB Corey Seargent (eight) and SS Devon Sutton (six) all registered career-high tackle totals vs. Cincinnati ... Sutton's effort came during his first career start in the Pirate secondary ... DE Justin Brown logged ECU's second blocked kick of the season (Devaris Brunson/punt vs. Western Carolina) when he deflected Josh Pasley's 39-yard FG attempt during second quarter action at Cincinnati ... The knockdown was the first on a FGA for the Pirates since K'Hadree Hooked swatted away a SMU try on Oct. 4, 2014 ... PK Davis Plowman was perfect in two FG tries at Cincinnati (26, 37-yarders) and has now made fi ve of his last six attempts (3-4/USF, 2-2 CIN) ... He's booked six career multi-FG games and 119 total points.
TEAM NOTES: The Pirates have thrown at least one TD strike in 58 of their last 64 games ... In 95 offensive possessions so far, East Carolina has been limited to a "three-and-out" on only 15 occasions (16 percent) ... ECU has netted just one sack in seven games (previous low water mark was two in eight games during the 2010 campaign) ... ECU has been held "sackless" in fi ve-straight outings, which surpasses the longest previous drought of four games (2010) ... The Pirates have tallied just two rushing TDs in their last five games (one each vs. UCF and USF), compared to 11 by its opponents ... The Pirates currently own a possession time "edge" of 31:12, a stark contrast to the last three seasons where ECU was a combined 1:10:20 (one hour, 10 minutes and 20 seconds) in the red (-45:20 in 2015, -7:26 in 2014 and -17:34 in 2013) ... A total of nine (9) players have had their redshirts removed in 2016 - OLB Kendall Futrell, CB Colby Gore, OG Cortez Herrin, RB Hussein Howe, QB Gardner Minshew, DE Jalen Price, DS Anthony Ratliff , OT D'Ante Smith and DE Alex Turner ... ECU will enter the UConn contest with an active streak of 238 games of not suffering a shutout - a school record ... The last time the Pirates were blanked was on Oct. 4, 1997 (56-0 at Syracuse).
