Classic Rewind Preview: ECU Faces Boise State In Hawai'i Bowl
May 07, 2020 | Football
| Classic Rewind Preview: No 22 Boise Sate vs. ECU (2007) | |
| Re-Air Date: | Saturday, May 9, 2020 |
| Re-Air Time: | 1 P.M. (EDT) |
| Location: | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Game Coverage: | Internet: ECUPirates.com |
| In-Game Hashtag: | #ECURewind |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | Boise State |
| 2007 Game Notes: | ECU | Boise State |
| 2007 Rosters: | ECU | Boise State |
| 2007 Depth Chart: | ECU | Boise State |
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina will make its second straight bowl appearance and fourth since 2000 when it faces off against Western Athletic Conference member No. 22 Boise State in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl Sunday, Dec. 23 beginning at 3:00 p.m. (HST)/8:00 p.m. (EST) at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. The Pirates, who have won three of their last four and six of their last eight games, will look to make it two in a row after handing Tulane a 35-12 loss Nov. 24. The Broncos, who earned a second-place league finish this season, have won nine of their last 10 but will be looking to rebound from a 39-27 setback at league champion Hawai'i Nov. 23.
THE SERIES
The Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl matchup will will mark the first meeting (0-0) between the East Carolina Pirates and the Boise State Broncos in the sport of football.
HOLTZ AGAINST THE BRONCOS
While Skip Holtz has never faced Boise State as a head coach (Connecticut, East Carolina) prior to Dec. 23, he was on a South Carolina staff that racked up a 32-12 win against the Broncos in 2001.
PETERSEN AGAINST THE PIRATES
While Chris Petersen has never faced East Carolina as a head coach (BSU/2006) prior to Dec. 23, he was on a Pittsburgh staff that dropped a 37-31 decision to the Pirates in 1992.
HOLTZ VS. PETERSEN
While the Dec. 23 matchup will mark the first-ever meeting between East Carolina's Skip Holtz and Boise State's Chris Petersen as head coaches, there was one previous game where the two faced off against each other during a contest ... While Holtz was serving as Notre Dame's offensive coordinator, the Fighting Irish handed Pittsburgh a 52-21 loss on Oct. 10, 1992 while Petersen was the Panthers' quarterbacks coach.
ECU AGAINST THE WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
East Carolina has compiled an all-time record of 3-2-1 (.583) against current members of the Western Athletic Conference ... In fact, the Pirates have faced only one member in their history - playing all six games against Louisiana Tech (which includes an Independence Bowl victory in 1978) ... The Pirates have never faced Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Jose State or Utah State on the gridiron.
BOISE STATE AGAINST CONFERENCE USA
Boise State has won 14 of 15 (14-1) games against current Conference USA members ...The Broncos own 5-0 and 4-0 marks against UTEP and Tulsa, respectively, and have also battled SMU (2-0), Marshall (1-0), Southern Miss (1-0) and Rice (1-1).
THE GOLDEN EAGLES = COMMON OPPONENT
The most recent Conference USA opponent Boise State has faced was Southern Miss ... As previously mentioned, the Broncos own a 1-0 record against the Golden Eagles, recording a 38-16 victory earlier this season on Sept. 27 in Boise ... A game earlier (Sept. 15), USM posted a 28-21 win over ECU at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, scoring with just 32 seconds left to secure the triumph.
NON-CONFERENCE '07 ... A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT THE BCS
Since accepting membership in Conference USA, the Pirates have produced a 17-31 (.354) nonleague record, which includes a program-high 5-1 mark in 1999 ... ECU dropped three of its four non-Conference USA clashes in '07 falling at nationally-ranked Virginia Tech and West Virginia, while splitting home games against Atlantic Coast Conference members North Carolina (W, 34-31) and North Carolina State (L, 34-20) ... The Pirates turned in a .500 ledger a year ago, suffering setbacks vs. Navy and WVU before bouncing back with triumphs over Virginia and NC State for a modest two-game win streak ... In fact, the 21-16 victory over the Wolfpack last year also snapped a 13-game road regular season non-conference skid that began during the 2000 season ... In 2008, East Carolina will again face four BCS-member programs - Virginia Tech (Charlotte), West Virginia (Greenville), Virginia (Charlottesville) and NC State (Raleigh).
SURVIVING ... AND MORE
Prior to the start of the season, East Carolina's 2007 schedule was ranked as the fourth-most difficult by Rivals.com ... In fact, four teams (Virginia Tech, Southern Miss, West Virginia and Houston) which participated in bowl contests a year ago highlighted the slate - solely in September ... October didn't lighten ECU's load with matchups against UCF (led East Division prior to game), UTEP (led West Division prior to game), BCS member NC State and habitual divisional nemesis UAB ... In addition, VT (No. 9) and WVU (No. 5) were in the top 10 at the time of the game.
ON THE ROAD - WINS IN THREE OF THE LAST FOUR
Since joining Conference USA in 1997, East Carolina has recorded a 28-41 (.406) mark when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... In both 2006 and 2007, the Pirates split six regular season road games, but closed each campaign with victories in three of the last four ... This year, ECU's 3-3 record included falling at No. 9 Va. Tech (17-7) and No. 5 WVU (48-7) before bouncing back with wild 37-35, 45-42 and 56-40 triumphs at Houston, UTEP and Memphis, respectively, before dropping a 26-7 contest at Marshall.
CHARTING THE PIRATES, MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, ECU is 0-2-0 in August, 105-97-2 in September, 141-138-4 in October, 118-104-5 in November, 5-6-0 in December and 1-1-0 in January ... The Pirates will be looking to snap a three-game December skid when they face the Broncos - last winning in 2000 (40-27 vs. Texas Tech in the galleryfurniture.com Bowl at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas).
THANKING THE PIRATE NATION!
East Carolina has always been able to claim plenty of hometown support, even moreso when playing at Dowdy Ficklen Stadium on Saturdays during the fall - establishing itself as one of C-USA's attendance leaders on an annual basis ... In all, a total of 5,769,015 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963, and so far in the Skip Holtz Era, ECU has averaged 37,497 (637,455/ 17 games) ... In '07, ECU drew 43,387 fans to the UNC game, 43,014 to the USM contest, 42,777 to the UCF matchup, a season-high 43,527 to the NC State tilt, 41,125 to the UAB clash and 35,362 to the Tulane finale ... The first five home games ranked as the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and 10th-highest totals in stadium history (not in chronological order) ... In all, ECU has drawn six of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium's top 10 crowds since Holtz took over the program (41,372 vs. Marshall/'06 was the other) ... The Pirates set a new school record in '07 in both average (41,537) and total attendance (249,219) after drawing a then-program-best 223,006 in '06.
HOLTZ ... A CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
In addition to his success laying the foundation at Connecticut during his first head coaching position (1994-1998), third-year ECU Head Football Coach Skip Holtz has been associated with the best of college football during his assistant coaching tenures ... Prior to salvaging the South Carolina program, Holtz also picked up plenty of hardware in earlier stops at Notre Dame, Colorado State and Florida State - programs which he helped to a combined record of 67-15-2 ... A closer look:
At Notre Dame (1990-1993): Helped lead the Fighting Irish to a 21-2-1 record as a coordinator ... Unit was third nationally in total offense (470 ypg) in 1992 and ninth nationally in scoring offense (36.6 ppg) in 1993;
At Colorado State (1989): Earned first full-time position as a WR coach on Earle Bruce's staff;
At Florida State (1987-1988): Part of a Seminole program which racked up a 22-2 record, won Sugar and Fiesta Bowl titles and earned a No. 2 and No. 3 national rank.
BACK-TO-BACK WINNING SEASONS
After inheriting a program which had won just three of 23 games (3-20) in two combined years prior to his arrival, Skip Holtz has navigated the Pirates out of choppy waters to post back-to-back winning seasons (7-6, 7-5) - a first at ECU since the 1999 (9-3) and 2000 (8-4) campaigns under Steve Logan.
BACK-TO-BACK BOWL INVITES
In addition to posting consecutive winning seasons, Skip Holtz has guided the Pirates into bowl play for two straight years - a first since ECU played in back-to-back-to-back bowl games in 1999, 2000 and 2001 (1-2 record).
AGAINST NATIONALLY-RANKED OPPONENTS
When it meets Boise State in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, East Carolina will be facing its third nationally-ranked opponent of the season (No. 9 Virginia Tech/Sept. 1 and No. 5 West Virginia/Sept. 22) ... In their last 22 games against Top 25 teams (since 1993), the Pirates have fashioned a 4-18 slate ... ECU's last win over a ranked opponent occurred on Nov. 23, 2002 when the Pirates handled No. 22 TCU 31-28 at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... East Carolina's last triumph over a Top 10 squad was a 27-20 win over No. 9 Miami (Fla.) Sept. 26, 1999 in Raleigh – a game which was moved to Carter-Finley Stadium from Greenville because of Hurricane Floyd ... Since 2004, ECU has faced just five nationally-ranked opponents - L/56-23 at No. 10 West Virginia (09/04/04), L/59-7 at No. 22 Louisville (10/02/04), L/27-10 vs. No. 4 West Virginia (09/23/06), L/17-7 vs. No. 9 Virginia Tech (09/01/07), L/48-7 vs. No. 5 West Virginia (09/22/07).
MOTIVATIONAL HALFTIME SPEECHES E
ast Carolina has outscored its opponents 153-70 in third quarter action this season - an average of nearly two touchdowns per period (12.8 ppq) ...The Pirates racked up 20+ points in the third stanza four times in '07 (21 vs. USM & UAB, 28 vs. UCF & Memphis) and defensively, posted shutouts on five occasions (VT, USM, NCSU, UAB and Tulane) ... ECU's third-quarter prowess has also sparked three come-from-behind wins this season (UH, UCF, UTEP) when trailing at the half.
REWIND: CHRIS JOHNSON VS. MEMPHIS
To say senior running back and kick returner Chris Johnson enjoyed a career-day at Memphis Nov. 3 might still be classified as somewhat of an understatement ... For those who missed it - a quick recap plus some bonus numbers: 1) rushed for 301 yards and four touchdowns while racking up 408 all-purpose yards - all career-highs ... 2) averaged 15.1 yards per carry (20 attempts), while posting the second-highest single-game rushing performance in school history (351 by Scott Harley vs. NC State on 11/30/96) ... 3) his 408 all-purpose yards performance broke his own school record of 372 set against UCF earlier this season (10/06/07) ... 4) scored on runs from 16, 44, 70 and 50 yards out to help the Pirates post the fifth-highest single-game rushing effort (491) in school history and most since 1987 (500 vs. Cincinnati) ... 5) in all, he picked up nearly half of ECU's 641 yards of total offense - the third-highest team performance in school history (best since 649 yards vs. Tulane in 1999).
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