ECU Travels South To Coastal Carolina

Saturday, September 13

Conway, S.C.

7:30 p.m.

East Carolina University

Coastal Carolina

September 12, 2025 | Football

East Carolina (1-1, 0-0 American) at Coastal Carolina (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt)
Date	Saturday, Sept. 13
Time	7:30 p.m. (ET)
Location	Conway, S.C. (Benton Field at Brooks Stadium / 22,000)
Live Game Coverage	Radio: WNCT 107.9FM/94.3 The Game Television: ESPN+
Internet Options	Live Stats
Official Web Sites	East Carolina \| Coastal Carolina \| The American
Game Notes (PDF)	East Carolina \| Coastal Carolina \| The American
2025 Statistics	East Carolina \| Coastal Carolina
ECU Football Central	East Carolina Media Hub \| Roster \| NCAA Football \| College Scoreboard

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

GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina hits the road for its third non-conference game of the season traveling to Coastal Carolina on Saturday, Sept. 13 at Benton Field inside Brooks Stadium. Kickoff is schedule for 7:30 p.m. (ET) and the contest will be streamed on ESPN+ with Sam Weiderhalf (play-by-play), Ricky Sapp (analyst) and Haley Nitsche (sideline) on the call.

THE HEAD COACH
Blake Harrell (Western Carolina '02) who is in his sixth overall season at East Carolina, was officially named the 23rd head football coach on Nov. 27, 2024. Harrell, the program's interim head coach (Oct. 20-Nov. 26, 2024) and the squad's defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach since his initial hire in January of 2020, led the Pirates (8-5, 5-3 AAC) to five wins over a six-game span which included a 26-21 come from behind victory over NC State in the 2024 Go Bowling Military Bowl in Annapolis, Md. On Dec. 28, 2024. The win was the first over a Power 4 team since 2018, when ECU topped North Carolina, 41-19. During his time leading the program, ECU has posted a 6-2 record notching consecutive wins over Temple, Florida Atlantic, Tulsa and North Texas helping the Pirates secure bowl eligibility for the third time in the last four campaigns (2021 Military, 2022 Birmingham). Over the final six games in 2024, ECU scored 229 points (38.2 ppg) and 2,993 yards of total offense (498.8 pg) which included a stretch of four straight games with over 500 yards of total offense – a first in program history.

THE GAME
Saturday's meeting will be the second ever between the two programs following the 2022 TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl, where the Pirates claimed a 53-29 victory.

FAST FACTS
Record – 1-1 (.500); American Record/Standings – 0-0 (.0-0)/---; Last 5 Games – 3-2; Last 10 Games – 6-4; Last 15 Games – 9-6; Streaks – When East Carolina travels to Coastal Carolina, it will be the eighth game of the ninth game game of the Blake Harrell era (6-2 overall). The Pirates contest against the Chanticleers will be the Pirates 945th since the start of football in 1932 (473-460-11/.507).

EAST CAROLINA RECORDS, STREAKS & TRENDS

Participated in 22nd bowl in program history at the Go Bowling Military Bowl (has qualified for 23 bowls all-time - did not play in 2021 Military Bowl/CoVID-19) ...
Won 11th bowl game in ECU history at Go Bowling Military Bowl (vs. NC State 26-21) ...
Earned bowl eligibility in 2021 (Military), 2022 (TicketSmarter Birmingham/champions) and 2024 (Go Bowling Military Bowl/champions) ...
Tallied seven or more wins (7 in '21, 8 in '22, 8 in '24) in 3 of last 4 years ...
Tallied 400-plus yards of total offense in a game in all eight contests under Harrell (500 or more on six occasions with a season-high in 2024 against FAU/581) ...
Forced at least one turnover in 62 of the last 73 games since 2019 with Teagan Wilk's interception at NC State and two forced fumbles versus Campbell in 2025 ...
Since the start of 2023, ECU's defense has scored six TDs (2/ASU '23, 1/UTSA '23; 1/NSU '24, 1/ASU, 1/TEM) ...
ECU had 15 players with at least one reception in home opener against Campbell, which established a new single-game record ... It is the most by an FBS program this season (as of Sept. 6) and the most since Penn State had 17 different players with one catch in a single-game on Sept. 10, 2022 vs Ohio ...
According to Stathead Football, since 1995 only 13 teams have had a game with 15 different players recording a catch in a single game, ECU is one of those 15 ...
This season, only seven teams have had a game where seven or more different players have scored a touchdown in a game (as of Sept. 6):
- Alabama, 9 vs. Louisiana Monroe
- Oregon, 9 vs. Oklahoma State (also had 2 defensive TDs)
- USC, 9 vs. Missouri State (also had 1 defensive TD)
- Arkansas, 8 vs. Arkansas State
- Florida State, 8 vs. East Texas A&M
- East Carolina, 7 vs. Campbell
- Minnesota 7, vs. Northwestern State (also had 2 defensive TDs)
- Nebraska. 7 vs. Akron
Katin Houser completed at least one pass to 11 different players against Campbell, which is a new single-game Pirate record ... It is also the most by an FBS quarterback this season ...
On the young season, Houser has completed 17 passes of 15 or more yards (11/NC State, 6/Campbell) in 2025 ...
ECU is +1.5 in turnover margin through two games this season which currently ranks 18th nationally in FBS ... The Pirates have forced three turnovers (1/INT, 2 Fumbles) while not turning the ball over ...
The Pirates have outscored their opponents 77 to 27 on the season and over the last six quarters their are +56 outscoring opponents 66 to 10 since halftime at NC State ...
Has tallied 19.0 TFLs through two contests for minus 66 yards, which ranks 10th among the national FBS leaders (9.5 pg) ...
Eighty-eight (88) Pirates have played at least one snap through two games of 2025 ... Against Campbell, 85 players saw action on the field ...

DID YOU KNOW (PRIOR TO '25 SEASON)

The average age of ECU's head coach, offensive and defensive coordinator is 38.0 years old, which is the fifth lowest in FBS according to Doug Waters at North Texas ...
Noah Holmes (current graduate student), his grandfather (Randell '56-58) and father (Joe '89) both played football at East Carolina ... His aunt (Vickie Holmes) played one year of softball at ECU ... First cousin McCallum Wright currently play at ECU ... Grandfather was college roommate with Ed Emory (former ECU head coach, ECU Hall of Fame) ... Father was recruited by Emory at ECU ... In all, Noah Holmes is the 13th member of his family to earn a degree from ECU ...
Offensive coordinator John David Baker at age 35, is still among the 15 youngest coordinators in the nation (FBS) ...
JD Lampley's father (Danny Lampley) was a pitcher at Wingate and inducted into their hall of fame in 2004 ... Currently he holds the DII career record in strikeouts ...
DJ Johnson Jr's father Dwight played collegiately at Baylor (defensive end) and spent time in the National Football League with the Philadelphia Eagles (2000), New York Giants (2002) and New England Patriots (2003) ... His uncle is Derrick Johnson who played for the Kansas City Chiefs (2005-17) and Oakland Raiders (2018) ...
O'Marion Lewis' brother Tyquan Lewis was drafted in the second round by the Indianapolis Colts out of Ohio State ... Has been a member of the Colts organization since 2018 ...
Zion Wilson is the nephew of former ECU players DE C.J. Wilson (2006-09) and OL Willie Smith (2007-10) ... Has another uncle Amos Wilson who currently is a member of ECU's strength staff ...
Offensive lineman Cooper Trnavsky also played lacrosse in high school ...
Brock Spalding and Ssamuel Dankah were high school teammates at South County ...
Tomas O'Halloran has never played American Football until coming to ECU ...

CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, East Carolina is 4-4-0 in August, 137-130-1 in September, 170-172-4 in October, 150-138-5 in November, 11-12-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... With the Pirates win over NC State in 2024, ECU remained somewhat productive in December - a month in which it has won six of its last 10 outings (wins vs. Boise State/'07, Tulsa/'08, Houston/'09, Ohio/'13, Coastal Carolina/'22, NC State/'24; losses to Maryland/'10, UL Lafayette/'12, UCF/'14 and NC State/'18).

ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, East Carolina is 71-107 (.398) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... ECU closed out the season with a 4-3 overall road record following a 26-21 win versus against NC State in the Go Bowling Military Bowl (3-3 regular season) in 2024 ... A year ago, ECU finished the year 1-5 on the road and in 2022, they posted a 4-2 road slate (wins at South Florida/Boca Raton, Fla., BYU, Temple and Coastal Carolina/Birmingham, Ala.; losses to Tulane and Cincinnati) ... From a non-conference standpoint, ECU snapped a seven-game skid when it topped Old Dominion 24-21 on Sept. 28, 2019 but has only played 11 road non-AAC tilts since, including bowl games (5-6).

THE SERIES
East Carolina leads the all-time series 1-0 ... The Pirates and Chanticleers only meeting came in 2022 at the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl with ECU coming away with a 53-29 victory ... After Saturday's contest, the two teams will meet again in September 9, 2028 in Greenville, N.C.

LOOKING FOR MORE LOOT
Early in 2025, East Carolina is plus 1.50 in the turnover margin (18th FBS) forcing three turnovers (1/NCSU, 2/ CAM) while not turning the ball over itself ... Last year the Pirates finished with a -0.62 in turnover margin (ECU 30, Opponents 22) ... ECU forced two or more turnovers in a game (2024 season) in eight of 13 contests ... The Pirates turned the ball over six times (3 fumbles, 3 INTs) against Norfolk State marking the most since they gave up seven against UAB in 2011 ... East Carolina finished the 2023 campaign with a -0.42 turnover margin (ECU 21, Opponents 16) ranking 101st nationally ... The Pirates tied a program-best record with eight forced fumbles against Gardner-Webb recovering five - a feat that they last accomplished on Nov. 23, 2002 against TCU (span of 253 games) ... The Pirates also scored three defensive touchdowns on the season (2 at Appalachian State, 1 at UTSA) ... In 2022, the Pirates finished with a +13 turnover margin forcing 10 fumbles, recovering nine and picked off 11 passes for 154 return yards ... ECU led the country in fewest offensive turnovers with seven ... Against UCF, ECU forced a season-high four turnovers (3 INTs, 1 fumble) and had five multi-turnover games on the year ... Despite its impressive 45-3 win, East Carolina's 16-game streak of forcing at least one turnover came to a halt against Temple on Nov. 6 (2021) ... The run, which began on Oct. 3, 2020 at Georgia State and produced 36 takeaways (22 interceptions, 14 fumble recoveries), was the program's longest since a 33-game streak (from 2007 to 2010) ... In all, ECU still has at least one takeaway in 62 of the last 73 contests, as well as 33 of 40 games dating back to the start of the 2022 campaign.

2025 PIRATE GRADUATES (22)
OL Darius Belll, PK Andrew Conrad, OLB Ryheem Craig, DB Chance Graves, LB Noah Holmes, DB Jonathan Jean, DL J.D. Lampley, P Ryan Leavy, WR Payton Mangrum, PK Nick Mazzie, DL Xavier McIver, LS Triston O'Brien, DB Ladarian Paulk, WR Kyler Pearson, DB Rasheed Reason, DL Jasiyah Robinson, WR Anthony Smith, OL Jayson Tarpeh, DB Teagan Wilk, DL Zion Wilson, QB Mike Wright Jr. each have earned their degrees headling into the 2025 season.

A STARTERS' LOG
OLB Ryheem Craig enters the Coastal Carolina game having made 15 consecutive starts as a member of the defensive unit ... OL Emmanuel Poku and WR Anthony Smith lead the offensive unit having started 15-straight games ... ECU has had 12 first time starters in a Pirate uniform: TE Mason Brown, DB TyMir Brown, DL Preston Carr, DB Jonathan Jean, DL J.D. Lampley, OL Kyle Long, DB Jordy Lowery, RB London Montgomery, WR Jaquaize Pettaway, DB Rasheed Reason, OL Cooper Trnavsky, DL Zion Wilson.