ECU Welcomes SMU To Greenville For Thursday Night AAC Affair

SMU (3-2, 1-0 AAC) at East Carolina (1-4, 0-1 AAC) (Game 6)
Date	Thursday, October 12th
Time	7:30 p.m. (EDT)
Location	Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) (50,000)
Live Game Coverage	Radio: WNCT 107.9FM Broadcast: ESPN
Internet Options	Live Stats
Official Web Sites	East Carolina \| SMU \| The American
Game Notes	East Carolina \| SMU \| The American
2023 Statistics	East Carolina \| SMU \| The American
ECU Football Central	East Carolina Media Hub \| Roster \| NCAA Football \| College Scoreboard

Official Social Media Sites
Facebook	East Carolina \| The American
Twitter	East Carolina \| ECU Football (in-game updates) \| The American
Twitter Hashtags	#PirateNation \| #AmericanFB
Instagram	East Carolina \| The American

GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina returns home Thursday night, playing host to SMU in an American Athletic Conference contest at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast to a national ESPN audience with Matt Barrie (play-by-play), Dan Mullen (color analyst) and Harry Lyles, Jr. (sideline) on the call.

The Pirates are under the direction of fifth-year head coach Mike Houston.

ECU (1-4, 0-1 AAC) fell at Rice in its most recent outing, dropping a 24-17 decision to the Owls back on Sept. 30 in Houston. For the most part, the Pirates did what they needed in order to win their first meeting with Rice since 2010 when both were members of Conference USA but simply could not convert opportunities into touchdowns. The Pirates out-gained the Owls 391-277 while also putting up a big advantage in first downs (25-14), plays (83-54) rushing yards (145-37) and time of possession (34:58-25:02).

Freshmen Javious Bond and Chase Sowell turned in breakout performances to help keep ECU's hopes alive. Bond produced a team-high total on the ground for the second straight week, finishing with 72 yards on seven carries, and Sowell put up personal bests of seven catches for 88 yards while also hauling in a game-tying two-point conversion with 8:24 to play. Additionally, quarterback Alex Flinn set career highs for completions (21), attempts (44) and passing yards (246).

SMU (3-2, 1-0 AAC) also enjoyed its bye last week after notching a 34-16 home win over Charlotte Sept. 30 to open its AAC slate. Jaylan Knighton broke the game open with a 95-yard touchdown run in the third quarter on the way to piling up 150 yards on 11 carries. Preston Stone completed 14 of 23 pass attempts for 135 yards with one interception.

In addition to their victory over Charlotte, the Mustangs own wins over Louisiana Tech and Prairie View A&M as well as losses to then No. 18 Oklahoma and TCU.

East Carolina Records, Streaks and Trends

Holds a 1-1 record at home this season with a 44-0 victory over Gardner-Webb and a 31-13 setback to Marshall.
Has surrendered just 63 points in the fourth quarter in the last 11 games.
Has forced at least one turnover in 33 of its last 36 outings (and in 44 of the last 50).
Scored a pair of defensive touchdowns at Appalachian State, doing so for the first time since 2013 (Old Dominion).
Recovered five fumbles against Gardner-Webb – a first since setting that standard against TCU on Nov. 23, 2002 (a span of 253 games).
With the blanking of Gardner-Webb, registered the program's first defensive shutout since a 38-0 victory over Duke on Sept. 2, 2000 – a span of 285 games.

The Series
ECU leads the all-time series with SMU 5-4. The Pirates and Mustangs both turned in respective sweeps as Conference USA inter-divisional opponents - East Carolina taking 2005 and 2006 matchups before SMU posted consecutive victories in 2009 and 2010. The Pirates bounced back by capturing the first two (of five) American Athletic Conference meetings, posting wins in 2014 and 2015 under Ruffin McNeill, and the last meeting in 2020 under Mike Houston before suffering setbacks in 2016 and 2019. The Mustangs' visit to Greenville in 2014 also marked East Carolina's inaugural AAC clash.

Mike Houston Against Rhett Lashlee
Thursday's game marks the second time that the two coaches have faced one another. Back in 2019, Rhett Lashlee was the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the Mustangs in a 59-51 win over the Pirates.

Last Meeting
East Carolina 52, SMU 38
(Nov. 28, 2020 @ Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium – Greenville, N.C.)
East Carolina scored on all seven of its first-half possessions to build a 38-point lead before settling for a 52-38 American Athletic Conference victory over SMU at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. In addition to firing four touchdown passes, quarterback Holton Ahlers helped the Pirates pile up 337 yards of total offense in the first 30 minutes to establish a comfortable 45-7 cushion before the Mustangs outscored ECU 31-7 in the second half to cut the deficit to 14 with 7:05 to play. Cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian thwarted any SMU comeback hopes by picking off quarterback Shane Buechele on successive late fourth-quarter drives, each at the ECU 34-yard line. The Pirates were sparked by some trickery to jump out to a 21-7 lead, converting a fourth-and-seven play with a 25-yard fake punt run by Luke Larsen to set up the first score and then later following with a 35-yard TD toss from slot receiver Tyler Snead to Blake Proehl that initiated a 31-0 run to close out the half. ECU's defense held SMU's ground attack in check, surrendering only 70 yards on 27 carries (2.6 yards per rush).

Shutout Free ... 317 And Counting
East Carolina enters its American Athletic Conference home opener against SMU with an active streak of 317 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 317-game run currently ranks among the top 10 nationally (Florida is first with 441).

Comparing 10-Year, Five-Game Results
East Carolina's 24-17 setback at Rice in The American opener dropped the Pirates to 1-4 on the season. It marks the second time in the last 10 years ECU has opened a campaign going 1-4. A win against SMU would improve the Pirates to 2-4, a first since 2018, but a loss would drop them to 1-5 which last occurred in 2017.

Looking For More Loot
Through five games this season, East Carolina is +1 in turnover margin (ECU 8, Opponents 9). In its last three games, ECU has forced eight turnovers while coughing up the ball five times. A year ago, the Pirates finished with a +13 turnover margin forcing 10 fumbles, recovering nine and picking off 11 passes for 154 return yards. Against UCF, ECU forced a season-high four turnovers (3 INTs, 1 fumble) and had five multi-turnover games on the year.

The Pirate Nation – Over 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 9,490,230 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 3,218,941 fans. Currently, ECU stands 59th in the nation and second among "Group of Five" institutions with an average attendance of 39,400 in 2023.

Analyzing The 2023 Overall Schedule
ECU's 2023 opponents compiled an overall record of 87-67 (.565) in 2022. The Pirates' four non-conference opponents were a combined 35-17 (.673) last season while the eight AAC teams on the state tallied a 52-50 (.510) mark. Seven programs had at least six or more wins including three teams that had 10-plus victories – Michigan (13-1), Tulane (12-2) and UTSA (11-3). Five of East Carolina's first six opponents finished last year at or above .500.
Who went Bowling? … The Pirates' 2023 schedule features contests against five teams who competed in bowl games last season, highlighted by Michigan's second-straight appearance in the College Football Playoff Semifinals and Tulane's comeback victory over USC in the Cotton Bowl ... Michigan (Fiesta), Tulane (Cotton), Marshall (Myrtle Beach), UTSA (Duluth Trading Cure), and SMU (New Mexico) … Three of the Pirates' six home games are against 2022 bowl qualifiers.
In the Final Polls … Two of ECU's 2023 opponents finished the 2022 season in college football's two major polls (Associated Press and USA Today/AFCA Coaches) – AAC champion Tulane (9/9) and Michigan (3/3).

Up Next
East Carolina returns to action Saturday, Oct. 21, when it hosts AAC newcomer Charlotte during Homecoming Weekend. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. with the contest set to stream live via ESPN+.

ECU Welcomes SMU To Greenville For Thursday Night AAC Affair

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Holton Ahlers

Javious Bond

Alex Flinn

Luke Larsen

Chase Sowell

Footer

ECU Welcomes SMU To Greenville For Thursday Night AAC Affair

Related News

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Holton Ahlers

Javious Bond

Alex Flinn

Luke Larsen

Chase Sowell

Related Videos

Footer