East Carolina Hosts South Carolina Saturday
September 09, 2021 | Football
| South Carolina at East Carolina (Game 2) | |
| Date | Saturday, Sept. 11 |
| Time | 12 Noon (EDT) |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Digital Program | South Carolina Program |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | The Varsity Network App Television: ESPN2 | Sirius XM (386), SXM App (976) |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | East Carolina | South Carolina | The American |
| Game Notes | East Carolina | South Carolina | The American |
| 2021 Statistics | East Carolina | South Carolina |
| ECU Football Central | East Carolina Media Hub | Roster | East Carolina Yearbook | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| East Carolina | The American | |
| East Carolina | ECU Football (in-game updates) | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #PirateNation | #AmericanFB |
| East Carolina | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina will open its 2021 home schedule hosting Southeastern Conference member South Carolina Saturday at 12 noon at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Saturday's matchup will mark the first SEC opponent for the Pirates since dropping a 20-15 road tilt against the Gamecocks on Sept. 17, 2016 in Williams-Brice Stadium. The last time ECU hosted an SEC-member was on Sept. 20, 1997 falling to South Carolina 26-0 in front of 38,902 fans. ECU will continue its four-game non-league slate next week traveling to former Conference USA opponent Marshall (Sept. 18) before welcoming in Charleston Southern (Sept. 25).
EAST CAROLINA RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Has averaged 409.3 total yards per game in its last six outings entering Saturday ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in nine-straight game (and in 20 of the last 21) ...
- Has netted five interceptions in the last three games ...
- Has tallied a total of 50.0 TLFs and 15.0 sacks in its last eight games (19.0/3.0 in last 3) ...
- Has won 41 of the last 47 games when leading at the half (14-3 since 2015) ...
- Has won six of the last nine home openers ...
THE SERIES
South Carolina leads 14-5 ... The Gamecocks have won the last four meetings dating back to 2011 and has won six of the last 11 matchups ... Prior to South Carolina's recent run, the Pirates enjoyed success in the 1990s, capturing five of seven contests in a span from 1991 to 1999 ... After ECU's last win, a 21-3 decision on Sept. 18, 1999, the Pirates' stay in Columbia lasted an additional week because of the flooding associated with Hurricane Floyd in the Greenville area ... The Pirates were extended workout privileges on the South Carolina campus in preparation for its next game against Miami (Fla.) - a contest ECU won 27-23 in Raleigh.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE GAMECOCKS (1-0)
Saturday's matchup against the Gamecocks will be ECU Head Coach Mike Houston's second meeting against South Carolina. As the head coach at The Citadel in 2015, Houston's team came away with a 23-22 win in Columbia.
SHANE BEAMER AGAINST THE PIRATES (2-2)
While Shane Beamer has never faced East Carolina as a head coach (until Saturday), he has compiled a 2-2 mark against the Pirates as a staff assistant during his 22-year coaching career.
ANALYZING THE 2021 OVERALL SCHEDULE
ECU's 2021 opponents posted a combined 55-54 (.505) record in 2020 ... The Pirates' four non-conference foes were a collective 18-14 (.563), while the eight AAC squads tallied a 37-40 (.481) mark ... Four programs had seven (7) or more wins - Cincinnati (9-1), Appalachian State (9-3), Memphis (8-3) and Marshall (7-3).
WHO WENT BOWLING ... In all, ECU's current slate features contests against seven teams which were invited to bowl games in 2020 - Appalachian State (Myrtle Beach), South Carolina (Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla), Marshall (Camellia), Cincinnati (Chick-fil-A Peach), Tulane (Famous Idaho Potato), UCF (RoofClaim.com Boca Raton), Houston (New Mexico) and Memphis (Cheribundi Boca Raton) ... Five of the six Pirates' road games are against 2020 bowl qualifiers.
IN THE FINAL POLLS ... Only one of ECU's 2021 opponents was ranked in college football's two major polls (Associated Press/USA Today Amway Coaches) to end the 2020 season – league champion Cincinnati (8/8). However, two Pirates' AAC opponents from 2020 also received season ending votes (Tulsa, SMU).
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 8,905,466 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 2,634,180 fans.
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 288 AND COUNTING
East Carolina will enter the South Carolina State contest with an active streak of 288 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 288-game run currently ranks among the Top 10 nationally (Florida/1st).
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, East Carolina is 3-3-0 in August, 130-121-1 in September, 163-164-4 in October, 142-132-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will host South Carolina on Sept. 11, a month in which East Carolina has won four of itslast seven contests since the 2018 campaign ... On the road, ECU has won two of its last four (wins at Connecticut/2017, Old Dominion/18), but has also dropped eight of the last 11 dating back to 2014 ... Overall, the Pirates are 12-9 vs. in non-league affairs in Month 9 since that same 2014 campaign (1-5 vs. the AAC).
WHAT WE HAVE (2021)
- ECU returns an impressive 89 percent of its ground yards in 2021, which was mostly responsible for the Pirates' 173.8 rushing yards-per-game average in 2020 – the program's highest clip since 2007 ...
- ECU returns 95 percent of its total yards (3,452 of 3,624) in 2021 …
- ECU returns a perfect 100 percent (2,060 of 2,060) of its passing yards in 2021 ...
- Of ECU's 33 touchdowns last year, 24 (73 percent) were scored by players who return in 2021 ...
- Of ECU's 18 takeaways last year, 17 were tallied by defenders who return in 2021- including all 10 picks …
- All four Pirates who earned American Athletic Conference honors last year return in 2021, including first-team selection and rookie-of-the-year RB Rahjai Harris. Other all-league returners include CB Ja'Quan McMillian, WR/RS Tyler Snead and ILB Xavier Smith ...
- Among 2020 individual national (FBS) offensive stats leaders for 2021 returners - WR C.J. Johnson stood 6th in yards per reception (21.3) and QB Holton Ahlers ranked 25th in passing TDs (18) ...
- Among 2020 individual national (FBS) defensive stats leaders for 2021 returners – DT Elijah Morris was 3rd in recovered fumbles (3), CB Ja'Quan McMillian was 6th in total interceptions (4) and OLB Jireh Wilson was 16th in forced fumbles (3) ...
- ECU's defensive unit, which returns 10 of 11 starters in 2021, held two opponents under the 100-yard passing mark in '20 - a first for an East Carolina defense since 2008.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR (2021)
- Ahlers needs just 106 passing yards to move into fourth place on ECU's career list (as a junior) and only 1,081 to rank among the Top 3 Pirate passers of all-time (trailing only Shane Carden and David Garrard) ...
- Ahlers needs only 426 rushing yards to become ECU's all-time leading rusher among signal callers, surpassing Leander Green's mark of 1,485.
WHAT WE SAW (2020)
- The Pirates closed the year with a two-game AAC win streak (Temple, SMU) – a first since 2015 - after averaging 40.0 points, 212.5 rushing yards and 470.0 total yards in those pair of victories ...
- A total of 37 different players (19/offense, 18/defense) made starts in '20, including 21 first timers (11/O, 10/D) - a number which ranked among the Top 15 nationally among all FBS programs ...
- ECU ranked among the Top 25 nationally in three statistical categories in 2020 – punt return average (10th/14.6 ypr), most fumbles recovered (25th/8) and most turnovers gained (25th/18) ...
- The Pirates scored 272 points during their pandemic-shortened nine-game schedule, which translated into a 30.2 scoring average - the 10th-highest all-time clip in ECU history ...
- Harris and Keaton Mitchell's five collective 100-yard rushing outings in 2020 were the most overall individual century-mark ground efforts at East Carolina since 2012.
