East Carolina University
SMU
Gameday: ECU Travels To No. 23 SMU
November 07, 2019 | Football
| ECU at No. 23 SMU (Game 10) | |
| Date | Saturday, Nov. 9 |
| Time | 12 Noon (EST) |
| Location | Dallas, Texas (Gerald J. Ford Stadium) |
| Tickets | Buy Tickets |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPNU |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | ECU | SMU | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | ECU | SMU | The American |
| 2019 Statistics | ECU | SMU |
| 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 open a two-game road swing with its longest trip of the season, traveling to Dallas to face American Athletic Conference West Division contender No. 23 SMU Saturday. In addition, the tilt against the Mustangs also closes a two-game stretch against nationally-ranked opponents for the Pirates, who dropped a 46-43 decision to AAC East Division forerunner No. 17 Cincinnati last week. ECU will attempt to post multiple road wins in the same season for the first time since 2015, which also marks the year of the Pirates' last meeting against SMU on the Hilltop.
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 six-straight games (and in 13 of the last 16 contests) ...
- Has averaged 481.7 yards total offense (356.7 passing) in its last three games ...
- Has made at least one field goal (when attempted) in 20-straight games ...
- Has booked at least six tackles for lost yardage in seven of the last eight games (54 total) ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in eight-straight games (most since 2013) ...
- Has won 37 of the last 41 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won two of three games against SMU in Dallas ...
THE SERIES
East Carolina leads 4-3 ... The Pirates and Mustangs both turned in respective sweeps as Conference USA inter-divisional opponents - ECU taking 2005 and 2006 matchups before SMU posted consecutive victories in 2009 and 2010 ... The Pirates bounced back by capturing two of the first three American Athletic Conference meetings, posting wins in 2014 and 2015 under Ruffin McNeill before suffering a setback in 2016 ... The Mustangs' visit to Greenville in 2014 also marked East Carolina's inaugural AAC clash.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE MUSTANGS
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 SMU.
SONNY DYKES AGAINST THE PIRATES
While Saturday's contest will be Sonny Dykes' first against East Carolina as a head coach, he did face the Pirates once as an assistant ... During his first year as Texas Tech's co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2000, ECU raced out to a 34-0 second-quarter lead before posting a 40-27 victory in the galleryfurniture.com Bowl at the Astrodome ... Leonard Henry (20-92, 2 TDs) led a 252-yard rushing attack, Keith Stokes had a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown and David Garrard completed 17-of-27 passes for 229 yards and another score to lead the Pirates offensively ... Quarterback Kliff Kingsbury threw for 307 yards on a 31-of-49 passing effort to headline the Red Raiders' attack ... Nine of Dykes' receivers caught passes, including three by Wes Welker.
AGAINST THE LONE STAR STATE
The Pirates have won 21 of 35 all-time matchups (21-14) against FBS programs from the state of Texas ... ECU is 7-7 against UH, 4-3 vs. SMU, 3-1 vs. UTEP, 2-2 vs. Rice, 2-1 vs. TCU, 1-0 vs. Texas Tech, 1-0 vs. North Texas and 1-0 against Texas State ... ECU has never faced Baylor, Texas or Texas A&M on the gridiron ... On the road, the Pirates are 9-7 overall when playing Texas-based teams.
HOUSTON RETURNS TO THE METROPLEX
ECU Head Coach Mike Houston will make a return to the DFW area this weekend for the first time since appearing in back-to-back NCAA FCS National Championship Games to close out the 2016 and 2017 campaigns.
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SIX
East Carolina has posted an 82-72 (.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 (4-1), SMU (4-3), Navy (1-6) and USF (1-9).
AGAINST THE WILD WEST
ECU owns a 2-11 regular season mark (1-5/home, 1-6/road) against the American Athletic Conference's "other side" since the league began divisional play in 2015 - splitting with SMU and Tulsa, dropping a pair to Houston, Memphis and Tulane, and falling three times to Navy ... The Pirates own a 5-19 mark (3-10/home, 2-9/road) against AAC opponents in its own East Division.
2019 East Opponents: Temple/L 27-17, @UCF/L 41-28, USF/L 45-20, Cincinnati/L 46-43, @UConn (Nov. 23)
2019 West Opponents: @Navy/L 42-10, @SMU (Nov. 9), Tulsa (Nov. 30)
LEAGUE, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
The Pirates have averaged 23.6 points, 111.4 rushing yards, 287.4 passing yards and 398.8 total yards in their five (Navy, Temple, UCF, USF, Cincinnati) 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 1-5 when they square off against SMU.
COMPARING 10-YEAR, NINE-GAME RESULTS
Following its loss to Cincinnati Saturday, East Carolina's 3-6 record represents the best nine-game mark since 2016 ... A victory over SMU would give ECU a 4-6 ledger, which would be the program's top 10-game "start" since 2015 (also 4-6).
ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, ECU is 56-90 (.384) 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 two "away" victories (in the same season) for the first time since 2015 when they face SMU on Saturday ... From a league standpoint, ECU has dropped nine straight (and 12 of the last 13) 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 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 91st in capacity percentage (68.33).
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 275 AND COUNTING
East Carolina will enter the SMU contest with an active streak of 275 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, 162-161-4 in October, 139-128-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will continue play in November vs. SMU on Saturday, a month in which East Carolina has lost 12 of its last 15 contests (and 15 of 20 since the 2013 campaign) ... On the road, ECU has dropped nine of the last 11 - posting its last November win four years ago with a 44-7 rout of UCF in Orlando on Nov. 19, 2015.
ROAD, BYE, ROAD ... TAKE III
East Carolina will open a two-game league road swing Saturday, visiting SMU first before traveling to Connecticut (Nov. 23) following a bye week ... Since their membership in the American Athletic Conference, the Pirates have encountered a similar scheduling scenario on two prior occasions: 2014: L/at Temple (Nov. 1), L/at Cincinnati (Nov. 13) and 2016: L/at USF (Oct. 8), L/at Cincinnati (Oct. 22) ... The latter listing was unscheduled but flooding associated with Hurricane Matthews forced a bye after the USF trip.
UPDATING THE 2019 OVERALL SCHEDULE
East Carolina's 2019 opponents posted a combined 70-77 (.476) record in 2018 and are currently 53-50 (.515) this season ... The Pirates' four non-conference foes are currently 11-24 (.314), while the eight AAC squads have combined for a 42-26 (.618) mark ... Three of ECU's league opponents are nationally ranked in both polls (Cincinnati/7-1, SMU/8-1, Navy/7-1) and a fourth is also bowl eligible (UCF/7-2).
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 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 ECU's 2019 roster (and stands among the Top 20 "youngest" teams nationally).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
East Carolina has featured 12 first-time starters in its first nine games this year – nine on the offensive side of the ball (RG Sean Bailey, TE Zech Byrd, RB Trace Christian, OR Jsi Hatfield, RT Noah Henderson, OR C.J. Johnson, RB Demetrius Mauney, RT Matt Morgan, OR Mydreon Vines) and three more on defense (ILB Myles Berry, 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
The Pirates have utilized 12 true freshmen so far in 2019 - six on offense, four on defense and two on special teams - and seven have surpassed the four-game "limit" mandated by the NCAA: ST Alex Angus (1 game played), DL Rick D'Abreu (8), CB Malik Fleming (9), QB Bryan Gagg (1), IR Jsi Hatfield (9), DL Immanuel Hickman (1), OR C.J. Johnson (9), TE Jeremy Lewis (9), RB Demetrius Mauney (9), CB Ja'Quan McMillian (9), ST Juan Powell (1) and OL Nishad Strother (1).
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 (21,739), 2. Memphis (21,400), 3. Houston (19,088), 4. Cincinnati (18,775) and 5. UCF (18,619) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,851) and attempts (3,086) ... ECU has also accounted for a conference-high 17 400-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.
TOPPING ROOKIE RECEIVERS
C.J. Johnson's 682 reception yards are the most by an ECU freshman pass-catcher through the first nine games in the Pirates' modern day history … He also leads all freshmen FBS receivers nationally.
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
Johnson established an American Athletic Conference and school single-game record with 283 receiving yards vs. Cincinnati, the top outing by a WR nationally in 2019.
THROWING THE CLOCK BACK ...
East Carolina established a school single-game record with 535 passing yards against Cincinnati last week, bringing back memories of the Pirates' "Air Raid" days from 2010 to 2014 ... ECU's outing currently ranks second (single-game) among all FBS units in '19.
... BUT WANTING TO RUN IT FORWARD
Despite the aforementioned aerial eff ort vs. the Bearcats last week, Mike Houston's desire is to establish the run first ... That said, his 2019 squad (+38) is the first ECU team since 2009 (+41) to have more rushing attempts than pass attempts through its first nine games ... Additionally, the Pirates' 1,340 ground yards stands as the fourth-highest in the last 20 seasons (in the same nine-game span).
LIGHTNING STRIKES
The Pirates have already turned in 52 "big plays" (20+ yards) in 2019 - an average of 5.8 per contest ... The most noticeable improvement has been in ECU's rushing attack, which has produced 15 long gainers - already surpassing full-season totals turned in by the 2016 (10) and 2017 (7) squads.
TAKING THE EXPRESS LANE
Because of the aforementioned big play production, the Pirates don't waste much time getting into the endzone .... Although East Carolina averages 6.7 plays per touchdown drive in 2019, it has only taken an average of 2:17 to reach paydirt ... In fact, not a single TD drive has exceeded the 5:00 mark - 16 of the 21 successful possessions (76 percent) have been under 3:59 - including four of the Pirates' five TDs vs. Cincinnati.
BALL SECURITY
Despite being represented by plenty of youth on offense and on their special teams return units, the Pirates have committed only 13 turnovers through the first nine contests - third-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.
LIMITING AERIAL TDs
East Carolina's defense has allowed only 11 TD passes so far, which stands as the third-fewest in a season-opening nine-game span over the last 20 years.
A RUN OF TAKEAWAYS
East Carolina has forced at least one turnover in eight-straight contests, the longest streak by a Pirate defense since a 10-game run in 2013 ... ECU's 2009 unit holds the record with a takeaway in all 14 outings that year.
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 (22 games) and DT Alex Turner (21) own the program's longest starting streaks on offense and defense entering the SMU contest ... IR Deondre Farrier has an active streak of recording at least one reception in 20-straight contests heading into the SMU tilt (last five in '17, all seven games played in '18 and all nine outings in '19) ... OR C.J. Johnson, who currently leads ECU with 44 catches for 682 yards, has posted triple-digit receiving yardage totals in three of the last four games (TEM/100, UCF/106 and CIN/283) and was only 15 shy of making it four in a row (USF/85) ... OR Blake Proehl turned in his second century-mark reception yard total of the season with 105 vs. CIN (8 catches), which followed a 100-yard outing at ODU (on just 2 receptions) ... ECU was only four yards shy of having a "triple-triple" against the Bearcats as IR/OR Jsi Hatfield recorded a career-best 96 yards on 6 grabs ... RB Demetrius Mauney's 390 rushing yards is the most by an ECU freshman ball-carrier through 9 games since Chris Johnson had 503 in 2004 ... DE Kendall Futrell has booked at least one TFL in eight of nine contests this year (Navy) and has netted 8.0 of his 9.0 sacks in the last five outings (ODU/3.0, TEM/2.0, UCF/2.0, USF/0, CIN/1.0 ... SS Daniel Charles picked off a pair of passes vs. CIN, the first multi-INT performance by a Pirate defender since Lamar Ivey (also vs. CIN in 2014) ... RS/IR Tyler Snead has posted over 100 all-purpose yards in three-straight games (UCF/107, USF/222, CIN/102) and scored 3 TDs in his last 3 games (2 receiving, 1 KOR) ... 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).
TEAM: The Pirates have received the opening kickoff in all nine contests in 2019 (2-7 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 14 defensive starters through 9 games this season - the fewest since 2000 ... The Pirates have been held to a collective 35 points in the first half of their last six road games (6-Cincinnati/'18, 0-NC State/'18, 3-NC State/'19, 3-Navy/'19, 17-ODU/'19, 6-UCF/'19) - an average of 5.8 points per half.
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