East Carolina University
Navy
Gameday: ECU Plays Host To Tulane
November 05, 2020 | Football
| Tulane at East Carolina (Game 6) | |
| Date: | Saturday, Nov. 7 |
| Time: | 12 Noon (EST) |
| Location: | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Game Program: | Tulane Game |
| Live Game Coverage: | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPN+ |
| Internet Options: | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | Tulane | The American |
| Game Notes: | ECU | Tulane | The American |
| Statistics: | ECU | Tulane |
| 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 be looking to post its second American Athletic Conference victory of the season – most since 2017 - when it welcomes Tulane to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday. The Pirates will also attempt to capture their ninth win in 10 meetings (dating back to 1991) when playing the Green Wave in Greenville. Additionally, ECU hopes to split its last six home league games in the month of November following earlier triumps over Cincinnati (2017) and Connecticut (2018).
ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (eight in the last 14 years) ...
- Has averaged 212.0 rushing & 429.8 total yards in its first four AAC games this season ...
- Has scored on 34 of 37 redzone visits in its last nine games (17-of-19 in 2020) ...
- Has kicked at least three fi eld goals in four-straight games ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in 15 of the last 16 games (10 total in the last four) ...
- Has owned a combined 6:12 average edge in possession time so far in 2020 ...
- Has won 39 of the last 44 games when leading at the half (12-3 since 2015) ...
- Has won six of the last nine (and 10 of the last 14) games against Tulane ...
- Has won eight of nine games against Tulane at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ...
THE SERIES
East Carolina leads 11-5 ... The Pirates have won six of the last nine (and 10 of the last 14) meetings ... ECU is 8-1 against the Green Wave in Greenville and Tulane has won four of seven matchups in New Orleans.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE GREEN WAVE (0-0)
Including Mike Houston's prior nine-year tenure as a collegiate head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne, The Citadel, James Madison (and East Carolina), Saturday's game will mark his first-ever meeting against Tulane.
FRITZ AGAINST THE PIRATES (2-0)
Third meeting (2017-2018; see above) ... ECU never competed against Central Missouri State (1997-2009), Sam Houston State (2012-2013) or Georgia Southern (2014-2015) while Willie Fritz headed those respective programs.
FRITZ AGAINST HOUSTON (1-0)
In addition to sharing success at the NCAA Division II and FCS levels early during their coaching careers, East Carolina's Mike Houston and Tulane's Willie Fritz have also stood on opposite sidelines as head coaches on one previous occasion - a not-so-memorable one for the Pirates' current mentor.
THIRD & FIFTH-QUARTER QUANDARIES
The Pirates have been held to just three combined third-quarter points in their last four meetings vs. Tulane, which included scoreless periods during 2013, 2017 and 2018 losses - two of which were overtime setbacks.
TULANE, STATE OF LOUISIANA COACHING "CONNECTIONS"
Two members of East Carolina's current full-time football staff spent time with collegiate programs in the state of Louisiana, including one who worked directly with the Green Wave - director of football administration Dale Steele served as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Tulane from 1980 to 1982 ... The other is Pirates' cornerbacks coach Steve Ellis, who spent six years at alma mater Nicholls State (FCS) coaching on the defensive side of the ball (safeties, linebacker and coordinator) from 2003 to 2008 after a stellar playing career with the Colonels in Thibodeaux, which is located approximately 60 miles southwest of New Orleans.
FACING THE BAYOU STATE
The Pirates have posted a 20-16 (.556) all-time record against programs from Louisiana ... East Carolina is 11-5 against Tulane, 4-2 vs. Louisiana Tech, 4-7 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (formerly Southwestern Louisiana), 1-1 vs. Louisiana-Monroe (formerly Northeast Louisiana) and 0-1 vs. LSU.
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SEVEN
East Carolina has posted a 79-76 (.510) 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 (8-8), Temple (8-9), Houston (7-7), SMU (4-4), USF (2-9) and Navy (1-7) … Includes a 5-1 mark against former league member Connecticut.
AAC, NON-AAC STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
The Pirates have averaged 27.3 points, 135.4 rushing yards, 310.3 passing yards and 445.8 total yards in their 52 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 are 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, FIVE-GAME RESULTS
East Carolina's 34-30 setback at Tulsa last week dropped the Pirates' record to 1-4 for the first time since 2017 (and just the second time in the last 10 seasons) ... A victory over Tulane would give ECU a 2-4 mark for the third time in the last five years (2016/2018), but a loss against the Green Wave would again match the Pirates' ledger with the 2017 (and 2004) squads at 1-5.
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM
East Carolina's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 191-108 (.639) ... The Pirates opened the facility on Sept. 21, 1963 with a 20-10 win over Wake Forest in front of 17,000 fans, celebrated the stadium's 50th anniversary in 2013 and will host its 300th game vs. Tulane (see page 6) ... Before a 2-4 record last year and a collective 11-15 mark from 2015-2108, 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 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 ... 283 AND COUNTING
East Carolina will enter the Tulane contest with an active streak of 283 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 283-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, 163-164-4 in October, 140-130-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will open play in November vs. Tulane, a month in which East Carolina has lost 14 of its last 18 contests (and 17 of 23 since the 2013 campaign) ... At home, ECU has won two (Cincinnati/2017, Connecticut/2018) of its last five, but has also dropped eight of the last 10 dating back to 2015 ... Overall, the Pirates are 6-17 vs. the AAC in November.
GETTING THEIR FEET WET
The Pirates have utilized 17 true freshmen in their first five 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), nine defensive (ILB Teylor Jackson, DB David Laney, DL Xavier McIver, DL Elijah Morris, DL Jason Romero, DL Jason Shuford, 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 448 rushing yards on 78 carries, while Morris has recovered a unit-best two fumbles to go along with his 13 tackles ... Larsen has experienced punting action in two games - UCF (41.0 ypp) and Tulsa (39.5).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
Additionally, there have been a combined 19 first-time ECU starters in the Pirates' lineup so far this year – nine 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, OR Audie Omotosho, 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.
AMONG SELECT COMPANY
Rahjai Harris' 448 rushing yards ranks as the third-highest ground total by an East Carolina running back through the first five games of a season ... Among freshmen, Harris' current total stands first in program history.
HARRIS: TRIPLE-DIGIT FOUR-PEAT?
Rahjai Harris will enter the Tulane contest looking to become the first Pirates' ballcarrier to rush for 100 or more yards in four-straight games (USF/115, Navy/172, TLS/118) since Leonard Henry's quartet against Tulane (218), William & Mary (111), Syracuse (177) and North Carolina (105) in 2001 ... Henry is ECU's current record co-owner with six consecutive 100-yard rushing games (along with Carlester Crumpler/1972-73).
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 (24,658), 2. East Carolina (24,026), 3. UCF (22,318), 4. SMU (21,219) and 5. Houston (20,970) ... In addition, the Pirates top the league in completions (2,052) and attempts (3,403) ... ECU has also accounted for a conference-high 18 400-yard passing games and surpassed the 300-yard mark on 41 occasions during the 78-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) ... Of note, Hardy's "initial" NCAA record-breaker (350th career reception) was an eight-yard catch in the second quarter against Tulane at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Nov. 22, 2014.
MR. UTILITY
Sophomore slot receiver and return specialist Tyler Snead has racked up 100-plus all-purpose yards in eight of his last 11 outings dating back to last year and scored nine touchdowns in the same span … In 21 career contests, he has caught at least one pass on 19 occasions (10 or more four times, including a 16-reception outing at Tulsa).
STARTERS' LOG
C Fernando Frye (13 games) and ILB Xavier Smith (9) own the program's longest starting streaks on offense and defense entering the Tulane contest.
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