Gameday: East Carolina Heads To USF
October 08, 2020 | Football
| East Carolina at USF (Game 3) | |
| Date: | Saturday, Oct. 10 |
| Time: | 7 P.M. (EDT) |
| Location: | Tampa, Fla. (Raymond James Stadium) |
| Game Program: | USF Game Program |
| Live Game Coverage: | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPN+ |
| Internet Options: | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | USF | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes: | ECU | USF | The American |
| Statistics: | ECU | USF |
| 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 play the first road contest of its 2020 American Athletic Conference schedule when the Pirates face USF Saturday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. ECU will try to post its initial win of the '20 campaign and snap an overall three-game slide dating back to last year after suffering a 49-29 setback at Georgia State a week ago. The matchup against the Bulls will also close out a two-game road swing for the Pirates, who will return to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Oct. 17 for a battle against the Navy Midshipmen.
ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (eight in the last 14 years) ...
- Has dropped two straight (nine of its last 10) conference games ...
- Has accounted for at least 30 points and 500 total yards in two of its last three road games ...
- Has thrown at least one TD pass in 10 of the last 11 games (and in 11 of the last 13 contests) ...
- Has scored on 22 of 23 redzone visits during its last seven games (5-of-5 in 2020) ...
- Has converted 17 of 18 field goal attempts in its last nine games (3-of-3 in 2020) ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in 12 of the last 13 games (2+ in four of last six) ...
- Has recorded at least one interception in five of the last six games (8 total) ...
- Has won 38 of the last 42 games when leading at the half ...
THE SERIES
USF leads East Carolina 9-1 all-time in a series which dates back to 2002 ... The 2003 and 2004 meetings were league contests while both programs were members of Conference USA, while the last six matchups (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019) have served as the Bulls' and Pirates' initial half-dozen American Athletic Conference encounters ... The Pirates are 1-3 against the Bulls in Tampa and winless (0-5) in Greenville.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE BULLS
East Carolina's 45-20 setback against USF last year serves as Mike Houston's only prior meeting against the Bulls ... 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 squared off against USF.
JEFF SCOTT AGAINST THE PIRATES
Despite the "relative" close proximity of the Clemson and East Carolina campuses, Saturday will mark Jeff Scott's first-ever matchup against the Pirates ... The Tigers are just one of three current Atlantic Coast Conference members to have never appeared on an ECU schedule (Boston College, Georgia Tech)... The Pirates also did not compete against Presbyterian while Scott was a member of the Blue Hose staff in 2007.
ECU & USF COACHING CONNECTIONS
East Carolina and USF each feature Skip Holtz on its all-time head coach roster page ... Holtz was 16-21 (.432) while guiding the Bulls for three seasons (2010-12) after leading the Pirates to a 38-27 (.585) mark, two C-USA titles and a run of four-straight bowl appearances from 2005 to 2009 ... Additionally, current ECU assistant coaches Steve Shankweiler (OL) and Steve Ellis (CB) held similar roles at USF in 2010-12 and 2019, respectively.
BULLS, KNIGHTS, 'CANES, 'NOLES, GATORS, OWLS AND PANTHERS
The Pirates have dropped 37 of 52 all-time matchups (15-37) against FBS (formerly Division I-A) programs from the state of Florida ... ECU is 10-9 vs. UCF, 2-9 vs. Miami, 1-0 vs. Florida Atlantic, 1-0 vs. Florida International, 1-9 vs. USF, 0-3 vs. Florida and 0-7 vs. Florida State ... The Pirates have lost 12 of the last 13 contests against schools from Florida (posting its only win against UCF in the 2015 road finale).
EAST CAROLINA IN AMERICAN ROAD OPENERS
In six prior seasons as an American Athletic Conference member, East Carolina has opened its league road schedule with a 1-0 mark on two occasions - 2014 (28-17 win at USF) and 2017 (41-38 victory at Connecticut) ... Saturday's tilt in Tampa will mark the fourth time the Pirates have kicked off their AAC road slate against the Bulls, following the 2014 triumph with setbacks in 2016 (38-22) and 2018 (20-13).
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SEVEN
East Carolina has posted a 78-74 (.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), Navy (1-6) and USF (1-9).
AAC, NON-AAC STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
The Pirates have averaged 26.9 points, 131.4 rushing yards, 315.9 passing yards and 447.3 total yards in their 49 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).
COMPARING 10-YEAR, TWO-GAME RESULTS
East Carolina's 49-29 loss at Georgia State dropped the Pirates' record to 0-2 for only the second time in the last 10 years (and first since 2017) ... A victory over USF would give ECU a 1-2 ledger for the third-straight season and fifth time in the last decade, but a loss against the Bulls would mark only the second time since 2004 that the Pirates will have opened the campaign at 0-3 (2017).
ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, East Carolina is 57-92 (.383) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... The Pirates snapped a 10-game road losing streak with a 24-21 win at Old Dominion last Sept. 28 before capturing a 31-24 triumph at UConn on Nov. 23 to notch two "away" victories (in the same season) for the first time since 2015 ... From an American Athletic Conference standpoint, ECU has dropped 10 of the last 11 and 14 of the last 16 since 2016 with its only pair of victories coming at Connecticut (2017, 2019).
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 8,894,966 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 2,623,680 fans.
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 280 AND COUNTING
East Carolina will enter the USF contest with an active streak of 280 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 280-game run currently ranks among the Top 10 nationally (Florida/401 leads all programs).
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, East Carolina is 3-3-0 in August, 130-120-1 in September, 162-162-4 in October, 140-130-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will try to regain their October productivity, a month in which ECU has now dropped 14 of its last 16 games dating back to 2015 ... On the road, the Pirates will look to snap an eight-game skid - last winning at SMU five years ago on Oct. 3, 2015 (49-23) ... In terms of conference action, ECU has lost eight straight (and 13 of the last 14 dating back to the 2015 campaign) ... Overall, the Pirates are 6-13 vs. the AAC in October.
ROAD CONTESTS O'PLENTY
Sandwiched in between playing at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for the opener (UCF) and regular season finale vs. SMU are a run of five road contests (in a seven-game span), which include a pair of two-game road trips - at Georgia State & at USF (Oct. 3-10) and at Cincinnati & at Temple (Nov. 13-21) ... Not included in those four is a Friday night visit to Tulsa, which follows a home tilt vs. Navy and precedes the matchup against UC.
MUCH IS BACK ... STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Offensively, the Pirates returned 86 percent of their rushing yards (1,452 of 1,556) and an even more impressive 98 percent of their passing yards (3,387 of 3,466) from a year ago ... On defense, ECU welcomed back over 59 percent of its tackles (489 of 832) and over 61 percent of its turnover production (11 of 18; 8/11 interceptions and 3/7 fumble recoveries) … From a scoring standpoint, players who accounted for 303 of East Carolina's 321 points last season are on the 2020 active roster (94 percent).
"TRUE" ROOKIES THROWN INTO THE FIRE
The Pirates have utilized 15 true freshmen in their fi rst two 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) ... Mitchell made the biggest impact on offense with a team-high 66 rushing yards on eight carries against the Knights, while Morris logged eight stops and was credited with a TFL vs. Georgia State on defense ... Larsen averaged 41.0 yards on a pair of punts against UCF (but did not appear in the contest vs. the Panthers).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
Additionally, there have been a combined 12 first-time ECU starters in the Pirates' lineup vs. UCF and Georgia State - five on the offensive side of the ball (TE Shane Calhoun, LG Avery Jones, TE Jeremy Lewis, RT Bailey Malovic, RG Nishad Strother) and seven on defense (DT Rick D'Abreu, SAF Shawn Dourseau, CB Malik Fleming, DT Hozey Haji-Badri, DE Immanuel Hickman, SAF Warren Saba, OLB Jireh Wilson) ... East Carolina had 15 (10/offense, 5/defense) first-time starters the entire 2019 season.
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 (23,627), 2. East Carolina (23,370), 3. UCF (20,967), 4. Cincinnati (20,347) and 5. SMU (20,265) ... In addition, the Pirates top the league in completions (1,987) and attempts (3,307) ... ECU has also accounted for a conference-high 18 400-yard passing games and surpassed the 300-yard mark on 40 occasions during the 75-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) and have produced a total of 10 1,000-yard pass catchers over the last decade.
MULTIPLE RECEPTION DOUBLES
When Blake Proehl (11) and Tyler Snead (11) each turned in 10+ reception totals against Georgia State last week, it marked the first time since 2017 that multiple East Carolina pass-catchers eclipsed the double-digit mark in the same contest (and only the fifth time in the last 10 years - since 2010).
ATOP THE SINGLE-GAME RECORDS LIST
Ahlers currently owns ECU single-game records for most passing yards and most total yards ... His 535-yard aerial performance against Cincinnati on Nov. 2, 2019 eclipsed the previous mark of 480 set by Shane Carden in 2013, while his total offense ledger of 556 vs. the Bearcats also surpassed his own earlier standard of 506 (vs. Memphis in 2018).
A STARTERS' LOG
QB Holton Ahlers (14 games) and CB Ja'Quan McMillian (14) own the program's longest starting streaks on offense and defense entering the USF contest ... LT D'Ante Smith had his program best 26-game run snapped last week when he did not participate in the Georgia State tilt.
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