East Carolina University
Gardner-Webb
Gameday: ECU Hosts Gardner-Webb In Home Opener
September 04, 2019 | Football
| Gardner-Webb at ECU (Game 2) | |
| Date | Saturday, Sept. 7 |
| Time | 6:00 P.M. (EDT) |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking | Tickets | Parking |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPN3/Watch ESPN |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | ECU | Gardner-Webb | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | ECU | Gardner-Webb | The American |
| 2019 Statistics | ECU | Gardner-Webb |
| 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. – The Pirates will begin their 2019 home schedule when they welcome Gardner-Webb to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday for a 6:00 p.m. non-conference contest. East Carolina will try to even its record at 1-1 after suffering a disappointing 34-6 season-opening setback at NC State in Raleigh last week. The battle against the Runnin' Bulldogs also represents the first of two matchups against Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) members in '19 for ECU, which will host William & Mary Sept. 21 after beginning American Athletic Conference action at Navy next week.
ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (eight in the last 13 years) ...
- Has accounted for 400 or more total yards in eight of the last 12 games ...
- Has thrown at least one touchdown pass in six of the last eight games (12 TD throws) ...
- Has won 34 of the last 37 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won 11 of the last 14 home openers ...
- Has won three of the last four (and seven of the last 10) non-conference home games ...
- Has won 25 of 28 games against FCS opponents ...
- Has won five of the last six (and three-straight) first-year head coach home openers ...
THE SERIES
Saturday's contest will mark the first meeting (0-0) between Gardner-Webb and ECU in the sport of football.
HOUSTON AGAINST THE RUNNIN' BULLDOGS (1-0)
Mike Houston has faced Gardner-Webb only once during his eight-year head coaching career ... After an 0-3 start to his tenure at The Citadel, he picked up his first-ever Division I (FCS) victory with a 37-14 decision over GWU at Johnson Hagood Stadium in Charleston during Week 4 of the 2014 campaign ... Houston would go on to lead The Citadel to five wins in its final nine contests to finish with a 5-7 overall record.
AGAINST THE FCS
The Pirates currently own an all-time 25-3 record against programs that currently compete or competed on the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly NCAA Division I-AA) level when the game was played ... Among all of the Pirates' previous FCS opponents, Appalachian State (2-0), Georgia Southern (3-0), UCF (2-0), Southwest Texas State (1-0, now referred to as Texas State), have since made the transition to the FBS level.
PLAYING IN-STATE FOES
In all, ECU is 56-64-1 (.467) when playing programs from the state of North Carolina (in order of victories): 18-3 vs. Western Carolina, 13-18 vs. NC State, 12-19 vs. Appalachian State, 5-5 vs. Duke, 5-12-1 vs. UNC, 2-6 vs. Wake Forest, 1-0 vs. North Carolina Central and 0-1 vs. North Carolina A&T ... The Pirates have never faced in-state Division I (FBS or FCS) members Campbell, Charlotte, Elon or Gardner-Webb prior to 2019 in the modern era ... Through 2028, ECU has current contracts in place to square off against at least one state of North Carolina program each year with the exception of 2020.
DRAWING FIRST BLOOD
East Carolina owns a 12-7 (.632) record when meeting current Division I (FBS or FCS) opponents for the first time since 2000 ... After winning seven straight, the Pirates have dropped their last three in a row (BYU/45-38, James Madison/34-14, N.C. A&T/28-23).
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM
ECU's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 189-102 (.649) ... 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 - NEARLY 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 8,695,812 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 2,424,526 fans (43,295 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 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 ranked 65th nationally in average (32,908) and 83rd in capacity percentage (65.82) last season.
LEAGUE, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
In its four regular season non-conference contests (2-2) last year, 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.
AGAINST NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS
Since accepting membership in a conference, the Pirates have produced a 35-55 (.389) regular season non-league record ... ECU claimed its first 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.
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SIX
East Carolina has posted an 82-67 (.550) 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 (1-5) and USF (1-8).
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 267 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the Gardner-Webb contest with an active streak of 266 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, 127-118-1 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 were 2-2 last season and have posted a recent 10-16 record against non-conference foes in the ninth month ... At Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, ECU has rolled to a 12-5 mark when playing in September since 2012 -2-1 in 2018, 0-3 in 2017, 2-0 in 2016, 2-0 in 2015, 2-0 in 2014, 2-1 in 2013 and 2-0 in 2012 ... Oddly, East Carolina has more victories over Power 5 opponents (4; 2 vs. North Carolina, 1 vs. NC State, 1 vs. Virginia Tech) than FCS foes (3) in September home contests since 2014.
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 (UTChattanooga/2000-02) and Byron Thweatt (Virginia State/2015).
MUCH IS BACK ... STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Offensively, the Pirates return 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 welcomes 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).
"EXPERIENCED" FRESHMEN - 2018 TO 2019
While 18 true freshman experienced action in 2018, only nine surpassed the four-game limit mandated by the NCAA ... That said, the other nine return as "experienced" redshirt freshmen: IR Maceo Donald (3 games played), DL Damir Faison (2), DL Dorian Hardy (2), DB Damel Hickman (4), OR Andre Pegues (1), DB Jaren Rainey (1), IR Tyler Snead (4) and DB Jireh Wilson (2) ... Pegues, Snead and Wilson "returned to action" during the Pirates' 2019 opener at NC State.
"INEXPERIENCED" FRESHMEN - 2019 TO 2020
In addition to the three redshirt freshman mentioned above, the Pirates utilized six (6) true rookies against NC State last week -four on offense and two on defense ... The list of players who will either burn their redshirt or have three contests remaining this year include CB Malik Fleming, WR Jsi Hatfield, WR C.J. Johnson, TE Jeremy Lewis, RB Demetrius Mauney and DB Ja'Quan McMillian (start) ... McMillian (4) and Fleming (1) combined to make five tackles, while Hatfield (5-26) and Johnson (2-11) collectively had seven receptions for 37 yards.
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
There were five (5) first-time ECU starters in the Pirates' lineup against NC State last week – three on the offensive side of the ball (RG Sean Bailey, RT Matt Morgan, OR Mydreon Vines) and two more on defense (CB Ja'Quan McMillian, OLB Gerard Stringer) ... East Carolina had 19 (13/offense, 6/defense) first-time starters in 2018.
NINE OF 10 ISN'T BAD
In each of last nine seasons (since 2010), ECU has logged Top 10 entries in the school's single season passing yards list ... The top three units - 2014 (4,835), 2013 (4,265) and 2010 (4,143) - had a common coaching denominator of sorts as current offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick served on Ruffin McNeill's staff as the Pirates' inside receivers mentor ... By the way, the 1991 Peach Bowl squad is the lone "outlier" at No. 9.
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, three offensive coordinators and two head coaches: 1. ECU (317.5), 2. Memphis (281.2), 3. Cincinnati (270.5), 4. Houston (264.1) and 5. UCF (251.4) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,700), attempts (2,820) and total air yards (19,686) ... 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, which ranks first at the FBS level ... Trevon Brown helped the Pirates extend the streak in 2018 by surpassing the 1K mark (for the second consecutive year) vs. UConn … 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).
DECADE RECEIVING LEADERS
In the last decade (since 2008), ECU has produced 10 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).
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 choice and 18 all-league picks while guiding the Dukes' "D" ... Trott was named FCS Defensive Coordinator-of-the-Year by FootballScoop.com in 2017.
TEACHING A NEW WAY TO TACKLE ... AGAIN
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.
A STARTERS' LOG ...
OG Cortez Herrin/OT D'Ante Smith (14 games) and DT Alex Turner (13) own the program's longest starting streaks on their respective side of the ball entering the Gardner-Webb contest.
COMPARING 10-YEAR, ONE-GAME RESULTS
ECU's 34-6 loss against NC State marks the third-straight year the Pirates have opened the season with an 0-1 record (and fourth time in 10 years) ... A victory over Gardner-Webb would give ECU a 1-1 ledger for the fifth time in the last eight seasons.
Â
