East Carolina University
Tulsa
Gameday: ECU Hosts Tulsa On Senior Day
November 27, 2019 | Football
| Tulsa at ECU (Game 12) | |
| Date | Saturday, Nov. 30 |
| Time | 12 Noon (EST) |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking | Tickets | Parking |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPNU |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | ECU | Tulsa | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | ECU | Tulsa | The American |
| 2019 Statistics | ECU | Tulsa |
| 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. – It's Senior Day at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium as East Carolina officially completes its 2019 schedule by hosting Tulsa on Saturday for a 12 noon American Athletic Conference clash. The Pirates will honor 16 players - 15 seniors and one junior - who will dress out for their final collegiate game in Greenville. ECU will try to post its third-straight Senior Day win after downing Cincinnati in the '17 home finale and Connecticut last season. Additionally, the Pirates will look to close out the 2019 campaign on a two-game win streak and tally their fifth victory of the year - most since 2015.
ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (eight in the last 13 years) ...
- Has thrown at least one TD pass in eight-straight games (and in 15 of the last 18 contests) ...
- Has averaged 41.7 points, 597.0 yards of total offense (469.0 passing) in its last three games ...
- Has scored in 16-straight redzone visits (9 TDs, 7 FGs) during its last four games ...
- Has converted 13 of its last 14 field goal attempts in its last six games ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in 10-straight games (most since 2013) ...
- Has won 38 of its last 42 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won six of the last seven games against Tulsa ...
- Has won three straight (and four of the last five) games against Tulsa in Greenville ...
THE SERIES
East Carolina owns an 8-6 advantage in a series which dates back to 1984 ... The Pirates currently enjoy a run of six wins in the last seven matchups, which began with a 27-24 triumph in the 2008 Conference USA Championship Game at Chapman Stadium in Tulsa ... ECU has won three-straight and four of the last five at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, while also capturing three of the last four in Oklahoma.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE GOLDEN HURRICANE
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 Tulsa.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY AGAINST THE PIRATES
While Saturday's contest will obviously be Philip Montgomery's third against East Carolina as a head coach, he also faced the Pirates three times as a member of the Houston staff ... As running backs and quarterbacks coach in 2003 and 2004, his Cougars posted 27-13 and 34-24 wins, respectively ... ECU logged a 37-35 victory in 2007 while Montgomery served as UH's co-offensive coordinator.
OUR TAKE(AWAY) ON RECENT SUCCESS VS. TULSA
In compiling its recent 6-1 record against the Golden Hurricane, East Carolina has forced a total of 21 turnovers (3.0 tpg) - seven (7) of which have been cashed in for touchdowns ... The Pirates initiated their takeaway frenzy in the 2008 C-USA Championship Game with seven (five interceptions) before adding four each in contests during the 2009 and 2013 seasons ... ECU has also netted a "pick-six" in three of the last four games.
SENIOR DAY ... TODAY
A total of 16 players will be dressing out for their final game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday: Cam Coleman (RB), Jack Doyle (OL), Deondre Farrier (WR), Fernando Frye (OL), Kendall Futrell (DL), Colby Gore (DB), Erik Lawson (DS), Rowe Mellott (DB), Branden Pena (OL), Jalen Price (DL), Anthony Ratliff (DS), Jaray Sampson (TE), Michael Swift (DL), Alex Turner (DL), Anthony Watley (TE), Michael Witherspoon (DB).
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SIX
East Carolina has posted an 83-73 (.532) all-time mark against current members of the American Conference ... The Pirates currently sport series records against Memphis (15-8), Cincinnati (13-10), Tulane (11-5), UCF (10-8), Tulsa (8-6), Temple (8-9), Houston (7-7), Connecticut (5-1), SMU (4-4), Navy (1-6) and USF (1-9).
AGAINST THE WILD WEST
ECU owns a 2-12 regular season mark (1-5/home, 1-7/road) against the American Athletic Conference's "other side" since the league began divisional play in 2015 - splitting a pair with Tulsa, dropping two of three versus SMU, losing two each to Houston, Memphis and Tulane, and falling three times to Navy ... The Pirates own a 6-19 mark (3-10/home, 3-9/road) against AAC opponents in its own East Division.
2019 West Opponents: @Navy/L 42-10, @SMU/L 59-51, Tulsa (Nov. 30)
2019 East Opponents: Temple/L 27-17, @UCF/L 41-28, USF/L 45-20, Cincinnati/L 46-43, @UConn/W 31-24
LEAGUE, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
The Pirates have averaged 28.6 points, 119.7 rushing yards, 329.9 passing yards and 449.6 total yards in their seven (Navy, Temple, UCF, USF, Cincinnati, SMU, Connecticut) American Athletic Conference games of the 2019 season ... 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 2-6 when they square off against Tulsa.
COMPARING 10-YEAR, 11-GAME RESULTS
Following its victory at UConn, East Carolina's 4-7 record represents the program's best 11-game mark since 2015 (5-6) ... A triumph against Tulsa would give ECU a season-ending 5-7, ledger, which would match the Pirates' best since that aforementioned '15 campaign (5-7).
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM - 2-3 IN 2019
ECU's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 191-105 (.645) ... 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 3-4 record last year and an 8-11 combined mark in 2015, 2016 & 2017, ECU was 5-1 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 has posted 39 winning campaigns at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium since 1963.
THE PIRATE NATION - OVER 8.8 MILLION STRONG
ECU has usually 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 8,866,638 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 2,595,352 fans (42,547 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 average over a collective five-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 65th nationally in average (34,165) and 89th in capacity percentage (68.33).
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 277 AND COUNTING
East Carolina will enter the Tulsa contest with an active streak of 277 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) ... ECU's 277-game run currently ranks among the Top 10 nationally (Florida/396 leads all programs).
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, East Carolina is 3-3-0 in August, 130-119-1 in September, 162-161-4 in October, 140-129-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will continue play in November vs. Tulsa on Saturday, a month in which East Carolina has lost 13 of its last 17 contests (and 16 of 22 since the 2013 campaign) ... At home, ECU has split its last four (a 48-20 victory over Cincinnati in 2017 and a 55-21 triumph against Connecticut in 2018 account for the pair of Ws), but has also dropped seven of the last nine dating back to 2015.
FINISHING AT HOME - A FIRST SINCE 2015
For the first time since 2015, East Carolina will complete its regular season schedule at Dowdy Ficklen Stadium when it hosts Tulsa on Saturday ... Prior to closing out a campaign on the road in 2016 (Temple), 2017 (Memphis) and 2018 (NC State), the Pirates captured victories in five of the last eight regular season finales that were played at home - winning in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 & 2012 (falling in 2010, 2014 and 2015).
UPDATING THE 2019 OVERALL SCHEDULE
East Carolina's 2019 opponents posted a combined 70-77 (.476) record in 2018 and are currently 64-69 (.481) this season ... The Pirates' four non-conference foes are currently 13-33 (.283), while the eight AAC squads have combined for a 51-36 (.586) mark ... Two of ECU's league opponents are nationally ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll (Cincinnati/10-1, Navy/8-2), while three more are bowl eligible (UCF, SMU, Temple).
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).
LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
The Pirates returned 63.8 percent of their lettermen from a year ago, yet featured a '19 lineup which included 49 freshmen (32 true, 17 redshirt) - which represents 46.7 percent of ECU's 2019 roster (and stands among the Top 20 "youngest" teams nationally).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
East Carolina has featured 14 fi rst-time starters this year - 10 on the offensive side of the ball (RG Sean Bailey, TE Zech Byrd, RB Trace Christian, TE Damir Faison, OR Jsi Hatfield, RT Noah Henderson, OR C.J. Johnson, RB Demetrius Mauney, RT Matt Morgan, OR Mydreon Vines) and four more on defense (ILB Myles Berry, ILB Delvontae Harris, 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.
2019 REDSHIRT TRACKER - TRUE FRESHMEN
The Pirates have utilized 13 true freshmen so far in 2019 - six on offense, five on defense and two on special teams - and seven have surpassed the four-game "limit" mandated by the NCAA: ST Alex Angus (3 games played), DL Rick D'Abreu (10), CB Malik Fleming (11), QB Bryan Gagg (1), IR Jsi Hatfield (11), DL Immanuel Hickman (2), ST Trent Holler (1), OR C.J. Johnson (11), TE Jeremy Lewis (10), RB Demetrius Mauney (11), CB Ja'Quan McMillian (11), CB Juan Powell (3) and OL Nishad Strother (1).
2019 REDSHIRT TRACKER - RETURNERS
East Carolina also has five players who experienced action (and started) in previous seasons and never used a redshirt season that have played in less than four games during the 2019 campaign: sophomore DB Nolan Johnson (3 games played), sophomore DL D'Angelo McKinnie (3), junior RB Darius Pinnix (3), sophomore OL Peyton Winstead (0) and senior DB Michael Witherspoon (2) ... Additionally, eligible junior transfer OL Bailey Malovic (3) is also included on the list with one contest remaining.
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. East Carolina (22,611), 2. Memphis (22,002), 3. Houston (19,345), 4. UCF (19,228) and 5. Cincinnati (19,115) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,917) and attempts (3,178) ... ECU has also accounted for a conference-high 18 400-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 fi rst 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.
DUO TOPPING ROOKIE RECEIVERS
C.J. Johnson (767) and Tyler Snead (704) rank first and second among all East Carolina single season freshmen pass-catchers in the Pirates' modern day history.
OUTINGS TO REMEMBER
C.J. Johnson (12-283 vs. Cincinnati) and Tyler Snead (19-240 vs. SMU) have turned in two of the top five outings by a receiver at the FBS level in 2019.
THROWING THE CLOCK BACK ...
East Carolina established a school single-game record with 535 passing yards against Cincinnati before following with 498 and 374-yard clips at SMU and UConn, respectively, bringing back memories of the Pirates' "Air Raid" days from 2010 to 2014 ... ECU's combined 1,407 air yards trails only Washington State as the most compiled in three successive games on the FBS level in 2019.
... BUT WANTING TO RUN IT FORWARD
Despite the aforementioned recent aerial eff ort vs. the Bearcats, Mustangs and Huskies, Mike Houston's desire is to establish the run first ... That said, his 2019 squad (currently +17) is vying to become the first ECU team since 2009 (+77) to have more rushing attempts than pass attempts in a season ... Additionally, the Pirates' 1,621ground yards stands as the sixth-highest in the last 20 seasons (through 11 games).
LIGHTNING STRIKES
East Carolina has already turned in 68 "big plays" (20+ yards) in 2019 - an average of 6.2 per contest - the most since 2014 with one game remaining ... The top five Pirates' big play producing units include: 2014 (93), 2019 (68), 2013 (65), 2018 (60) and 2016 (60)... ECU has logged 16 rushes and 52 passes that have matched or exceeded 20 yards.
TOUCHDOWNS ON THE GO
Because of the aforementioned big play production, the Pirates don't waste much time getting into the endzone .... Although East Carolina averages 6.9 plays per touchdown drive in 2019, it has only taken an average of 2:28 to reach paydirt ... In fact, not a single TD drive has exceeded the 5:00 mark - 24 of the 31 successful possessions (77 percent) have been under 3:59 – including three of the Pirates' four TDs at Connecticut.
BALL SECURITY
Despite being represented by plenty of youth on offense and on their special teams return units, the Pirates have committed only 16 turnovers in 2019 - the second-fewest in a recent 20-year snapshot of program history.
DEFENDING DIFFERENTLY ... X3-PLUS
The Pirates are one of 11 FBS programs to employ three-plus different defensive coordinators in the last three seasons - Alabama, Akron, Bowling Green, Coastal Carolina, ECU, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Temple, Tennessee and Texas State.
A RUN OF TAKEAWAYS
East Carolina has forced at least one turnover in 10-straight contests, the longest streak by a Pirate defense since a similar 10-game run in 2013 ... ECU's 2009 unit holds the record with a takeaway in all 14 outings that year ... Nationally, the Pirates' streak stands fifth behind Louisiana Tech (15), Baylor (13), Illinois (11) and Ohio State (11).
SPECIALTY SCORING
Tyler Snead's record-tying 100-yard kickoff return against USF on Oct. 26 marked the Pirates' second special teams touchdown of the season (following Warren Saba's blocked punt return vs. ODU) - the most by an East Carolina squad since 2009.
THIS & THAT ...
INDIVIDUALLY: LT D'Ante Smith (24 games) and DT Alex Turner (23) own the program's longest starting streaks on offense and defense entering the Tulsa contest ... IR Deondre Farrier has an active streak of recording at least one reception in 23-straight contests heading into the Tulsa tilt (last five in '17, all seven games played in '18 and all 11 outings in '19) ... OR C.J. Johnson, who currently leads ECU with 767 yards, has posted triple-digit receiving yardage totals in three of the last six games (TEM/100, UCF/106, CIN/283) ... OR Blake Proehl has two century mark reception yard totals in 2019 - 100 at ODU (on just 2 grabs) and 105 vs. CIN (8 catches) ... RS/IR Tyler Snead has posted over 100 all-purpose yards in five-straight games (UCF/107, USF/222, CIN/102, SMU/276, UCONN/166) and scored 6 TDs during the same span (5 receiving, 1 KOR) ... He currently owns the top two single-game reception totals at the FBS level this year with 19 at SMU and 16 at UConn ... Snead has 35 receptions for 366 yards in his last pair of outings, the highest back-to-back two-game totals for an ECU pass catcher since Zay Jones had 35 (UCF/17, USF/18) and 385 (SMU/173, Navy/212) during the 2016 campaign ... At 5-foot-7, 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) ... RB Demetrius Mauney's 428 rushing yards are the most by an ECU freshman running back in season since Chris Johnson had 561 in 2004 ... DE Kendall Futrell has booked at least one TFL in nine of 11 contests this year (Navy, SMU) ... CB Ja'Quan McMillian's three (3) interceptions are the most by a rookie Pirate defender since Emanuel Davis had four (4) in 2008 ... SS Daniel Charles picked off a pair of passes vs. CIN, the fi rst multi-INT performance by an ECU DB since 2014 (Lamar Ivey) ... . The Pirates have received the opening kickoff in 10 of 11 contests in 2019 (2-9 on coin tosses) ... East Carolina has already blocked two punts this season (Warren Saba/ODU, Leroy Henley/UCF), the most in a "full" season since 2015 (SMU, BYU) ... ECU has utilized only 15 defensive starters this season - the fewest since 2000.
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