Gameday: ECU Travels To USF For American Opener

Saturday, September 22

Tampa, Fla.

8:00 P.M.

East Carolina University

USF

September 20, 2018 | Football

ECU Game 3: USF
Date:	Saturday, Sept. 22
Time:	8:00 PM (EDT)
Location:	Tampa, Fla. (Raymond James Stadium)
Tickets:	Game Tickets
Live Game Coverage:	Radio: WNCT 107.9FM; 620 AM Capitol (Raleigh) \| TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPNews
Internet Options:	Live Stats
Official Web Sites:	ECU \| USF \| American Athletic Conference
Game Notes:	ECU (PDF) \| USF (PDF) \| The American (PDF)
2018 Statistics:	ECU (PDF) \| USF (PDF)
ECU Football Central:	Roster \| Fact Book (PDF) \| The American \| NCAA Football College Scoreboard

Official Social Media Sites
Facebook:	ECU \| USF \| The American
Twitter:	ECU \| USF \| The American
Twitter Hashtags:	#ECUPirates \| #ECUFootball \| #AmericanFB
Instagram:	ECU \| The American

GREENVILLE, N.C. – ECU will officially open its 2018 American Athletic Conference schedule by visiting USF at 8 p.m. Saturday. The Pirates will look to open conference play 1-0 for the ninth time in the last 11 years when they battle the Bulls. On the flipside, ECU will also try to snap a three-game AAC road slide after dropping successive contests to UCF, Houston and Memphis to close out the 2017 campaign. The Pirates will also attempt to post a three-game mark of 2-1 for the second time in the Scottie Montgomery era at ECU (2016-18).

ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS

Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three of the last six, eight of the last 12 years) ...
Has won 20 of the last 23 games when gaining 200 or more rushing yards ...
Has accounted for 400 or more yards of total offense in 19 of the last 26 games ...
Has thrown at least two touchdown passes in 10 of the last 13 games (one in 13-straight) ...
Has featured a 100-yard receiver in nine of the last 13 games ...
Has won 32 of the last 35 games when leading at the half ...
Has held opponents under 30 points in back-to-back games (a first since 2015) ...
Has won eight of its last 10 conference openers (C-USA, AAC) ...

THE SERIES
USF leads ECU 7-1 all-time in a series which dates back to 2002 ... The 2003 and 2004 meetings were league contests while both programs were members of Conference USA, while the last four matchups (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017) have served as the Bulls' and Pirates' initial quartet of American Athletic Conference encounters ... The Papajohns.com Bowl matchup in Birmingham was ECU's first against then-Big East member USF at a neutral site ... The Pirates are 1-2 against the Bulls in Tampa and winless (0-4) in Greenville.

SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY AGAINST THE BULLS
Setbacks in 2016 (38-22) and 2017 (61-31) are Scottie Montgomery's only meetings against USF ... He did not face the Bulls during his seven-year tenure (2006-09, 2013-15) as a collegiate assistant coach at Duke.

CHARLIE STRONG AGAINST THE PIRATES
While Saturday's contest will be Charlie Strong's second (2017) against ECU as a head coach, he did face the Pirates on one occasion as an assistant ... As defensive coordinator on Lou Holtz' staff at South Carolina, ECU pinned a 21-3 loss on his Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium in 1999 ... The Pirates have squared off against Southern Illinois, Louisville and Florida in its history, but never when Strong was on those respective staffs.

ECU & USF COACHING CONNECTIONS
ECU and USF each feature Skip Holtz on its all-time head coach roster page ... Holtz was 16-21 (.432) while guiding the Bulls for three seasons (2010-12) after leading the Pirates to a 38-27 (.585) mark, two Conference USA titles and an unprecedented run of four-straight bowl appearances from 2005 to 2009 ... First-year ECU Defensive Coordinator David Blackwell was the Bulls' co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2009.

BULLS, 'CANES, 'NOLES, GATORS, KNIGHTS, OWLS AND PANTHERS
The Pirates have dropped 32 of 47 all-time matchups (15-32) against FBS (formerly Division I-A) programs from the state of Florida ... ECU is 1-7 against USF, 10-6 vs. UCF, 2-9 vs. Miami, 1-0 vs. Florida Atlantic, 1-0 vs. Florida International, 0-3 vs. Florida and 0-7 vs. Florida State ... The Pirates have lost eight of the last nine matchups against schools from Florida (posting its only win against UCF in the 2015 road finale).

THE AMERICAN - YEAR FIVE
ECU has posted an 81-60 (.574) all-time mark against current members of the American Conference ... The Pirates currently sport series records against Memphis (15-7), Cincinnati (13-8), Tulane (11-4), UCF (10-6), Temple (8-7), Tulsa (8-6), Houston (7-6), SMU (4-3) Connecticut (3-1), Navy (1-5) and USF (1-7).

THE EAST HAS BEEN A BEAST
ECU owns a 4-11 mark (2-6/home, 2-5/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, a pair of victories vs. Connecticut (41-3 in 2016, 41-38 in 2017) and a 48-20 triumph against Cincinnati on Senior Day in 2017 represents the only quartet of triumphs ... In all, ECU is 2-1 vs. Connecticut, 1-2 vs. UCF, 1-2 vs. Cincinnati, 0-3 vs. Temple and 0-3 vs. USF while competing as division mates ... On the flipside, ECU is 2-7 against foes in the West Division so far (1-1 vs. SMU, 1-1 vs. Tulsa, 0-2 vs. Navy during the first two years of interdivisional action and 0-1 vs. Houston, 0-1 vs. Tulane and 0-1 vs. Memphis last season) after switching cross-over opponents prior to the 2017 campaign.

LEAGUE, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS A YEAR AGO
In its eight American Athletic Conference contests last year, ECU averaged 26.9 points, 115.6 rushing yards, 332.0 passing yards and 447.6 total yards per game ... On the other hand, the Pirates turned in clips of 21.0 ppg, 91.8 rypg, 289.8 pypg and 381.5 typg in their four regular season non-conference tilts in 2017 ... ECU was 1-3 in non-AAC action (win over BYU), while posting a 2-6 mark against the league.

COMPARING 10-YEAR, TWO-GAME RESULTS
ECU's 41-19 win against North Carolina evened the Pirates' record at 1-1 for the fifth time in the last 10 years (since 2009), three of which resulted in a bowl appearance (2009, 2012 and 2014) ... A victory over USF would give ECU a 2-1 ledger for the fifth time in the last seven seasons, but a loss against the Bulls would be the Pirates' first 1-2 mark since 2015.

ECU'S HURRICANE FLORENCE TIMELINE
As many are aware, Eastern North Carolina was strongly impacted by Hurricane Florence's slow track, landfall and subsequent wind damage and record-breaking rainfall last week ... A timeline of ECU-related events include:
Tuesday, Sept. 11 – Hurricane Watch issued for Greenville at 8 a.m.; ECU classes were cancelled beginning at 12 noon through the remainder of the week; ECU announces it will not travel to Blacksburg to play Virginia Tech because of significant imminent safety concerns that included the high probability of catastrophic flooding and perilous travel conditions before, during and after the storm.
Wednesday, Sept. 12 – ECU instructed students to evacuate campus residence halls; the Pirate football program was relocated to Orlando, Fla., early in the morning; all ECU athletics events were cancelled through Sunday.
Friday, Sept. 14 – Hurricane Florence makes landfall at 7:15 a.m. on Wrightsville Beach, N.C. Wednesday, Sept. 19 - ECU classes are scheduled to resume at 8 a.m.

ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, ECU is 55-82 (.401) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... Prior to dropping four of five last year (win at UConn; losses at WVU, UCF, Houston & Memphis), the Pirates were a combined 5-14 (2014-2016).

ROAD OPENERS
ECU will try to snap a four-game road opener losing streak when it travels to USF ... After defeating UNC 55-31 in 2013, the Pirates followed by falling to South Carolina (2014), Florida (2015), the Gamecocks again (2016) and West Virginia (2017) in successive "away" game lid lifters ... Since 2000, ECU is 4-13 in road openers.

THE PIRATE NATION - OVER 8.5 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 attendance leader on a near annual basis ... In all, a total of 8,543,394 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963 ... Since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 (to push capacity to 50,000), the Pirates have drawn 2,272,108 fans.

ATTENDANCE LEADERS
ECU topped all American Athletic Conference members in regular season attendance in 2014, 2016 and 2017 ... Overall, ECU ranked 58th nationally in average attendance (36,727) and 76th in capacity percentage (73.45) in 2017 ... A closer look at Top 5 AAC draws in 2017 (regular season): 1. ECU (36,727), 2. UCF (36,082), 3. Navy (34,756), 4. Memphis (33,307), 5. Houston (32,583) ... ECU has drawn at least 40,000 fans to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in 22 of its last 30 home games dating back to 2013, which included the 2017 matchups vs. James Madison (40,169) and vs. Virginia Tech (43,776) ... The Pirates missed hitting the 40K mark by less than 1,500 during their first two weekends of the 2018 season, drawing 38,640 vs. N.C. A&T (following a weather-related postponement) for the opener and 39,298 against North Carolina on Sept. 8 ... ECU currently ranks 57th in average attendance (38,969) and 64th in capacity percentage (77.94), but stands second in the AAC – trailing only UCF (43,269), but leading USF (32,700), Houston (32,534) and Navy (30,887) to round out the top five.

ANALYZING THE 2018 OVERALL SCHEDULE
ECU's 2018 opponents posted a combined 88-60 (.595) record in 2017, which ranks as the toughest schedule in the American Conference and 11th in FBS (based on win percentage) ... Four programs had 10 or more wins, including UCF (13), North Carolina A&T (12), USF (10) and Memphis (10) ... Some other notables:
SEVEN BOWL TEAMS ... in addition to North Carolina A&T (Celebration) and Virginia Tech (Camping World), AAC programs USF (Birmingham), Temple (Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla), Houston (Hawai'i), UCF (Chick-fi l-A Peach) and Memphis (AutoZone Liberty) each made FBS postseason appearances last season.
HOSTING CHAMPIONS ... the Pirates host two defending conference champions who enjoyed undefeated seasons – A&T (MEAC) and UCF (AAC) ... The Aggies also captured the HBCU nat'l championship by downing Grambling State 21-14 at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, while UCF capped its perfect campaign with a 34-27 victory over Auburn in the Chick-fi l-A Peach Bowl, which was played at the same Atlanta facility.
IN THE FINAL POLLS ... four of ECU's 2018 FBS opponents were ranked in college football's two major polls (Associated Press/Amway Coaches) to end the 2017 season - UCF (6/7), USF (21/21), Virginia Tech (24/25) and Memphis (25/24) ... The Knights (12th), Tigers (20th) and Hokies (22nd) were also included on the last CFP rankings.
PLAYER(S)-OF-THE-YEAR VISITS ... all four 2017 American Athletic Conference Player-of-the-Year selections are on the docket to play in Greenville this season - UCF QB McKenzie Milton (offense), Houston DE Ed Oliver (defense), Memphis RB/KR Tony Pollard (special teams) and Memphis DB T.J. Carter (rookie).

SHUTOUT-FREE ... 256 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the USF contest with an active streak of 256 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) ... On the flipside, ECU has not recorded a defensive shutout since blanking Duke 38-0 on Sept. 2, 2000 in Durham, N.C. - a span of 225 games.

CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, ECU is 3-2-0 in August, 126-117-1 in September, 162-155-4 in October, 138-124-5 in November, 9-9-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates are 1-1 this season and were 1-4 last year, but have captured eight of the last 10 (8-2) games against conference foes in the ninth month (only losses were to Navy in 2015, USF in 2017).

LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
The Pirates return only 53.9 percent of its lettermen from a year ago, which ranks as the lowest percentage among all FBS programs ... Additionally, ECU's season-opening depth chart included only four senior returning starters (WR Trevon Brown, OT Garrett McGhinn, RB Anthony Scott and CB Corey Seargent), which stands as the second-fewest nationally (LSU and Western Michigan each only have three).

FIRST-TIME STARTERS
ECU has already utilized eight (8) first-time starters this season in its first two games against N.C. A&T and North Carolina - five on the offensive side of the ball (RG Branden Pena, QB Reid Herring, TE D'Angelo McKinnie, TE Johnny Bogle, WR Blake Proehl) and three more on defense (DE Nate Harvey, LB Bruce Bivens, FS Nolan Johnson) ... ECU stood fifth nationally among all FBS programs in 2017 with 24 first-time starters.

LOSING THEIR (RED) SHIRTS
A total of 15 players have had their redshirts removed and experienced action as true freshmen during the Scottie Montgomery era at ECU- nine in 2016 (DE 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) and six in 2017 (TE Ben Norris, RB Darius Pinnix, OL John Spellacy, WR Mydreon Vines, LB Bruce Bivens, DB Davondre "Tank" Robinson) ... The count will likely rise significantly with the NCAA's new redshirt rule implemented earlier this year (i.e. allowance of four game appearances) ... QB Holton Ahlers, DB Myles Berry, TE Johnny Bogle, DB Daniel Charles, DE Dorian Hardy, FS Nolan Johnson, TE D'Angelo McKinnie, WR Juwan Moody and LB Xavier Smith - nine (9) players - all have experienced action in the Pirates' fi rst two contests of the 2018 season ... Ahlers and Smith were the last two additions, each making their collegiate debut against the Tar Heels.

A GOOD, EVEN-NUMBERED SIGN
ECU has advanced to postseason play (i.e. bowl appearance) in five of the last six even-numbered years - 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014.

NEW ROLE FOR TONY PETERSEN
Starting ECU quarterback Reid Herring is offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tony Petersen's first "intra-developed" signal-caller in the last five years ... Peterson had the unique distinction of directly working with graduate transfer QBs in the previous four seasons, both at Louisiana Tech (Cody Sokol, Jeff Driskel) and with the Pirates (Philip Nelson, Thomas Sirk).

RECENT DEFENSIVE DOMINANCE FOR BLACKWELL
First-year ECU Defensive Coordinator David Blackwell built quite a formidable unit during his recent tenure in the same role at Jacksonville (Ala.) State ... During a four-year span from 2014 to 2017, JSU collectively ranked first nationally at the FCS level in defensive completion percentage (50.2), second in pass efficiency defense (105.5) and rushing yards allowed per carry (3.0), third in total defense (284.1 ypg) and yards per pass attempt (5.93), sixth in rushing defense (104.4 ypg), eighth in scoring defense (18.8 ppg) and ninth in sacks (133) during a time frame covering 51 total games ... Blackwell was a finalist for FCS Defensive Coordinator-of-the-Year honors in both 2015 and 2016.

CONSECUTIVE "SUB-30" OUTINGS
The last time ECU held back-to-back opponents under 30 points was in 2015 ... The Pirates surrendered 22 to USF, 7 to UCF and 19 to Cincinnati in Ruffin McNeill's final three contests as head coach.

TOP PASSING UNIT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Since joining the AAC in 2014, the Pirates lead the league in passing yards per game over a combined four-year period despite utilizing five starting quarterbacks, three offensive coordinators and two head coaches: 1. ECU (326.4), 2. Memphis (295.0), 3. Cincinnati (278.9), 4. Houston (263.9) and 5. Tulsa (256.0) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,446) and attempts (2,306), while standing second in TD passes (107) since competing in the AAC over the last four seasons ... Despite missing the AAC's inaugural season (2013), ECU has still accounted for a conference-high 14 400-yard passing games (Cincinnati is second with nine).

1K RECEIVER IN SIX-STRAIGHT YEARS: NO. 1 IN FBS
ECU has featured at least one 1,000-yard receiver in six-straight seasons, which is tops nationally at the FBS level ... Boise State, Houston, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech all stand second with a 1K pass catcher in three-straight years ... ECU 1,000-yard receivers include: 2012 Justin Hardy (1,105), 2013 Hardy (1,284), 2014 Hardy (1,494) and 2014 Cam Worthy (1,016), 2015 Zay Jones (1,099), 2016 Jones (1,746) and 2017 Trevon Brown (1,069) ... Brown is just one of eleven 1,000 yard receivers nationally who return this year (and the only one in the American Conference).

DECADE RECEIVING LEADERS
In the last decade (since 2008), ECU has produced nine 1,000-yard receivers, which also leads the FBS level along with SMU … NOTE – 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) ... 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).

TRIPLE-DIGITS O'PLENTY - NINE OF LAST 13 GAMES
ECU has had at least one 100-yard receiver in nine of the last 13 games - Trevon Brown (2-103 vs. WVU, 4-107 vs. VT, 11-141 vs. UH, 9-270 vs. CIN, 7-128 vs. MEM in '17), Davon Grayson (11-223 vs. UConn, 5-101 vs. USF, 10-164 vs. BYU), Jimmy Williams (110 vs. TEM) and Quay Johnson (14-115 vs. UH).

SIMILAR TIMELINE FOR REID HERRING & SHANE CARDEN
By opening the A&T (and North Carolina) contest(s), Reid Herring became the first "homegrown" or "developed" ECU quarterback to make his first career start since school record-holder Shane Carden took the initial snap at Southern Miss on Sept. 15, 2012 (a 24-14 Pirate victory) ... Following Carden's successful three-bowl tenure at ECU, the Pirates utilized all transfers at QB – Blake Kemp (2015), James Summers (2015), Philip Nelson (2016), Gardner Minshew (2016, 2017) and Thomas Sirk (2017) - a three-year span that unfortunately produced an overall record of 11-25 and the program's longest bowl drought since 2002-2005.

A STARTERS' LOG ...
NB Devon Sutton (12 games) and OT Garrett McGhin (10) own the program's longest starting streaks on their respective side of the ball entering the USF contest.

P6 .... #AMERICANPOW6R
Similar to the 2016 and 2017 campaigns, ECU will continue to wear P6 helmet stickers, recognizing Commissioner Mike Aresco's long-standing message that the American Athletic Conference is a Power 6 Conference based on the league's competitive results and commitments made at all the conference's institutions.

ECU OF NOTE ...
The Pirates have recorded a scoring throw in 76 of their last 83 games (run of 13-straight) ... Under Scottie Montgomery (2016-18), ECU ranks 6th nationally in most 4th down conversions (42) and 5th in most 4th down conversion attempts (71) ... The Pirates have dropped 27-straight games when scoring 20 or less points (19-14 vs. UCF in '09/last win) ... ECU has not had a punt return for a TD in 169 games (5,047 days or since Nov. 20, 2004 vs. Memphis) - the sixth-longest current drought in FBS (only Rice, UNLV, New Mexico, Kent State and Tulane have gone longer without a "successful" punt return).