East Carolina University
Old Dominion
Gameday: ECU Travels To Old Dominion
September 26, 2019 | Football
| ECU at Old Dominion (Game 5) | |
| Date | Saturday, Sept. 28 |
| Time | 6:00 P.M. (EDT) |
| Location | Norfolk, Va. (Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium) |
| Tickets | Tickets |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPN+ |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | ECU | Old Dominion | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | ECU | Old Dominion | The American |
| 2019 Statistics | ECU | Old Dominion |
| 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 officially wrap-up its 2019 non-conference schedule by visiting Norfolk for a 6 p.m. (ET) matchup against Old Dominion on Saturday. The Pirates will be trying to post their third non-league victory of the year - a first since 2014 - when they battle the Conference USA-member Monarchs. ECU will also attempt to post a five-game mark of 3-2 for the first time since the 2015 campaign while also vying to snap a 10-game overall road skid dating back to 2017 before hosting Temple for its first home American Athletic Conference contest next Thursday.
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 eight of the last 11 games (14 TD throws) ...
- Has scored six (6) rushing touchdowns in the last three games ...
- Has made at least one field goal (when attempted) in 15-straight games ...
- Has booked 45 tackles for lost yardage in the last seven games (6.4 pg) ...
- Has allowed just two (2) TD passes in last 3 games (0.7 pg) ...
- Has won 36 of the last 39 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won two of the last three games played in Norfolk (last in 1978) ...
- Has won 14 of the last 17 games against Conference USA members ...
THE SERIES
East Carolina leads 2-0 ... The Pirates used a then-school-record passing performance (447 yards, 46 completions) from Shane Carden to open the series with a victory in Greenville six years ago before benefiting from Jake Verity's game-winning field goal last season.
HOUSTON AGAINST THE MONARCHS
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 Old Dominion.
BOBBY WILDER AGAINST THE PIRATES
Saturday will be Bobby Wilder's third matchup against the Pirates (see above, earlier meetings in 2013 and 2018) ... ECU never competed against Maine (1990-2006) and Boston College (1988-89) while Wilder was a member of those staff s as an assistant.
A RETURN TO NORFOLK
While East Carolina will make its first-ever football visit to the Old Dominion University campus this Saturday, the Pirates aren't complete strangers to the City of Norfolk ... Saturday's tilt will mark ECU's fifth contest in Norfolk, but first in a 41-year span ... After battling a tough Norfolk Navy squad in a pair of similar low-scoring affairs in 1939 and 1951, the Pirates returned to Mermaid City USA for Oyster Bowl appearances vs. William & Mary and Richmond in 1977 and 1978, respectively.
FROM PURPLE & GOLD TO BLUE & SILVER
Two current Old Dominion coaches on the defensive side of the ball - coordinator David Blackwell and outside linebackers coach Daric Riley - each served on the East Carolina staff a year ago ... Additionally, Blackwell was a former Pirate player (OL) for coach Bill Lewis and student assistant for coach Steve Logan before earning his degree in 1997.
ECU AGAINST THE STATE OF VIRGINIA
The Pirates are 44-33-1 (.571) all-time in matchups against current Division I (FBS/FCS) programs from the state of Virginia ... In addition to its 2-0 mark against Old Dominion, ECU is 13-11 vs. Richmond, 13-4-1 vs. William & Mary, 7-1 vs. VMI, 7-15 vs. Virginia Tech, 2-1 vs. Virginia and 0-1 vs. James Madison.
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SIX
East Carolina has posted an 82-68 (.547) 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), Temple (8-8), Tulsa (8-6), Houston (7-7), Connecticut (4-1), SMU (4-3), Navy (1-6) and USF (1-8).
AGAINST NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS
Since accepting membership in a conference, the Pirates have produced a 37-55 (.402) regular season non-league record ... ECU claimed its fi rst winning non-conference mark since 1999 with 3-1 ledgers in 2013 and 2014 before following with 2-2 marks in 2015 & 2016, a 1-3 standing in 2017 and another 2-2 clip in 2018.
ECU AGAINST CONFERENCE USA
ECU has compiled an all-time record of 46-41 (.529) against current members of Conference USA ... The Pirates owns series marks against Southern Miss (12-27), Marshall (10-5), UAB (9-4), Louisiana Tech (4-2), UTEP (3-1), Rice (2-2), Old Dominion (2-0), Florida Atlantic (1-0), Florida International (1-0), Middle Tennessee (1-0) and North Texas (1-0) ... If one would (or could) take out old nemesis Southern Miss, ECU would be able to claim an impressive 33-14 (.702) clip ... The Pirates have never played "newer" members Charlotte, UTSA and Western Kentucky in the sport of football ... Old Dominion against the American: the Monarch's setbacks to East Carolina in the 2013 and 2018 campaigns represents ODU's only meetings against a current member of the American Athletic Conference.
SPEAKING OF C-USA ...
During its 17-year membership in Conference USA (1997-2013), ECU produced an all-time 78-50 (.609) league record and two championships ... Overall, the Pirates completed C-USA action by winning 11 of the last 13, 27 of the last 37 and 36 of the last 49 league games.
ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, ECU is 55-89 (.382) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... The Pirates will try to halt a current 10-game road losing streak when they face Old Dominion on Saturday and try to improve on an 1-17 mark since 2016 (only win at Connecticut in 2017) ... From a non-conference standpoint, ECU has dropped seven-straight "away" contests - last winning in the state of Virginia with a 28-21 victory over the Hokies in Blacksburg on Sept. 13, 2014.
THE PIRATE NATION - OVER 8.7 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 8,768,024 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 2,496,738 fans (43,047 per game).
AMERICAN ATTENDANCE LEADERS (2014-2019)
Since becoming a member of the American Athletic Conference in 2014, East Carolina leads the league in 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 66th nationally in average (36,106) and 84th in capacity percentage (72.21).
NON-LEAGUE, LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS IN '18 & '19
The Pirates have scored 73 points (24.3 ppg), rushed for 676 yards (225.3 ypg), passed for 647 yards (215.7) and accounted for 1,323 total yards (441.0), while surrendering 16.7 points, 117.3 (rush), 199.7 (pass) and 317.0 (total) yards per contests in their three non-conference games so far this year to compile a 2-1 record (loss at NC State followed by wins over Gardner-Webb and William & Mary) ... In four regular season non-conference contests (2-2) in 2018, ECU averaged 26.0 points, 124.5 rushing yards, 247.5 passing yards and 372.0 total yards per game ... By comparison, the Pirates averaged 21.1 points, 132.2 rushing yards, 303.4 passing yards and 435.6 total yards in their eight (USF, Temple, Houston, UCF, Memphis, Tulane, UConn, Cincinnati) American Conference games of the 2018 season that produced an 1-7 record.
COMPARING 10-YEAR, FOUR-GAME RESULTS
East Carolina's 19-7 win against William & Mary marks the second-straight season (and four times in the last five years) the Pirates have opened the season with a 2-2 record ... A victory over Old Dominion would give the ECU a 3-2 ledger for the first time since 2015 (and on four occasions in the last 10 years, two leading to bowl appearances - 2010 and 2012).
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 270 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the Old Dominion contest with an active streak of 270 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, 129-119-1 in September, 162-158-4 in October, 139-127-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... Overall, the Pirates are 2-0 this season, were 2-1 last year and have posted a recent 13-9 record against nonconference foes in the ninth month ... ECU will also try to snap a four-game September road non-league losing streak when it faces off against Old Dominion - last winning at Virginia Tech in 2014 ... The Pirates are 2-8 in non-conference September true road contests in the last 10 years (aforementioned triumph over the Hokies, a 55-31 win at UNC in 2013) ... East Carolina has only played two Group of Five non-conference opponents on the road in September since 1998 (loss at Navy/'06, win at Ohio/'98).
ANALYZING THE 2019 OVERALL SCHEDULE
ECU's 2019 scheduled opponents posted a combined 70-77 (.476) record in 2018 ... The Pirates' four non-conference foes were 20-26 (.435), while the eight AAC squads tallied a collective 50-51 (.495) mark ... Two programs had 10 or more wins, including UCF (12) and Cincinnati (11) ... Some other notables:
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 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.
THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS ... ECU will head into its Oct. 3 meeting with Temple at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium having split (4-4) its last eight Thursday contests since 2010, which includes an earlier 24-14 setback to the Owls at home in 2015 ... However, the Pirates will try to make it two in row after knocking off UCF 44-7 in its last Thursday night encounter later during the 2015 season.
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).
MUCH IS BACK ... STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
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).
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 - "GAME 5" LOOMING
The Pirates have utilized eight (8) true rookies so far in 2019 - four on offense and four on defense - with the mandated NCAA "four-game limit" decision looming this week ... Those who have experience action include DL Rick D'Abreu (3 games played), CB Malik Fleming (4), IR Jsi Hatfield (4), DL Immanuel Hickman (1), OR C.J. Johnson (4), TE Jeremy Lewis (4), RB Demetrius Mauney (4) and CB Ja'Quan McMillian (4).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
East Carolina has featured only six (6) first-time starters in its first four games so far this year - four on the offensive side of the ball (RG Sean Bailey, 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 (13/offense, 6/defense) first-time starters in 2018 after "introducing" a program record 25 first-timers a year earlier in 2017.
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 five-plus-year period despite utilizing eight starting quarterbacks, four offensive coordinators and three head coaches: 1. ECU (311.4), 2. Memphis (281.7), 3. Cincinnati (265.3), 4. UCF (261.4) and 5. Houston (258.8) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,750), attempts (2,908) and total air yards (20,243) ... 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).
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), third in completion percentage (50.4) and yards per pass attempt (5.91), fourth in sacks (111) and sixth in total defense (296.9) ... 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 ZONE?
ECU's defense has allowed only three TD passes so far, which stands as the fewest in a season opening four-game span over the last 10 years ... Additionally, the Pirates have netted three picks - the second-highest in the same time frame.
THIS & THAT ...
IR Deondre Farrier has an active streak of recording at least one reception in 16-straight contests heading into the Old Dominion tilt (last fi ve in '17, all seven games played in '18 and all four outings in '19) ... NT Alex Turner has booked at least one TFL in each contest this season (5.5 for 28 yards), while netting a combined 3.0 sacks (-21 yards) against Gardner-Webb, Navy and William & Mary ... ILB Xavier Smith is the only Pirate defender to have posted six more tackles in every contest this season (and currently leads ECU with 29 total stops) ... ILB Bruce Bivens was credited with a team-high nine tackles vs. William & Mary and has now posted multi-hit totals on 17 occasions during his career ... At 5-foot-7, RS 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) ... ECU has outscored its opponents 26-10 in fourth-quarter action so far this season ... On the flipside, the Pirates have been held to a collective 12 points in the first half of their last four road games (6/CIN, 0/NCSU, 3/NCSU, 3/NAVY) and been outscored 114-12.
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