Gameday: ECU Welcomes Cincinnati For Senior Day
November 16, 2017 | Football
| ECU Game 11: Cincinnati | |
| Date: | Saturday, Nov. 18 |
| Time: | 12 Noon (EST) |
| Location: | Greenville, N.C. (Bagwell Field at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking: | Game Tickets | Parking Information | Things To Look For On Gameday |
| Live Game Coverage: | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | 95.7 FM (Raleigh) | 1550 AM WCLY (Raleigh) | TuneIn Radio Online Television: CBSSN |
| Internet Options: | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | Cincinnati | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes: | ECU (PDF) | Cincinnati (PDF) | The American (PDF) |
| 2017 Football Statistics: | ECU | Cincinnati |
| ECU Football Central: | Roster | Fact Book (PDF) | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| Facebook: | ECU | Cincinnati | The American |
| Twitter: | ECU | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) l Cincinnati | The American |
| Twitter Hashtags: | #ECUPirates | #ECUGameday | #ECUndaunted | #ECUFootball | #AmericanFB |
| Instagram: | ECU | The American |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – It's Senior Day at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium as ECU officially completes its 2017 home schedule by hosting Cincinnati on Saturday for a high noon American Athletic Conference clash. The Pirates will honor 27 players - 10 graduate students, 14 seniors and three juniors - who will play their final collegiate game in Greenville. After falling to Tulane in its last outing, ECU will try to post its first November home victory since 2014 and match its overall win total from last year with one contest remaining (at Memphis next week).
EAST CAROLINA RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three of the last six years) ...
- Has won 32 of the last 40 games when scoring 30 or more points ...
- Has won 19 of the last 22 games when gaining 200 or more rushing yards ...
- Has accounted for 400 or more yards of total offense in 16 of the last 22 games ...
- Has thrown at least two touchdown passes in seven of the last nine games ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in six of the last seven games ...
- Has won 30 of the last 32 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won seven of 10 games vs. Cincinnati played in Greenville ...
- Has won eight of the last 12 home finales (Senior Day) ...
THE SERIES
ECU leads 12-8 ... The Bearcats have won six straight, including the first three meetings as American Athletic Conference members ... The Pirates have taken seven of the 10 matchups played in Greenville, while the two programs have split 10 contests in Cincinnati ... ECU opened the series with seven-straight victories.
ECU & CINCINNATI "CONNECTIONS"
COACH - Pirates' associate head coach, defensive coordinator and line boss Robert Prunty held a similar title at Cincinnati on former coach Tommy Tuberville's staff for four years during the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 campaigns ... He helped the Bearcats to three bowl games (Belk, Military and Hawai'i), worked with 10 All-American Athletic Conference defensive selections and twice earned league recruiter-of-the-year honors.
PLAYER - ECU graduate quarterback Thomas Sirk and Cincinnati senior running back Mike Boone were high school teammates for coach Ryan Sulkowski at Baker County (Fla.) High School during the 2010 and 2011 seasons - Sirk's junior and senior year, Boone's freshman and sophomore campaigns.
AGAINST THE BUCKEYE STATE
The Pirates have won 20 of 32 all-time matchups (20-12) against FBS programs from the state of Ohio ... In addition to its 12-8 mark against Cincinnati, ECU is 3-0 vs. Ohio, 2-2 vs. Bowling Green, 2-2 vs. Toledo and 1-0 vs. Akron ... The Pirates have never faced Ohio State, Kent State or Miami on the gridiron.
OHIO TIES
Along with Sirk and Boone (see note above), there is one (1) Ohio native on ECU's 2017 active roster who might enjoy a reunion of sorts Saturday when the Pirates square off against the Bearcats.
THE AMERICAN - YEAR FOUR
ECU has posted an 80-59 (.576) all-time mark against current members of the American Conference ... The Pirates currently sport series records against Memphis (15-6), Cincinnati (12-8), Tulane (11-4), UCF (10-6), Temple (8-7), Tulsa (8-6), Houston (7-6), SMU (4-3) Connecticut (3-1), Navy (1-5) and USF (1-7) … During its 17-year membership in Conference USA (1997-2013), ECU produced an all-time 78-50 (.609) league record ... Overall, the Pirates completed C-USA action by winning 11 of the last 13, 27 of the last 37 and 36 of the last 49 league games ... ECU captured conference titles in 2008 and 2009 under Skip Holtz (defeating Houston in the '09 championship tilt).
THE EAST HAS BEEN A BEAST
ECU owns a 3-11 mark (1-6/home, 2-5/road) against American Athletic Conference opponents in its own East Division since the league began divisional play in 2015 ... The Pirates' 44-7 win against UCF in their '15 road finale and a pair of wins vs. Connecticut (41-3 in 2016, 41-38 in 2017) represents the only trio of triumphs ... In all, ECU is 2-1 vs. Connecticut, 1-2 vs. UCF, 0-2 vs. Cincinnati, 0-3 vs. Temple and 0-3 vs. USF while competing as division mates ... On the flipside, ECU is 2-6 against foes in the West Division so far (1-1 vs. SMU, 1-1 vs. Tulsa, 0-2 vs. Navy during the first two years and 0-1 vs. Houston & 0-1 vs. Tulane this season) after switching cross-over opponents in 2017.
NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULING ... ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
ECU is the only program in the nation to play at least three non-conference games against P6 (including Notre Dame & BYU) opponents in each of the last five years, including the 2017 campaign ... Moving forward, the Pirates currently have two P6 tilts scheduled in 2018 (North Carolina, Virginia Tech), two in 2019 (NC State, Virginia Tech) and three in 2020 (West Virginia, Virginia Tech, South Carolina).
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM
ECU's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 184-98-1 (.652) ... 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 in 2013 ... Before a 1-5 record this year and 3-3 marks in both 2015 and 2016, ECU was 5-1 in 2014, 2013 and 2012 (15-3) and won a combined 10 of 12 home matchups in 2009 (6-1) and 2008 (4-1) ... Overall, ECU was in search of its 40th winning campaign at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium this fall.
THE PIRATE NATION - 8.4 MILLION STRONG
ECU has always been able to claim plenty of hometown support, even more so when playing at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium during the fall - establishing itself as a conference and a national attendance leader on a near annual basis ... In all, a total of 8,433,533 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963 (ECU cracked the 8 million mark when 50,719 watched ECU down NC State Sept. 10, 2016) ... Since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 (to push capacity to 50,000), the Pirates have drawn 2,162,247 fans ... ECU surpassed the 2 million post-expansion "milestone" on Sept. 16 when 43,776 watched the Pirates battle Virginia Tech.
ATTENDANCE LEADERS
ECU topped all American Athletic Conference members in attendance in 2014 and 2016, and currently lead the league again in 2017 ... Overall, ECU ranks 57th nationally in average attendance (37,528) and 75th in capacity percentage (75.06) this season ... A closer look at Top 5 AAC leaders: 1. ECU (37,528), 2. Navy (34,756), 3. UCF (33,872), 4. Houston (33,249), 5. USF (32,443) ... ECU has drawn at least 40,000 fans to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in 22 of its last 28 home games dating back to 2013, which includes this year's season opener vs. James Madison (40,169) and the Sept. 16 clash vs. Virginia Tech (43,776).
ANALYZING THE 2017 OVERALL SCHEDULE
Overall, the Pirates '17 schedule features contests against eight teams which advanced to bowl games a year ago - West Virginia (Russell Athletic), Virginia Tech (Belk), BYU (Poinsettia), USF (Birmingham), UCF (AutoNation Cure), Temple (Military), Memphis (Boca Raton) and Houston (Las Vegas) ... Of ECU's five road games, four will be against 2016 bowl qualifiers ... ECU's four non-conference opponents were a combined 43-12 (.782) a year ago, while the Pirates' eight American Conference foes posted a collective 55-47 (.539) record ... The Pirates' 2017 non conference slate, which includes FCS national champion JMU, was ranked as the toughest nationally by USA Today ... ECU's eight losses this year have come to teams with a combined 56-21 (.727) record thus far and five opponents (VT, WVU, USF, UCF, MEM) are currently ranked or receiving votes in both FBS Top 25 polls.
LEAGUE, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
In its six American Athletic Conference contests (1-5) this year, ECU has averaged 25.7 points, 116.0 rushing yards, 306.8 passing yards and 422.8 total yards per game ... By comparison, the Pirates booked 21.0 ppg, 91.8 rypg, 289.8 pypg and 381.5 ypg averages in their four non conference tilts during the 2017 campaign (James Madison, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and BYU) ... Of its 18 turnovers this year, 10 (nearly 60 percent) have come against non-league opponents - nine in the first three outings vs. the Dukes, Mountaineers and Hokies alone.
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 252 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the Cincinnati contest with an active streak of 252 games of not suffering a shutout - a school record (previous mark was 110 set from '71 to '81) ... The last time the Pirates were blanked was on Oct. 4, 1997 (56-0 at Syracuse).
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, ECU is 3-2-0 in August, 124-116-2 in September, 162-155-4 in October, 137-123-5 in November, 9-9-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will continue play in November vs. Cincinnati on Saturday, a month in which ECU has lost 11 of its last 21 contests (10-11) ... At home, ECU has won six of the last 11 (but has dropped five straight dating back to Nov. 22, 2014 - a 34-6 victory over Tulane).
LOSING THEIR (RED) SHIRTS
A total of 34 players have had their redshirts removed and experienced action as true freshmen in the last five-plus years - 2012 (1), 2013 (5), 2014 (9), 2015 (4), 2016 (9) and 2017 (6) ... This year, TE Ben Norris, RB Darius Pinnix, OL John Spellacy and WR Mydreon Vines have all experienced action on the offensive side of the ball, while ILB Bruce Bivens and DB Davondre "Tank" Robinson made their debuts on defense.
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
ECU has had a combined 24 "first-time" starters in its lineup so far this season - 11 on offense (LT D'Ante Smith, LG Cortez Herrin, LG Des Barmore, C John Spellacy, RG Austin Lee, RG Dqmarcus Shaw, RB Derrell Scott, RB Tyshon Dye, RB Darius Pinnix, WR Tahj Deans, RB Hussein Howe) and 13 on defense (DT Tyree Owens, DT Raequan Purvis, DT Jalen Price, DT Alex Turner, DE Shaun James, DE Chandon Hickerson, ILB Ray Tillman, ILB Cannon Gibbs, ILB Aaron Ramseur, CB Travis Phillips, CB Marcus Holton Jr., SS Davondre Robinson, CB Keyshawn Canady).
THE ULTIMATE COLLEGE GOAL
A total of 11 Pirates are competing as graduates this season, a number which ranks in the Top 10 nationally among all FBS programs … DE Randall Anderson (communications), WR Davon Grayson (communications), DB Tre Hicks (recreation & park management), OL Brandon Smith (marketing), DB Xavier Smith (elementary education) and DB Austin Teague (biology) earned their degrees from ECU, while P Austin Barnes (Eastern Michigan), RB Tyshon Dye (Clemson), DE Gaelin Elmore (Minnesota), QB Thomas Sirk (Duke) and DB Korrin Wiggins (Clemson) are graduate transfers.
TOP PASSING UNIT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Since joining the AAC in 2014, the Pirates lead the league in passing yards per game over a combined three-plus-year period despite utilizing five starting quarterbacks, three offensive coordinators and two head coaches: 1. ECU (324.0), 2. Memphis (291.6), 3. Cincinnati (289.8) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,329) and attempts (2,107) since competing in the AAC over the last three-plus seasons ... Despite missing the AAC's inaugural season (2013), ECU has still accounted for a conference-high 13 400-yard passing games (Cincinnati is second with nine).
MINSHEW: TWO-WEEK NOTABLES
Over the last two weeks (games against Houston and Tulane), ECU junior quarterback Gardner Minshew tops all passers nationally in completions and stands eighth in passing yards.
MINSHEW: ONE-WEEK NOTABLE
Prior to his 25-of-52, 228-yard eff ort against Tulane last week, Gardner Minshew set ECU and AAC single-game records in completions (52) and attempts (68) against Houston on Nov. 4 ... His 463-yard passing total stands third in the school's all-time annals and eighth in league history.
SIRK AMONG TOP CAREER FBS RUSHING QBs
Graduate transfer Thomas Sirk ranks among the nation's top active rushing quarterbacks ... After rushing for 1,041 yards and 16 touchdowns at Duke during the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Sirk transferred to ECU during the summer and has already contributed 165 ground yards for the Pirates in nine games ... Including his years at Duke, he currently ranks 9th nationally in rush TDs (19), 13th in rushing yards per game (36.5) and 17th in rushing yards (1,206) in 33 overall games.
THE (GRAD TRANSFER) "QB WHISPERER"
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tony Petersen has the unique distinction of directly working with graduate transfer signal-callers in each of the last four years ... At Louisiana Tech, he coached Cody Sokol and Jeff Driskel as the pair helped the Bulldogs to back-to-back bowl wins, while with the Pirates, he's steered Philip Nelson and Thomas Sirk to notable performances.
RECEIVER U: PAST
ECU has the top two receivers in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history by career receptions in Zay Jones (399 from 2013-16) and Justin Hardy (387 from 2011-2014) ... In terms of FBS single season reception leaders, the Pirates are just one of two programs (Nevada) to have three entries in the Top 25 listings - 1. Jones (158/2016), 20. Hardy (121/2014), 25. Hardy (114/2013) ... ECU is also the only program in the nation to have a receiver with at least 90 catches in the last four years and a Pirate receiver has led the conference in receptions each of those seasons (3/AAC, 1/C-USA).
RECEIVER U: PRESENT
The Pirates are one of only six FBS teams to have three active receivers with at least 100 career catches - Davon Grayson (133), Quay Johnson (130) and Jimmy Williams (115) ... Colorado and Washington State top the nation with four, while Clemson, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech each match ECU with three ... The Pirates also boast four active receivers who have amassed over 1,000 all-time reception yards - Grayson (1,757), Williams (1,651), Trevon Bown (1,431) and Johnson (1,218) - joining Colorado, Texas Tech, Miami (Ohio) and Washington State as teams with a quartet of 1K pass catchers.
TRIPLE-DIGITS IN EIGHT OF LAST NINE GAMES
Four ECU pass catchers have turned in a combined eight 100-yard receiving outings in the Pirates' last nine games - Trevon Brown (2-103 vs. WVU, 4-107 vs. VT, 11-141 vs. UH), Davon Grayson (11-223 vs. UConn, 5-101 vs. USF, 10-164 vs. BYU), Jimmy Williams (110 vs. TEM) and Quay Johnson (14-115 vs. UH) ... Brown's 95-yarder for a TD at WVU on Sept. 9 is currently tied for the longest FBS pass play in 2017, while Grayson's 223-yard receiving day at UConn on Sept. 29 ranks ninth among all FBS players this season.
2017 "SENIOR" DAY
A total of 27 players will be dressing out for their final game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday: Kiante Anderson (DE), Randall Anderson (DE), Stephen Baggett (TE), Demage Bailey (DT), Des Barmore (OL), Austin Barnes (P), Devin Carlos (TE), Joe Carter (ILB), Gaelin Elmore (DE), Bobby Fulp (DB), Davon Grayson (WR), Anthony Gutierrez (ILB), Tre Hicks (DB), Quay Johnson (WR), Erik Lenzen (OL), Chris Love (DB), Mike Myers (DT), Colton Oliver (DS), Travis Phillips, (DB),Justin Sandifer (OL), Thomas Sirk (QB), Brandon Smith (OL), Xavier Smith (DB), Austin Teague (DB), Korrin Wiggins (DB), Jimmy Williams (WR) and Jordan Williams (ILB).
P6 .... #AMERICANPOW6R
Similar to the 2016 campaign, ECU will continue to wear P6 helmet stickers, recognizing Commissioner Mike Aresco's long-standing message that the American Athletic Conference is a Power 6 Conference based on the league's competitive results and commitments made at all the conference's institutions.
ECU OF NOTE
The Pirates have recorded a scoring throw in 72 of their last 79 games (run of nine-straight) ... ECU and Washington State are the only schools at the FBS level to feature two different 400-yard passers in a game this year (Sirk/UConn, Minshew/UH) ... The Pirates have gotten off to slow starts by surrendering 21 first-quarter points on four occasions in '17 (WVU, USF, UCF and UH) ... A total of 26 different players have made at least start on the defensive side of the ball this year (23 on offense) ... Under Scottie Montgomery (2016-17), ECU ranks 6th nationally in most 4th down conversions (34) and 6th in most 4th down conversions attempts (58) ... The Pirates have dropped 26-straight games when scoring 20 or less points (19-14 vs. UCF in '09/last win) ... ECU has not had a punt return for a TD in 165 games (4,762 days) - the sixth-longest current drought in FBS.
