East Carolina University
Virginia Tech
Gameday: ECU Set To Host No. 16 Virginia Tech
September 14, 2017 | Football
| East Carolina Game 3: No. 16 Virginia Tech | |
| Date: | Saturday, Sept. 16 |
| Time: | 3:30 PM (EDT) |
| Location: | Greenville, N.C. (Bagwell Field at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking: | Game Tickets | Parking Information | Things To Look For On Gameday |
| Live Game Coverage: | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | 99.9 The Fan (Raleigh) | TuneIn Radio Online Television: CBSSN |
| Internet Options: | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | Virginia Tech | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes: | ECU (PDF) | Virginia Tech (PDF) | The American (PDF) |
| 2017 Football Statistics: | ECU | Virginia Tech |
| ECU Football Central: | Roster | Fact Book (PDF) | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| ECU | Virginia Tech | The American | |
| ECU | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) l Virginia Tech | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUPirates | #ECUGameday | #ECUndaunted | #ECUFootball | #AmericanFB | #VTvsECU |
| ECU | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – ECU will try to run its record to 7-1 in the last eight meetings against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents when the Pirates welcome No. 16 Virginia Tech to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for a non-conference matchup. ECU, which has knocked off North Carolina and NC State twice, and taken two of the last three from the Hokies during its recent success against the ACC, will also attempt to avoid its first 0-3 start since 2004.
EAST CAROLINA RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three of the last five years) ...
- Has won 30 of the last 37 games when scoring 30 or more points ...
- Has won 19 of the last 22 games when gaining 200 or more rushing yards ...
- Has accounted for 400 or more yards of total offense in 12 of the last 14 games ...
- Has won 29 of the last 31 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won 10 of the last 18 regular season non-conference games ...
- Has won six of the last seven games against ACC opponents (dating back to Sept. 28, 2013) ...
- Has lost 24-straight games when scoring 20 or less points (19-14 vs. UCF in '09/last win) ...
THE SERIES
Virginia Tech leads 14-7 ... After the Hokies opened the series with a 37-2 win in 1956, the two programs observed a 31-year hiatus before meeting on an annual basis for eight seasons beginning in 1987 ... After ECU won four of the first seven matchups, Virginia Tech rolled off six straight before the Pirates snapped the streak by upsetting the Hokies 27-22 in Charlotte in 2008 ... Virginia Tech has won six of nine in Greenville overall, although the Pirates recorded their first home win against the Hokies since 1992 with a 35-28 triumph in 2015.
AGAINST NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS
Since accepting membership in a conference, the Pirates have produced a 32-51 (.386) regular season nonleague record ... ECU claimed its first winning non-conference mark since 1999 (a program-best 5-0 clip) with 3-1 ledgers in 2013 and 2014 before following with 2-2 marks in 2015 and 2016.
ECU AGAINST THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
ECU has compiled an all-time record of 44-84-1 (.345) against current members of the Atlantic Coast Conference ... In addition to a 7-14 mark against Virginia Tech, the Pirates own a 13-16 ledger against NC State, 5-5 vs. Duke, 4-6 vs. Louisville, 3-6 vs. Syracuse, 4-12-1 vs. North Carolina, 2-1 vs. Virginia, 2-2 vs. Pittsburgh, 2-6 vs. Wake Forest, 2-9 vs. Miami and 0-7 vs. Florida State ... As previously mentioned (page 1), ECU has enjoyed a recent run of success against the ACC, winning six of the last seven matchups (dating back to Sept. 28, 2013).
ECU-VIRGINIA TECH COACHING STORYLINES
In addition to David Cutcliffe and Mike Tomlin, second-year ECU Head Coach Scottie Montgomery includes former Hokie quarterback Bruce Arians (1972-74) as one of his most impactful mentors ... Arians, who currently serves as the Arizona Cardinals head coach, was the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive coordinator while Montgomery coached wide receivers for the club in 2010 and 2011 ... Virginia Tech cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell coordinated ECU's defense from 2010 to 2012, helping the Pirates to a pair of bowl appearances.
NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULING ... ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
ECU is the only program in the nation to play at least three non-conference games against P6 (including Notre Dame & BYU) opponents in each of the last five years, including the 2017 campaign ... Moving forward, the Pirates currently have two P6 tilts scheduled in 2018 (North Carolina, Virginia Tech), two in 2019 (NC State, Virginia Tech) and three in 2020 (West Virginia, Virginia Tech, South Carolina).
COMPARING 10-YEAR, TWO-GAME RESULTS
ECU's 56-20 loss to West Virginia dropped the Pirates' record to 0-2 for the first time since 2011 (and twice in the last 12 years as the 2006 squad also opened a new campaign with consecutive setbacks before regrouping to earn a bowl appearance) ... A victory over Virginia Tech would give ECU a 1-2 ledger for the fourth time in the last 10 years, but a loss against the Hokies would be the Pirates' first 0-3 mark since 2004.
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM - 0-1 IN 2017
ECU's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 183-94-1 (.660) ... 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 back-to-back 3-3 marks in 2015 and 2016, ECU recorded consecutive 5-1 ledgers in 2014, 2013 and 2012 (15-3) and won a combined 10 of 12 home matchups in 2009 (6-1) and 2008 (4-1) ... Overall, ECU will be looking for its 40th winning campaign at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium this fall.
THE PIRATE NATION - 8 MILLION STRONG
ECU 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 a national attendance leader on a near annual basis ... In all, a total of 8,248,535 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, 2016) ... Since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 (to push capacity to 50,000), the Pirates have drawn 1,977,249 fans - just 22,751 shy of 2 million.
ATTENDANCE LEADERS
ECU topped all American Athletic Conference members in attendance in 2014 and 2016, and currently lead the league again in 2017 ... Overall, ECU ranks 51st nationally in average attendance (40,169) and 58th in capacity percentage (80.34) this season ... A closer look at Top 5 AAC leaders: 1. ECU (40,169), 2. UCF (38,063), 3. Temple (35,117), 4. Cincinnati (30,831), 5. Navy (30,420) ... ECU has drawn at least 40,000 fans to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in 21 of its last 23 home games dating back to 2013, which includes this year's season opener vs. James Madison (40,169) ... The only "exceptions" were a Thursday night matchup against Temple on October 22, 2015 (39,417) and the 2016 home finale against Navy (39,480).
ANALYZING THE 2017 OVERALL SCHEDULE
Overall, the Pirates '17 schedule features contests against eight teams which advanced to bowl games a year ago - West Virginia (Russell Athletic), Virginia Tech (Belk), BYU (Poinsettia), USF (Birmingham), UCF (AutoNation Cure), Temple (Military), Memphis (Boca Raton) and Houston (Las Vegas) ... Of ECU's five road games, four will be against 2016 bowl qualifiers ... Six of the Pirates' FBS opponents this year were either ranked or received votes in college football's two major polls (Associated Press, Coaches) to end the 2016 season - Virginia Tech (16/16), West Virginia (18/17) and USF (19/19) were among the Top 25, while BYU, Temple and Houston each received votes ... ECU's four non-conference opponents were a combined 43-12 (.782) a year ago, while the Pirates' eight American Conference foes posted a collective 55-47 (.539) record ... The Pirates' 2017 non-conference slate, which includes FCS national champion JMU, was ranked as the toughest nationally by USA Today.
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, ECU is 3-2-0 in August, 123-114-2 in September, 161-153-4 in October, 137-121-5 in November, 9-9-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... Although the Pirates were 2-2 last season (and have won 15 of their last 28 overall September games), ECU has posted a recent 8-13 record against non-conference foes in the ninth month, which includes season-opening losses to James Madison and West Virginia.
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 244 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the Virginia Tech contest with an active streak of 244 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).
LOSING THEIR (RED) SHIRTS
A total of 33 players have had their redshirts removed and experienced action as true freshmen in the last five-plus years - 2012 (1), 2013 (5), 2014 (9), 2015 (4), 2016 (9) and 2017 (5) ... The count increased by five this year as TE Ben Norris, RB Darius Pinnix, OL John Spellacy and WR Mydreon Vines all experienced action vs. James Madison in the opener, while ILB Bruce Bivens made his college debut vs. WVU (six tackles, five solo).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
ECU has had a combined 16 "fi rst-time" starters in its lineup against James Madison and West Virginia - seven on the off ensive side of the ball (LT D'Ante Smith, LG Cortez Herrin, C John Spellacy, RG Austin Lee, QB Thomas Sirk, RB Derrell Scott, RB Tyshon Dye), eight more on defense (DT Tyree Owens, DT Raequan Purvis, DT Jalen Price, DE Gaelin Elmore, ILB Ray Tillman, CB Travis Phillips, FS Korrin Wiggins, PIR Tim Irvin) and one on special teams (P Austin Barnes) ... It is worth nothing however that Dye (Clemson), Scott (Tennessee), Sirk (Duke), Owens (West Virginia), Elmore (Minnesota), Wiggins (Clemson), Irvin (Auburn) and Barnes (Eastern Michigan) are FBS transfers.
A QUARTET OF OPENING DAY QUARTERBACKS
When junior Gardner Minshew took the opening snap in the opener against James Madison, it enabled ECU to become one of 19 FBS programs nationally to feature its fourth different opening day starting QB - joining Shane Carden (2014), Blake Kemp (2015) and Philip Nelson (2016) ... Other programs to have four different signal-callers open the last four campaigns include Alabama, Auburn, Boston College, Florida, Hawai'i, Louisiana, North Texas, Notre Dame, Old Dominion, Oregon, Oregon State, Rutgers, San Jose State, South Alabama, South Carolina, Texas A&M, UTEP and Wisconsin.
TOP PASSING UNIT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Since joining the American Athletic Conference in 2014, the Pirates lead the league in passing yards per game over a combined three-plus-year period despite utilizing five starting quarterbacks, three offensive coordinators and two head coaches: 1. ECU (329.4), 2. Cincinnati (299.5), 3. Tulsa (284.7). In addition, the Pirates also top the conference in completions and attempts since joining the AAC over the last three seasons.
RECEIVER U
ECU has the top two receivers in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history by career receptions in Zay Jones (399 from 2013-16) and Justin Hardy (387 from 2011-2014) ... Marshall and Nevada are the only other schools with multiple Top 20 all-time FBS pass catchers ... In terms of FBS single-season reception leaders, the Pirates are just one of two programs (Nevada) to have three entries in the Top 25 listings - 1. Jones (158/2016), 20. Hardy (121/2014), 25. Hardy (114/2013).
DIALING LONG DISTANCE
Trevon Brown's school-record 95-yard TD reception vs. West Virginia is currently tied (with two others) for the longest FBS play from scrimmage in 2017 ... Additionally, his 103 receiving yards on just two catches ranks as an FBS best (along with Devonte Boyd of UNLV who accomplished the same feat vs. Idaho) ... In terms of ECU, only Marcellus Harris racked up more yards on a pair of grabs (111 vs. Syracuse in 2000).
KEEPING IT IN THE EASTERN TIME ZONE
Since becoming a conference member (1997), ECU has played just two opponents from outside the Eastern Time Zone - Alabama (in Birmingham in 1998) and BYU (in Provo in 2015) ... To extend the trend, the Pirates aren't scheduled to leave the "ET" for a non-league contest through 2021.
NEW COACHES, SAME LEAGUE
Defensive coordinator Robert Prunty (Cincinnati) and receivers coach Keith Gaither (Temple), who both joined the Pirates' staff this year, are two of 22 coaches nationally at the FBS level this year to switch schools but stay in the same league.
NFL PLAYER & COACH TO COLLEGE HEAD COACH
ECU's Scottie Montgomery's just one of three FBS head coaches to have played and been a full time coach in the NFL (along with Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Minnesota's P.J. Fleck) ... Montgomery's last active year as a player in the NFL was in 2003, so only Fleck (2005) and Texas Tech's Kliff Kingsbury (2005) were active in the league more recently among FBS head coaches.
4TH DOWN DECISIONS - FULL SPEED AHEAD
ECU stands third nationally in most 4th down conversion attempts (42, 24 made) since Scottie Montgomery has taken the reigns of the Pirate program (2016-17)... ECU ranked fifth nationally among all FBS programs in 4th down conversions (21) and fifth in attempts (35) during the 2016 campaign, doubling the tries in 2015 (17).
THIS AND THAT
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: OT Brandon Smith (25 games) and DE Kiante Anderson/ILB Jordan Williams (7) own the program's longest starting streaks on their respective side of the ball entering the Virginia Tech contest ... WR Jimmy Williams extended his streak with at least one reception to 15 games (did not have a catch against USF on Nov. 7, 2015) ... As a starter, QB Gardner Minshew has completed 44-of-77 (57.1%) passes for 503 yards and four touchdowns in three games (Navy/Temple in '16, James Madison in '17) ... He set career-highs in completions (29), attempts (49) and passing yards (336) against Tulsa in a relief role before tossing a personal-best three TDs (40, 6, 77-yarders) vs. the Mids in his first career start last Nov. 19 ... Minshew also appeared on the Netflix series Last Chance U (Season 1/Episode 5) while playing at Northwest Mississippi Community College ... Graduate transfer QB Thomas Sirk had quite a memorable game during his last appearance vs. Virginia Tech, leading Duke to a 45-43 win in four overtime periods ... He picked up 109 rushing yards on 18 carries and completed 19-of-39 passes for 270 yards and four TDs ... He came off the bench in his Pirate debut and completed 21-of-35 passes for 210 yards while directing both ECU scoring drives vs. JMU before starting the WVU tilt and turning in a 16-of-34, 191-yard, 1 TD passing performance ... Among all active QBs, he currently ranks 5th nationally in rushing TDs (16), 6th in rush yards per game (41.6) and 12th in rush yards (1,082) ... ILB Jordan Williams, who led ECU in tackles last year and was included on SI.com's Freak List (nation's top 40 workout warriors in college football), has posted three or more stops in 17 of his last 18 contests ... He matched a career best with 14 stops in the opener vs. JMU before logging 11 at West Virginia last week ... P Austin Barnes has enjoyed a successful ECU debut by posting a 44.1 average in his first two games (49.2 vs. JMU, 40.0 vs. WVU) ... The season-opening clip was the highest by a Pirate punter since Worth Gregory's 55.5 mark at Tulsa in 2014.
TEAM NOTES: The Pirates' streak of throwing at least one TD pass was snapped at 14 games against James Madison, but with a pair at WVU last week, ECU has now recorded a scoring throw in 64 of their last 71 games ... ECU has now tallied at least one rushing TD in five of the last seven outings (none vs. Temple in '16 finale and at WVU last week) ... The Pirates broke a four-game takeaway drought by netting two vs. the Dukes (one interception, one fumble recovery) before failing to get one vs. the Mountaineers ... ECU has racked up 400 or more yards of total offense in 12 of its last 14 games (225 vs. Temple, 362 vs. JMU) ... The Pirates' defense has surrendered only a combined 75 completions in their last five games (an average of just 15.0 per contest) ... ECU's offensive line has produced a pair of sack-free contests in its last four outings (allowed only one to JMU in the opener before keeping WVU completely out of the backfield last week).
