Classic Rewind Preview: ECU Hosts No. 25 UNC (2014)
April 30, 2020 | General
| Classic Rewind Preview: No 25 UNC at ECU (2014) | |
| Date: | Saturday, Sept. 20 |
| Re-Air Time: | 11:30 A.M. (EDT) |
| Location: | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Game Coverage: | Television: WNCT-9 (televised broadcast only) |
| In-Game Hashtag: | #ECURewind |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | UNC |
| 2014 Game Notes: | ECU | UNC |
| 2014 Rosters: | ECU | UNC |
| 2014 Flip Card: | Complete Flip Card |
| 2014 Media Guides: | ECU | UNC |
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina will close out its 2014 non-league schedule, open a two-game homestand and attempt to capture its fourth-straight win against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent when the Pirates host the Tar Heels at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday.
The contest will also end a run of three consecutive tilts against foes from "Power Five" leagues after successive matchups against South Carolina and Virginia Tech. After meeting North Carolina, ECU will enjoy its first bye week before welcoming SMU to Greenville on Oct. 4 for the program's inaugural American Athletic Conference game.
EAST CAROLINA RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for nine bowl appearances since 2000 (seven of the last eight years) ...
- Has had at least eight wins in five of the last seven years ...
- Has won 19 of the last 21 games (and 46 of 53) when scoring 30 or more points ...
- Has won 26 of the last 28 games when converting third downs at 50% or higher ...
- Has won 13 of the last 15 games when forcing two or more turnovers ...
- Has won 15-straight games when gaining 200 or more rushing yards ...
- Has won eight of the last nine (and 12 of the last 14) home games ...
- Has won six of the last eight regular season non-conference games ...
- Has won three-straight games against ACC opponents ...
THE SERIES
North Carolina leads 12-3-1 ... While the Pirates and Tar Heels have battled in Chapel Hill on 13 occasions, the 2014 clash between the Pirates and Tar Heels will mark only the fourth meeting at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... East Carolina's wins against UNC came in 1975, via a time-expiring 39 yard field goal by Ben Hartman in 2007 and after a 55-point, 603-yard effort at Kenan Stadium last September.
EAST CAROLINA AGAINST THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
East Carolina has compiled an all-time record of 41-83-1 (.332) against current members of the Atlantic Coast Conference ... In addition to a 3-12-1 mark against North Carolina, the Pirates own a 12-16 ledger vs. NC State, 6-13 vs. Virginia Tech, 5-5 vs. Duke, 4-6 vs. Louisville, 3-6 vs. Syracuse, 2-1 vs. Virginia, 2-2 vs. Pittsburgh, 2-6 vs. Wake Forest, 2-9 vs. Miami and 0-7 vs. Florida State ... Although the Pirates have won three straight, they've also dropped 11 of the last 15 (since 2008) after capturing five wins in eight contests the previous three years.
NORTH CAROLINA AGAINST THE AMERICAN
North Carolina has posted a 29-15-3 (.649) all-time mark against current members of the American Athletic Conference ... In addition to their 16-game series against East Carolina (12-3-1), the Tar Heels have also squared off against Tulane (5-9-2), Cincinnati (3-0), Connecticut (3-0), Memphis (2-0), SMU (2-0), Tulsa (1-0), Houston (1-1) and USF (0-2) ... UNC has not yet faced UCF or Temple on the gridiron.
BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK "POWER FIVE" CHALLENGES
By facing South Carolina (Sept. 6), Virginia Tech (last week) and North Carolina (this week), ECU will tangle with members of the "Power Five" (formerly known as automatic-qualifying BCS opponents) in successive games for the 10th time since 2005 - 1-2 in 2005 (Duke/WFU/WVU), 1-1 twice in 2006 (WVU/UVA and NCSU/USF), 1-1 in 2007 (VT/UNC), 2-0 in 2008 (VT/WVU), 0-2 in 2009 (WVU/UNC), 0-2 in 2010 (VT/UNC), 0-2 in 2011 (SC/VT), 1-1 in 2013 (VT/UNC) and 1-1 so far in 2014.
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM - WINS IN EIGHT OF THE LAST NINE
East Carolina's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 173-86-1 (.667) ... 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 last fall ... Before consecutive 5-1 marks in 2013 and 2012, a 3-3 ledger in 2011 and a 4-2 clip in 2010, ECU won a combined 10 of 12 home matchups in 2009 (6-1) and 2008 (4-1) ... Overall, East Carolina has turned in 38 winning campaigns at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium since 1963.
ATTENDANCE LEADERS
In addition to departing Conference USA as a six-time attendance champion - 2008 (42,016), 2009 (41,742), 2010 (49,665), 2011 (50,012), 2012 (47,013) and 2013 (43,985) - East Carolina also topped all non-AQ BCS Conference (now referred to as the "Group of Five") members in attendance the last two seasons ... Overall, ECU ranked 54th nationally in average attendance and 62nd in capacity percentage (88.52) a year ago.
REPEAT IN THE AMERICAN?
As ECU begins competition in the American Athletic Conference this fall, the Pirates should contend for top attendance honors there as well ... Excluding Louisville (52,914) and Rutgers (46,549), which both left the league after the 2013 campaign, UCF's mark of 42,084 "led" the AAC last fall ... After the first three weeks of play, ECU has grabbed the early lead in its new league with an average 42,758 (Houston/35,418; Cincinnati/31,912; Connecticut/29,597; USF/29,275; Temple/28,408; Tulane/28,179; Memphis/27,361 and Tulsa/24,195).
THE PIRATE NATION - 7.5 MILLION STRONG
East Carolina has always been able to claim plenty of hometown support, even more so when playing at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturdays during the fall - establishing itself as Conference USA's attendance leader on an annual basis (during its previous membership) ... In all, a total of 7,458,086 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963, and in the last six-plus years, ECU has averaged 46,001 (1,656,023/36 regular season games).
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 209 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the North Carolina game with an active streak of 209 games of not suffering a shutout - a school record (17 points at Rice in `06 surpassed the previous mark of 110 set from '71 to `81) ... The last time the Pirates were blanked was on Oct. 4, 1997 (56-0 at Syracuse) ... In terms of a national standing, ECU's 209-game run currently ranks eighth among all active FBS streaks and is the 20th-longest in the all-time annals.
CREATING DEPTH
A combined total of 86 players have made their initial career starts at some point during Ruffin McNeill era - 24 in 2010, 25 in 2011, 17 in 2012, 12 in 2013 and eight so far in 2014 ... By comparison, only eight made first starts during ECU's entire Conference USA championship campaign in 2009.
ANALYZING THE 2014 SCHEDULE
East Carolina's 2014 schedule consists of games against one conference champion (UCF/American), six bowl participants (South Carolina/W, Virginia Tech/L, North Carolina/W, Cincinnati/L, Tulane/L, UCF/W) and two programs ranked in the final top 25 polls - South Carolina (No. 4-4/AP and USA Today) and UCF (10-12).
The arrival of defensive coordinator Rick Smith a year ago certainly made a visible impact on that side of the ball for the Pirates ... ECU currently stands among the nation's top units in a trio of major categories under Smith's guidance.
PICKS OF RELEVANCE
In addition to notable improvement with the per-game averages, Rick Smith's leadership of the ECU defense - especially his influence in the secondary - resulted in a return to national prominence as one of the top interception units on the FBS level ... The Pirates have picked off 12 passes in the last eight outings
TO PILLAGE AND PLUNDER - A PIRATE'S LIFE
The Pirates have netted a takeaway in 17 of the last 18 games ... Most recently, ECU forced 16 in the last eight contests (and is 22-7 with two or more TOs in the McNeill era).
Notebooking Shane Carden
Although initially passed over for the starting position to open the 2012 season as a sophomore, Shane Carden took over the job prior to ECU's third game and has responded with 8,286 aerial yards and 63 TDs ... A closer look at Carden's career:
- Statistically, rates as the top "returning" QB in the American Conference, currently ranking among Top 5 FBS active career leaders in completion percentage (3rd/67.9), completions per game (4th/24.7), passing yards per game (4th/276.2), pass attempts per game (4th/36.4), passing yards (5th/8,286), passing completions (5th/741), passing attempts (5th/1,092) and TDs responsible for (5th/82) ...
- Selected as the 2013 Conference USA Most Valuable Player ...
- Has accounted for 83 of 123 offensive TDs (67%) as ECU's starter in two-plus years ...
- Has converted 122-of-137 (89%) redzone opportunities while under center ...
- Has thrown for over 400 yards on four occasions and authored eight contests over 350, 13 over 300 and 22 over 250 yards ...
- First QB in school history to pass for over 4,000 yards in a season and one of only two to eclipse 3,000 in back-to-back campaigns ...
- One of eight (8) returning FBS QBs who own their school's single-season passing record - Garrett Grayson (Colorado State), Jared Goff (California), Connor Halliday (Washington State), Brett Hundley (UCLA), Chuckie Keeton (Utah State), Sean Mannion (Oregon State) and Brandon Doughty (Western Kentucky) ...
- Established an ECU single-game passing record on three occasions - 439 vs. Marshall in 2012, 447 vs. Old Dominion and 480 vs. Tulane in 2013 ... His effort vs. the Monarchs included a 46-of-54 performance - the program's second-highest completion percentage ever (85.2) ...
- Directly responsible for all four TDs vs. No. 17 Virginia Tech (three pass, game-winning rush with 0:16 remaining) and accounted for 11 scores vs. ACC members North Carolina (six; three/three) and NC State (five; three/two) last fall as well ...
- Earned eight career league player-of-the-week awards, including four in 2013 for his efforts vs. Monarchs, Tar Heels, Golden Hurricane and Wolfpack; also has picked up two ESPN Helmet Stickers (vs. UNC/'13, vs. VT/'14) ...
- Was second on unit with 10 ground TDs in `13 after topping squad with eight in `12 ...
- Has equaled a single-game East Carolina record with five TD passes on four occasions - vs. Memphis (`12) and vs. Old Dominion, Tulsa and UAB (`13) ...
- Has thrown a touchdown pass in 24 of his last 25 games ...
HARDY "ACTIVELY" TOPPING THE NATION
Senior inside receiver Justin Hardy (114) is one of only three returning pass catchers nationally who posted 100 or more receptions in 2013, joining Duke's Jamison Crowder (108) and Marshall's Tommy Shuler (106) ... Hardy, who tallied his 10th double-digit catch and 10th triple-digit yardage outing vs. South Carolina (11-133) on Sept. 6, currently leads all active receivers in career receptions and receiving yards.
TWO FOR 2 ... IN 39-STRAIGHT
Justin Hardy has caught at least two passes in every career game he's played, a run that sits at 39-straight contests heading into the North Carolina tilt ... The streak, which began with an 11 catch, 91-yard effort vs. South Carolina on Sept. 3, 2011, currently ranks first among all active receivers in 2014.
ECU'S TOUCHDOWN TANDEM
Seniors Shane Carden and Justin Hardy have connected for 20 touchdowns during their Pirate careers, which lead all active QB-WR tandems at the FBS level:
| National Rank | Quarterback | Receiver | School | TDs |
| 1. | Shane Carden | Justin Hardy | East Carolina | 20 |
| 2. | Rakeem Cato | Tommy Shuler | Marshall | 19 |
| 3. | Bryce Petty | Antwan Goodley | Baylor | 13 |
ECU's Carden-to-Hardy connection accounted for 1,284 yards in 2013, ranking second among returning QB-WR duos in FBS - trailing only Baylor's Petty-to-Goodley tandem (1,339 yards).
