Gameday: ECU Travels To Houston
November 02, 2017 | Football
| Game 9: ECU at Houston | |
| Date: | Saturday, Nov. 4 |
| Time: | 12 Noon (EDT) |
| Location: | Houston, Texas (TDECU Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking: | Game Tickets | Parking Information |
| Live Game Coverage: | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | WDNC 620 AM (Raleigh) | TuneIn Radio Online Television: CBSSN |
| Internet Options: | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites: | ECU | Houston | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes: | ECU (PDF) | Houston (PDF) | The American (PDF) |
| 2017 Football Statistics: | ECU | Houston |
| ECU Football Central: | Roster | Fact Book (PDF) | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| Facebook: | ECU | Houston | The American |
| Twitter: | ECU | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) l Houston | The American |
| Twitter Hashtags: | #ECUPirates | #ECUndaunted | #ECUFootball | #AmericanFB |
| Instagram: | ECU | The American |
HOUSTON, Texas – ECU will try to run its American Athletic Conference road record to 2-1 this season when it meets Houston at 12 noon (ET) Saturday inside TDECU Stadium. After knocking off BYU in their last outing, the Pirates hope to record back-to-back late season wins for the first time since downing Tulane and Tulsa successively during the 2014 campaign, ECU's inaugural year in the AAC. Additionally, the Pirates will attempt to post their eighth victory in their last 10 contests immediately following a bye week dating back to 2011.
EAST CAROLINA RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (three of the last five 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 15 of the last 20 games ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in five-straight games (longest streak since 2014) ...
- Has recorded at least one sack in seven of the last eight games ...
- Has won 30 of the last 32 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won four of six road games at UH ...
- Has won four of five games against UH in the month of November ...
THE SERIES
ECU leads 7-5 ... Oddly, the Pirates have captured four of six meetings in Houston, but have split six matchups played at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... As previously mentioned, today's battle marks the first American Athletic Conference clash between the two programs.
SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY AGAINST THE COUGARS, (CITY OF) HOUSTON
Despite Scottie Montgomery's seven-year tenure as a collegiate assistant coach (2006-09, 2013-15), Saturday's meeting will be his first-ever against UH ... However, he has played the role of an "opponent" in the city of Houston on one prior occasion, suffering a 17-10 loss to the Texans at what was then known as Reliant Stadium on Oct. 2, 2011 while serving as a wide receivers coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
AGAINST THE LONE STAR STATE
The Pirates have won 21 of 33 all-time matchups (21-12) against FBS programs from the state of Texas ... ECU is 7-5 against UH, 4-3 vs. SMU, 3-1 vs. UTEP, 2-2 vs. Rice, 2-1 vs. TCU, 1-0 vs. Texas Tech, 1-0 vs. North Texas and 1-0 against Texas State ... ECU has never faced Baylor, Texas or Texas A&M on the gridiron ... On the road, the Pirates are 9-6 overall when playing Texas-based teams (8-6 in regular season action).
VISITING THE BAYOU CITY ... BY NAME, VENUE NO. 4
The meeting at TDECU Stadium marks the fourth diff erent named venue ECU has played in while visiting the city of Houston ... In addition to a 4-2 record at Robertson Stadium (see last game recap above), the Pirates own an 0-2 record against the Rice Owls at Rice Stadium and were 1-0 when playing at the Astrodome - defeating Texas Tech 40-27 in the 2000 galleryfurniture.com Bowl.
OPENING PLAY AGAINST THE WILD WEST
ECU owns a 2-4 regular season mark (1-2/home, 1-2/road) against the American Athletic Conference's "other side" since the league began divisional play in 2015 - splitting with SMU and Tulsa, while dropping a pair to Navy ... The Pirates were 2-1 in 2015 after defeating the Mustangs and Golden Hurricane, and falling to Navy before turning in a winless (0-3) slate against the same foes in 2016 ... ECU will switch cross-over opponents this year with contests against Houston, Tulane and Memphis ... On the flipside, the Pirates own a 3-11 mark (1-6/home, 2-5/road) against AAC opponents in its own East Division ... ECU's 44-7 victory 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.
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).
COMPARING 10-YEAR, EIGHT-GAME RESULTS
ECU's 33-17 win over BYU in its last outing (Oct. 21) marks the first time since 2004 the Pirates have reached the eight-game mark with a 2-6 record ... A victory over Houston would give ECU a 3-6 ledger through nine games for the second-straight year - matching Scottie Montgomery's first Pirate squad ... A setback against the Cougars would again equal the 2004 edition (at 2-7).
ON THE ROAD
Since becoming a conference member in 1997, ECU is 55-80 (.407) when playing away from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ... Prior to dropping two of three this year (win at UConn, losses at WVU & UCF), the Pirates were a combined 5-14 (2014-2016) ... ECU snapped a seven-game road losing skid and handed head coach Scottie Montgomery his first "away" win when it downed UConn 41-38 in East Hartford earlier this year (Sept. 24).
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 8,397,355 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 2,126,069 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 55th nationally in average attendance (37,798) and 77th in capacity percentage (75.60) this season ... A closer look at Top 5 AAC leaders: 1. ECU (37,798), 2. UCF (34,995), 3. Navy (34,406), 4. Houston (34,109), 5. USF (32,443) ... ECU has drawn at least 40,000 fans to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in 22 of its last 27 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 six losses this year have come to teams with a combined 37-10 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 four American Athletic Conference contests (1-3) this year, ECU has averaged 25.8 points, 124.8 rushing yards, 286.2 passing yards and 411.0 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 14 turnovers this year, 10 (71 percent) have come against non-league opponents - nine in the first three outings vs. the Dukes, Mountaineers and Hokies alone.
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 250 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the Houston contest with an active streak of 250 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, 137-121-5 in November, 9-9-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will open play in November in Houston on Saturday, a month in which ECU has captured 10 of the last 19 contests ... On the road however, ECU has dropped five of the last seven – posting its last win two years ago (44-7 at UCF on Nov. 19, 2015).
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 all experienced action vs. James Madison in the opener, while ILB Bruce Bivens made his college debut vs. WVU (six tackles, five solo) and DB Davondre "Tank" Robinson made his initial collegiate appearance vs. Virginia Tech (two stops).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
ECU has had a combined 21 "first-time" starters in its lineup against JMU, WVU, Virginia Tech, UConn, USF, Temple, UCF and BYU - nine on the offensive side of the ball (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) and 12 on defense (DT Tyree Owens, DT Raequan Purvis, DT Jalen Price, DT Alex Turner, DE Shaun James, DE Chandon Hickerson, ILB RayTillman, ILB Cannon Gibbs, ILB Aaron Ramseur, CB Travis Phillips, CB Marcus Holton Jr., SS Davondre Robinson).
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 (322.9), 2. Cincinnati (292.2), 3. Memphis (290.7) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,250) and attempts (1,980) 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 12 400-yard passing games (Cincinnati is second with nine).
LONG RANGE STRIKES
ECU has turned in three passing plays of 70 yards or more (95/Trevon Brown vs. WVU, 76/Brown vs. VT, 75/Davon Grayson vs. UConn), which ranks third nationally behind Baylor (6) and Ole Miss (4) ... Although they didn't ring up a 70-yarder vs. Temple, UCF & BYU, the Pirates did rack up a combined 11 receptions that went for 20 or more yards.
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 five FBS teams to have three active receivers with at least 100 career catches - Davon Grayson (123), Quay Johnson (113) and Jimmy Williams (105) ... Colorado tops the nation with four, while Clemson, Oklahoma State and Washington State each match ECU with three ... The Pirates also boast four active receivers who have amassed over 1,000 all-time reception yards - Grayson (1,676), Williams (1,569), Trevon Bown (1,218) and Johnson (1,084).
TRIPLE-DIGITS IN SIX OF LAST SEVEN GAMES
Three ECU pass catchers have turned in a combined six 100-yard receiving outings in the Pirates' last seven games - Trevon Brown (2-103 vs. WVU, 4-107 vs. VT), Davon Grayson (11-223 vs. UConn, 5-101 vs. USF, 10-164 vs. BYU) and Jimmy Williams (110 vs. TEM) ... 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 eighth among all FBS players this season.
AMONG TOP FBS TOP RUSHING QBs (CAREER)
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 162 ground yards for the Pirates in seven 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 … Petersen also coached notables such as Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich during his first tenure at Marshall (1991-1998) before developing Bryan Cupito into Minnesota's all-time leading passer during his eight-year stint with the Gophers.
FEELING REFRESHED OR SHAKING OFF THE RUST?
The Pirates have taken advantage of open weeks when looking at a 10-year perspective – winning nine of their last 13 (9-4) contests following a bye since 2007 ... Most recently, ECU as won seven of the last nine dating back to the 2011 campaign ... A closer look: 2007 (W/TLN), 2008 (L/UVA, W/UCF), 2009 (no true off -week), 2010 (L/UNC), 2011 (W/UAB), 2012 (W/TLN), 2013 (W/UNC, W/FIU), 2014 (W/SMU, W/UConn, L/CIN), 2015 (W/UCF) and 2016 (L/CIN) ... In all, ECU is 30-20 in games after a break since 1965 (beginning of the "modern era").
NEW COACHES, SAME LEAGUE
Defensive coordinator Robert Prunty (Cincinnati) and receivers coach Keith Gaither (Temple), who both joined the Pirates' staff this year, are two of 22 coaches nationally at the FBS level this year to switch schools but stay in the same league.
NFL PLAYER & COACH TO COLLEGE HEAD COACH
ECU's Scottie Montgomery is just one of three FBS head coaches to have played and been a full time coach in the NFL (along with Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Minnesota's P.J. Fleck) ... His 2005 stint with the Georgia Force makes him the only current FBS head coach to have played & coached in the NFL and played in the Arena Football League.
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.
