East Carolina University
Tulsa
Gameday: East Carolina Travels To Tulsa
October 28, 2020 | Football
| East Carolina at Tulsa (Game 5) | |
| Date: | Friday, Oct. 30 |
| Time: | 9 P.M. (EDT) |
| Location: | Tulsa, Okla. (H.A. Chapman Stadium) |
| Program: | Tulsa Program |
| Live Game Coverage: | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPN2 |
| Internet Options: | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | Tulsa | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes: | ECU | Tulsa | The American |
| Statistics: | ECU | Tulsa |
| ECU Football Central: | ECU Media Hub | Roster | ECU Yearbook | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| Facebook: | ECU | The American |
| Twitter: | ECU | ECU Football (in-game updates) | The American |
| Twitter Hashtags: | #ECUGameday | #PirateNation | #AmericanFB |
| Instagram: | ECU | The American |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina will return to the road for the third time in a four-game span when it visits Tulsa for a Friday night American Athletic Conference clash against the Golden Hurricane at historic Chapman Stadium. The Pirates will try to capture back-to-back AAC "away" victories in the same season for the first time in membership history (2014-2020) and extend their overall league road win streak to three in a row following triumphs at Connecticut (2019) and USF (2020) - a trifecta last accomplished while competing in Conference USA during the 2012 and 2013 campaigns.
ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (eight in the last 14 years) ...
- Has averaged 240.7 rushing and 421.0 total yards in its first three AAC games this season ...
- Has scored on 31 of 33 redzone visits in its last nine games (14-of-15 in 2020) ...
- Has converted 9 of 11 field goal attempts in its last three games ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in 14 of the last 15 games (7 total in the last three) ...
- Has owned a combined 5:10 average edge in possession time so far in 2020 ...
- Has won 39 of the last 43 games when leading at the half (12-2 since 2015) ...
- Has won six of the last eight games against Tulsa ...
- Has won three of the last four games against the Golden Hurricane in Tulsa ...
THE SERIES
East Carolina owns an 8-7 advantage in a series which dates back to 1984 ... Although Tulsa currently enjoys a two-game win streak, the Pirates have captured six of the last eight matchups (a run which began with a 27-24 triumph in the 2008 C-USA Championship Game) ... ECU has also won three of the last four played in Oklahoma.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE GOLDEN HURRICANE
East Carolina's 49-24 setback against Tulsa last year serves as Mike Houston's only prior meeting against the Golden Hurricane ... During his earlier eight-year tenure as a NCAA Division II and FCS collegiate head coach, the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears, The Citadel Bulldogs and James Madison Dukes never competed against Tulsa.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY AGAINST THE PIRATES
While Friday's contest will obviously be Philip Montgomery's fourth 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.
PIRATES BEING PIRATES (VS. TULSA)
In compiling its recent 6-2 record against the Golden Hurricane, East Carolina has forced a total of 23 turnovers (2.9 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 five games.
NON-SATURDAY MAYHEM
East Carolina is 20-26 in non-Saturday games since 2000 ... Oddly, the Pirates have fared better on the road (14-12; 6-14 at home) ... In terms of days (including bowls), ECU is 5-1 on Sundays, 1-1 on Mondays, 2-1 on Tuesdays, 0-3 on Wednesdays, 7-12 on Thursdays and 5-8 on Fridays ... Most recently, ECU is 9-11 when deviating from the normal Saturday routine since 2010 ... The Pirates' last Friday outing was a 56-6 loss at Cincinnati on Nov. 23, 2018.
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SEVEN
East Carolina has posted a 79-75 (.513) 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 (10-9), Tulsa (8-7), Temple (8-9), Houston (7-7), SMU (4-4), USF (2-9) and Navy (1-7).
AAC, NON-AAC STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
The Pirates have averaged 27.2 points, 135.6 rushing yards, 309.9 passing yards and 445.5 total yards in their 51 American Athletic Conference games since joining the league in 2014 ... By comparison, ECU averages 29.2 points, 144.2 rushing yards, 298.8 passing yards and 442.9 total yards per game in 25 non-conference contests.
ANALYZING THE 2020 OVERALL SCHEDULE
East Carolina's 2020 opponents posted a combined 72-44 (.621) record in 2019 ... The Pirates' only nonconference foe (Georgia State) was 7-6, while the eight AAC squads tallied a collective 65-38 (.631) mark ... Four programs had 10 or more wins - Cincinnati (11), Navy (11), Tulane (10) and UCF (10) ... Some other notables:
WHO WENT BOWLING ... In all, ECU's current slate features contests against seven teams that advanced to bowl games in 2019 - UCF (Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla), Georgia State (Nova Home Loans Arizona), Navy (AutoZone Liberty), Tulane (Lockheed Martin Armed Forces), Cincinnati (TicketSmarter Birmingham), Temple (Military) and SMU (Cheribundi Boca Raton) ... All four of the Pirates' home games will be against 2019 bowl qualifiers.
IN THE FINAL POLLS ... Four of ECU's 2020 opponents were ranked or received votes in college football's two major polls (Associated Press/USA Today Amway Coaches) to end the 2019 season - Navy (20/20), Cincinnati (21/21), UCF (24/24) and SMU (RV/RV).
ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, East Carolina is 58-92 (.387) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... The Pirates snapped a 10-game road losing streak with a win at Old Dominion last Sept. 28 (before downing Connecticut later in the season) and now will set their sight on recording back-to-back road victories for the first time since 2014 (Virginia Tech/2821, USF/28-17) ... From an American Athletic Conference standpoint, ECU has dropped 10 of the last 12, but on the flipside, will try to post three-straight "away" league triumphs for the first time as an AAC member after defeating UConn (2019) and USF (2020) in succession.
THE PIRATE NATION - NEARLY 9 MILLION STRONG
East Carolina has usually been able to claim plenty of hometown support when playing at Dowdy Ficklen Stadium - establishing itself among conference attendance leaders on a near annual basis ... In all, a total of 8,898,466 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 2,627,180 fans.
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 282 AND COUNTING
East Carolina will enter the Tulsa contest with an active streak of 282 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 282-game run currently ranks among the Top 10 nationally (Florida leads all programs).
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, East Carolina is 3-3-0 in August, 130-120-1 in September, 163-163-4 in October, 140-130-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates are trying to regain their October productivity, a month in which ECU has dropped 15 of its last 18 games dating back to 2015 ... On the road, ECU recently snapped an eight-game skid when it knocked off USF on Oct. 10 ... In terms of conference action, ECU has lost nine of the last 10 ... Overall, the Pirates are 7-14 vs. the AAC in October.
BYE WEEK BOUNCE BACK?
The Pirates haven't taken full advantage of bye weeks when looking at a 10-year perspective - winning only eight of their last 15 contests (but also dropping five of the last six) following an open week since 2010 ... A closer look: 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), 2018 (L/USF, L/MEM) and 2019 (L/UCF, W/UConn) ... Since the program's modern era (1965), East Carolina is 31-24 in games after a break.
GETTING THEIR FEET WET
The Pirates have utilized 15 true freshmen in their first four games, 13 against UCF in the opener alone - seven offensive (TE Shane Calhoun, QB Mason Garcia, RB Rahjai Harris, WR Taji Hudson, RB Keaton Mitchell, OL Jaquaez Powell, OL Walter Stribling), seven defensive (ILB Teylor Jackson, DB David Laney, DL Xavier McIver, DL Elijah Morris, DL Kareem Stinson, DB Sean Tucker, DB Teagan Wilk) and one special teamer (P Luke Larsen) ... Harris has made the biggest impact on offense with a team-high 330 rushing yards on 57 carries, while Morris has recovered a unit-best two fumbles to go along with his 11 tackles ... Larsen averaged 41.0 yards on a pair of punts against UCF (but did not appear in contest vs. Georgia State, USF and Navy).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
Additionally, there have been a combined 18 first-time ECU starters in the Pirates' lineup so far this year - eight on the offensive side of the ball (TE Shane Calhoun, QB Mason Garcia, RB Rahjai Harris, LG Avery Jones, TE Jeremy Lewis, RT Bailey Malovic, RB Keaton Mitchell, RG Nishad Strother) and 10 on defense (DT Rick D'Abreu, SAF Shawn Dourseau, CB Malik Fleming, DT Hozey Haji-Badri, DE Immanuel Hickman, DT Elijah Morris, SAF Warren Saba, DE Chad Stephens, DE Chris Willis, OLB Jireh Wilson), which currently ranks fourth nationally … East Carolina had 15 (10/offense, 5/defense) first-time starters the entire 2019 season.
CHEWING UP CLOCK
After its first four games, East Carolina owns a collective (and league-best) 20:40 edge in possession time, which equates to a +5:10 average per contest ... The Pirates enjoyed their biggest cushion (+11:12) at USF three weeks ago ... In comparison, ECU completed the 2019 campaign with a -10:24 time of possession deficit.
HARRIS: TRIPLE-DIGIT THREE-PEAT?
Rahjai Harris will enter the Tulsa contest looking to become the first Pirates' ballcarrier to rush for 100 or more yards in three-straight games (USF/115, Navy/172) since Vintavious Cooper's "trifecta" against UAB (172), Navy (121) and Houston (140) in 2012.
AMONG TOP PASSING UNITS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Since joining the AAC in 2014, the Pirates stand second in passing yards over a combined seven year period despite utilizing eight starting quarterbacks, four offensive coordinators and three head coaches: 1. Memphis (24,342), 2. East Carolina (23,696) 3. UCF (21,990), 4. SMU (20,919) and 5. Houston (20,701) ... In addition, the Pirates top the league in completions (2,014) and attempts (3,353) ... ECU has also accounted for a conference-high 18 400-yard passing games and surpassed the 300-yard mark on 40 occasions during the 77-game span.
1K RECEIVER IN SEVEN OF LAST EIGHT YEARS
East Carolina has featured at least one 1,000-yard receiver in seven of the last eight seasons ... Its FBS-best run of seven-straight years came up just 92 yards short as freshman C.J. Johnson closed his rookie campaign with 908 reception yards in 2019 ... Pirate 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).
A FULL PASS-CATCHING CUPBOARD
East Carolina is just one of 16 FBS programs that returned four or more pass catchers (WR, TE, RB) who tallied at least 250 yards last season ... The quartet of Pirates include C.J. Johnson (908), Tyler Snead (759), Blake Proehl (670) and Jsi Hatfield (260).
MR. UTILITY
Sophomore slot receiver and return specialist Tyler Snead has racked up 100-plus all-purpose yards in seven of his last 10 outings dating back to last year and scored eight touchdowns in the same span … In 20 career contests, he has caught at least one pass on 18 occasions ... Snead currently ranks 12th nationally in punt return average (9.4), 22nd in combined kick returns (216) and 49th in kickoff return average (16.9).
STARTERS' LOG
C Fernando Frye (12 games) and ILB Xavier Smith (8) own the program's longest starting streaks on offense and defense entering the Tulsa contest ... LT D'Ante Smith had his program-best 26 game run snapped on Oct. 3 (DNP-INJ at Georgia State).
Â
