East Carolina University
UCF
Gameday: ECU Heads South To UCF
October 16, 2019 | Football
| ECU at UCF (Game 7) | |
| Date | Saturday, Oct. 19 |
| Time | 7:00 P.M. (EDT) |
| Location | Orlando, Fla. (Spectrum Stadium) |
| Tickets | Tickets |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: CBSSN |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | ECU | UCF | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | ECU | UCF | The American |
| 2019 Statistics | ECU | UCF |
| ECU Football Central | ECU Media Hub | Roster | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| ECU | The American | |
| ECU | ECU Football (in-game updates) | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUGameday | #PirateNation | #AmericanFB |
| ECU | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina will try to even its American Athletic Conference road record at 1-1 this season when it faces two-time defending league champion UCF at 7 p.m. Saturday inside Spectrum Stadium. After dropping a 27-17 contest to Temple in their last outing prior to a bye week, the Pirates will look to push their overall ledger to 4-3 for the first time since 2015 when they battle the Knights. Additionally, ECU will attempt to capture back-to-back road victories (a first since 2014) and post its fifth win in Orlando when it meets UCF in the Sunshine State for the eighth time in series history.
ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (eight in the last 13 years) ...
- Has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 10 of the last 13 games (18 TD throws) ...
- Has made at least one field goal (when attempted) in 17-straight games ...
- Has booked 62 tackles for lost yardage in the last nine games (6.9 pg) ...
- Has allowed just three (3) TD passes in the last 5 games (0.6 pg) ...
- Has won 37 of the last 40 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won 13 of the last 14 games when leading at the end of the 3rd quarter ...
- Has won 10 of the last 13 second-half openers ("Game 7s") ...
THE SERIES
East Carolina leads 10-7 ... The Pirates have enjoyed a pair of four-game winning streaks against the Knights, the latest from 2006 to 2009 ... ECU has won four of seven in Orlando.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE KNIGHTS
Including Mike Houston's prior eight-year tenure as a collegiate head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne, The Citadel and James Madison, Saturday's game will mark his first-ever meeting against UCF.
JOSH HEUPEL AGAINST THE PIRATES
Saturday's clash will be Josh Heupel's second against the Pirates as a head coach ... He never faced off against East Carolina while an assistant during tenures at Arizona, Oklahoma, Utah State and Missouri.
KNIGHTS, BULLS, 'CANES, 'NOLES, GATORS, OWLS AND PANTHERS
The Pirates have dropped 34 of 49 all-time matchups (15-34) against FBS (formerly Division I-A) programs from the state of Florida ... ECU is 10-7 vs. UCF, 2-9 vs. Miami, 1-0 vs. Florida Atlantic, 1-0 vs. Florida International, 1-8 vs. USF, 0-3 vs. Florida and 0-7 vs. Florida State ... The Pirates have lost 10 of the last 11 matchups against schools from Florida (posting its only win against UCF in the 2015 road finale).
HOUSTON: FLORIDA REWIND
Saturday's trip to Orlando will be Mike Houston's second contest in Florida as a head coach ... During his first season at The Citadel in 2014, his Bulldogs out-rushed No. 1 Florida State (250-210), picked up 21 first downs and played seven true freshmen before falling to the Seminoles 37-12 in front of 81,294 at Doak Campbell Stadium on Sept. 6.
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SIX
East Carolina has posted an 82-69 (.543) all-time mark against current members of the American Conference ... The Pirates currently sport series records against Memphis (15-8), Cincinnati (13-9), Tulane (11-5), UCF (10-7), Tulsa (8-6), Temple (8-9), Houston (7-7), Connecticut (4-1), SMU (4-3), Navy (1-6) and USF (1-8).
THE EAST HAS BEEN A BEAST
East Carolina owns a 5-16 mark (3-8/home, 2-8/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 trio of victories vs. Connecticut (41-3/'16, 41-38/'17, 55-21/'18) and a 48-20 triumph against Cincinnati on Senior Day in 2017 represents the only quintet of triumphs ... In all, ECU is 3-1 vs. UConn, 1-3 vs. UCF, 1-3 vs. Cincinnati, 0-4 vs. USF and 0-5 vs. Temple while competing as division mates ... On the flipside, ECU is 2-11 against the West (1-1 vs. SMU, 1-1 vs. Tulsa, 0-2 vs. Houston, 0-2 vs. Memphis, 0-2 vs. Tulane, 0-3 vs. Navy).
2019 East Opponents: Temple/L 27-17 (Oct. 3), @UCF (Oct. 19), USF (Oct. 26), Cincinnati (Nov. 2), @UConn (Nov. 23)
2019 West Opponents: @Navy/L 42-10 (Sept. 14), @SMU (Nov. 9), Tulsa (Nov. 30)
LEAGUE, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
The Pirates have averaged 13.5 points, 91.0 rushing yards, 183.5 passing yards and 274.5 total yards in their two (Navy, Temple) American Athletic Conference games of the 2019 season so far ... By comparison, ECU averaged 24.3 points, 195.8 rushing yards, 212.2 passing yards and 408.0 total yards per game in its four regular season non-conference contests this year ... The Pirates followed a 2-2 non-league ledger in 2018 with a 3-1 mark this fall and hope to improve their AAC record to 1-2 (1-7 last season) when they square off against UCF.
COMPARING 10-YEAR, SIX-GAME RESULTS
Despite falling to Temple in its last outing, ECU's 3-3 record represents the best six-game mark since 2015 (and marks the third time in the last 10 seasons the Pirates have split their fi rst half dozen contests) ... A win over UCF would give the Pirates a 4-3 ledger, which again would match the 2012 and 2015 squads ... Additionally, the 4-3 record would be ECU's third-best six-game "start" since 2010.
ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, ECU is 56-89 (.386) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... The Pirates snapped a 10-game road losing streak with a 24-21 win at Old Dominion on Sept. 28 and will try to capture successive "away" victories for the first time since 2014 when they face UCF on Saturday ... From a league standpoint, ECU has dropped eight-straight (and 11 of the last 12) road contests ... The Pirates' last American Athletic Conference triumph was a 41-38 thriller at Connecticut on Sept. 24, 2017.
THE PIRATE NATION - OVER 8.8 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 among conference attendance leaders on a near annual basis ... In all, a total of 8,801,277 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963, and since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 (to push capacity to 50,000), the Pirates have drawn 2,529,991 fans (42,881 per game).
AMERICAN ATTENDANCE LEADERS (2014-2019)
Since becoming a member of the American Athletic Conference in 2014, East Carolina leads the league in overall attendance and average over a collective fi ve-plus-year period … The Pirates have led the AAC in regular season attendance average three times - 2014, 2016 and 2017 ... Overall on the FBS level, ECU currently ranks 64th nationally in average (35,155) and 88th in capacity percentage (70.31).
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 272 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the UCF contest with an active streak of 272 games of not suffering a shutout – a school record (previous mark was 110 set from '71-'81) ... The last time the Pirates were blanked was on Oct. 4, 1997 (56-0 at Syracuse).
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, East Carolina is 3-3-0 in August, 130-119-1 in September, 162-159-4 in October, 139-127-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will try to regain their October productivity, a month in which ECU has now dropped 11 of its last 13 games (and 11 of the last 12 American Athletic Conference battles) dating back to 2015 ... On the road, ECU has lost six of the last 10 (and seven of the last 12) conference tilts ... While the Pirates are an impressive 9-0 against the Knights when facing off in September (4-0) and October (5-0), UCF has captured six of seven matchups played in the month of October ... East Carolina has never defeated the Knights when hooking up in Orlando during the 10th month (0-3; 2010, 2012, 2017).
REFRESHED OR RUSTY?
The Pirates haven't taken full advantage of bye weeks when looking at a 10-year perspective - winning only seven of their last 13 contests (and dropping four in a row) following an open week since 2009 ... A closer look: 2009 (no true off -week), 2010 (L/UNC), 2011 (W/UAB), 2012 (W/TLN), 2013 (W/UNC, W/FIU), 2014 (W/SMU, W/UConn, L/CIN), 2015 (W/UCF), 2016 (L/CIN), 2017 (L/UH) and 2018 (L/USF, L/MEM) ... Since 1965, East Carolina is 30-23 in games after a break.
ANALYZING THE 2019 OVERALL SCHEDULE
ECU's 2019 opponents posted a combined 70-77 (.476) record in 2018 and have gotten off to a 40-31 (.563) start this season ... The Pirates' four non-conference foes are currently 10-14 (.417), while the eight AAC squads have combined for a 30-17 (.638) mark:
WHO WENT BOWLING ... In all, ECU's slate features contests against five teams which advanced to bowl games a year ago ... In addition to NC State (TaxSlayer Gator), USF (Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla), Temple (Walk-On's Independence), Cincinnati (Military) and UCF (PlayStation Fiesta) each made postseason appearances last season ... Half of ECU's six home games have been/will be against 2018 bowl qualifiers.
IN THE FINAL POLLS ... Three of ECU's opponents were ranked or received votes in college football's two major polls (Associated Press/Amway Coaches) to end the 2018 season - UCF (11/12), Cincinnati (24/23) and NC State (RV/RV) ... The Knights (8th) were also included on the last CFP ranking prior to falling to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl.
BEEN THROUGH THE WARS
ECU's (10) assistant coaches bring an impressive 181 combined years of full-time Division I coaching experience to the Pirate program ... In addition, members of Mike Houston's staff have also turned in 33 combined seasons as a coordinator at college football's top level (FBS) ...ECU's staff also has two former collegiate head coaches - Donnie Kirkpatrick (Chattanooga/2000-02) and Byron Thweatt (Virginia State/2015).
STATISTICALLY, MUCH CAME BACK ...
Offensively, the Pirates returned 74 percent of their rushing yards (1,156 of 1,556) and an even more impressive 99 percent of their passing yards (3,396 of 3,417) from a year ago ... On defense, ECU welcomed back over 60 percent of its tackles (539 of 888) and nearly 64 percent of its turnover production (seven of 11; 3/5 interceptions and 4/6 fumble recoveries) … From a scoring standpoint, players who accounted for 192 of East Carolina's 273 points last season are on the 2019 active roster (70 percent).
... BUT WE'RE ALSO LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
The Pirates return 63.8 percent of their lettermen from a year ago, yet features a lineup which includes 49 freshmen (32 true, 17 redshirt) - which represents 46.7 percent of East Carolina's 2019 roster (and stands among the Top 20 "youngest" teams nationally).
2019 REDSHIRT TRACKER
The Pirates have utilized eight (8) true freshmen so far in 2019 - four on offense and four on defense - and seven have surpassed the four-game "limit" mandated by the NCAA: DL Rick D'Abreu (5 games played), CB Malik Fleming (6), IR Jsi Hatfield (6), DL Immanuel Hickman (1), OR C.J. Johnson (6), TE Jeremy Lewis (6), RB Demetrius Mauney (6) and CB Ja'Quan McMillian (6).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
East Carolina has featured only eight (8) first-time starters in its first six games so far this year – six on the offensive side of the ball (RG Sean Bailey, TE Zech Byrd, RB Trace Christian, OR C.J. Johnson, RT Matt Morgan, OR Mydreon Vines) and two more on defense (CB Ja'Quan McMillian, OLB Gerard Stringer) ... The Pirates had 19 first-time starters in '18 after "introducing" a program record 25 first-timers a year earlier in 2017.
THE HOUSTON ERA: FIRST YEAR IMPACT
In addition to posting a 3-3 mark - East Carolina's best through six games since 2015 - first-year head coach Mike Houston has also made quite a statistical impact so far, most notably on the defensive side of the ball.
TOP PASSING UNIT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Since joining the AAC in 2014, the Pirates lead the league in passing yards over a combined five plus-year period despite utilizing eight starting quarterbacks, four offensive coordinators and three head coaches: 1. ECU (20,669), 2. Memphis (20,386), 3. Cincinnati (18,442), 4. Houston (18,324) and 5. UCF (17,672) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,777) and attempts (2,968) ... ECU has also accounted for a conference-high 16 400-yard passing games.
1K RECEIVER = LOOKING FOR EIGHT-STRAIGHT YEARS
ECU has featured at least one 1,000-yard receiver in seven-straight seasons (heading into the 2019 campaign), which ranks first at the FBS level … ECU 1,000-yard receivers include: 2012 Justin Hardy (1,105), 2013 Hardy (1,284), 2014 Hardy (1,494) and Cam Worthy (1,016), 2015 Zay Jones (1,099), 2016 Jones (1,746), 2017 Trevon Brown (1,069) and 2018 Brown (1,123) ... ECU also has the top two receivers in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history by career receptions in Jones (399 from 2013-16) and Hardy (387 from 2011-2014) and have produced 10 1,000-yard pass catchers over the last decade - which ranks first nationally (with SMU).
RE-ESTABLISHING THE RUN & OFFENSIVE BALANCE
Despite the impressive historical aerial totals listed above, Mike Houston's desire is to establish the run first and offer offensive balance ... That said, ECU has rushed for 965 yards through its first six games, the program's fourth-highest ground total since 2000.
SCORING QUICKLY
Although East Carolina averages 7.7 plays per touchdown drive in 2019, it has only taken an average of 2:39 to reach the endzone ... In fact, not a single drive has exceeded the 5:00 mark - eight of the 12 successful possessions have been under 3:59.
HITTING THE BIG ONES
On a related note (i.e. scoring quickly), the Pirates have already turned in 31 "big plays" (20+ yards) in 2019 - an average of 5.2 per contest ... The most noticeable improvement has been in ECU's rushing attack, which has produced 12 long gainers - already surpassing full-season totals turned in by the 2016 (10) and 2017 (7) squads, while only five shy of the final 2018 number (17) with at least six contests remaining.
2ND & FIVE
East Carolina has enjoyed notable production on first down so far this year, averaging nearly five yards per snap (4.8) ... The Pirates have had 182 first down plays, gained 875 yards, moved the chains on 29 occasions and reached the endzone five times.
BALL SECURITY
Despite being represented by plenty of youth on the offensive side of the ball and on their special teams return units, the Pirates have committed only eight turnovers through the first half of the season - a number which stands as the second-fewest in a recent 20-year snapshot of program history ... The other four squads included in the Top 5 (below) all advanced to bowl games and won half of those (2007, 2013).
DEFENSIVE FCS DOMINANCE FOR TROTT
First-year ECU Defensive Coordinator Bob Trott built quite a formidable unit during his recent tenure in the same role at James Madison ... During a three-year span from 2016 to 2018, JMU collectively ranked first nationally at the FCS level in turnovers forced (97), interceptions (66) and defensive pass efficiency (99.8), while standing second in scoring defense (15.7) ... In all, he tutored seven FCS All-America selections, a national and CAA Defensive Player-of-the-Year.
DEFENDING DIFFERENTLY ... X3-PLUS
From a clean record-keeping standpoint it's perhaps easier to say that East Carolina is one of 11 FBS programs to employ three different defensive coordinators in the last three seasons - Alabama, Akron, Bowling Green, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Temple, Tennessee and Texas State ... However, it would be more accurate to state the Pirates are the only team to have used 3-plus DCs since opening the 2017 campaign.
NO PASSING (TD) ZONE
ECU's defense has allowed only four TD passes so far, which stands as the fewest in a season opening six-game span over the last 20 years ... Additionally, the Pirates have surrendered just 1,208 aerial yards - the fewest at the midway point since 2006 (986).
GOING WITH WHAT WE HAVE
The Pirates have only utilized a total of 62 players through six games this season, their lowest "roster usage" since 2006 ... Additionally, ECU has featured just 12 defensive starters so far, which is the lowest number (through six tilts) in the modern era.
THIS & THAT ...
Orlando native IR Deondre Farrier has an active streak of recording at least one reception in 18 straight contests heading into the UCF tilt (last five in '17, all seven games played in '18 and all six outings in '19) ... OR Blake Proehl, who currently leads ECU with 22 catches, has averaged 22.9 yards per reception in his last three games (4-51/W&M, 2-100/ODU, 2-32/TEM) ... DE Kendall Futrell racked up a combined 7.0 TFLs and 5.0 sacks vs. ODU (3.5/3.0) and TEM (3.5/2.0) and has now booked four more stops in all six contests this year ... At 5-foot-7, RS/IR Tyler Snead is the third-shortest (by height) returner at the FBS level in 2019, towering above Oregon State's Champ Flemings (5-5), New Mexico's Chad Alexander (5-6) and Arizona's J.J. Taylor (5-6) ... East Carolina has received the opening kickoff in all six contests in 2019 (2-4 on coin tosses) ... The Pirates have netted a takeaway in five-straight games, their longest streak since a run of seven in a row during the '14 campaign ... Additionally, ECU's eight overall forced TOs are the most in six games since 2013 (9) ... The Pirates have been held to a collective 29 points in the first half of their last five road games (6-CIN/'18, 0-NCSU/'18, 3-NCSU/'19, 3-Navy/'19, 17-ODU/'19) – an average of 5.8 points per half.
