ECU Moves Up To No. 17 In USA Today Coaches Poll
Pirates Drop One Spot To No. 15 In Associated Press Poll
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Following a 28-24 come from behind victory over Conference USA foe Tulane Saturday, Sept. 13, the East Carolina football team moved up three spots to No. 17 in the latest USA Today Coaches poll released Sunday afternoon.
The Pirates, who are 3-0 for the first time since 1999, dropped one slot in the Associated Press poll and current sits at No. 15.
ECU has won five straight games dating back to their Nov. 24th win over Tulane (35-12) a year ago, which also includes three consecutive wins over nationally-ranked teams (No. 24 Boise State/2006, No. 17 Virginia Tech/2007 and No. 8 West Virginia/2007).
The Pirates will face its third BCS opponent in four games this weekend against NC State on Sept. 20 in Raleigh, N.C. with a noon kickoff scheduled on ESPN.
*****from Jim Modlin GREENSBOROSports.com and ECU grad*****
+++++N.C. State will be ready to win this game on Saturday but the BIG problem is that the Wolfpack offense has to show up. The Pack “D” is playing OK and the kicking game is showing up but the offense must come to life. N.C. State has Andre Brown, who would have loved to stay in town and play for the East Carolina Pirates, as he was coming off of that State Championship as a senior out of Greenville Rose High School.
ECU ignored Brown, who did have to go to Hargrave Military Academy to get his grades together, but the Wolfpack stuck with Andre and now it time to return the favor and AB needs to run all over ECU on Saturday. It is time for Mr. Brown to lay down the Smackdown on all those ECU Pirate defenders and this will make for a very hostile game on Saturday, plus as the old saying goes, “Somebody is going to get hurt, but it ‘aint going to be me”.
Most of the kids on these teams couldn’t catch me if their life depended on it and let’s hope that the Pirates can’t catch Mr. Brown on Saturday. My old high school history teacher used to have a saying about East Carolina, “strong on the field, but weak in the classroom.” We will see if that holds up on Saturday afternoon. Mr. John Brown, the history teacher also said that Guilford could have beaten Notre Dame, but that was during a down time for the Irish back in the 70’s.
LET THE FUN BEGIN+++++
ECU by the Numbers vs. Tulane:
The Pirates improved to 3-0 on the season with a 28-24 win marking the first 3-0 start since 1999 when they started 5-0. The have won five straight games, seven of their last eight and 10 of their last 12 contests.
• ECU has won six of its last seven road games with the win at Tulane. They improve their record 16-11-1 in the state of Louisiana and 8-2 in the series against Tulane.
• When ranked in the Top 25, the Pirates are now 12-4 all-time and improve to 3-0 against Tulane when the Piratesare ranked.
• On the season, ECU has scored on four of its six opening half possessions (all TDs: 1 vs. Va. Tech; 2 vs. WVU and 1 vs. Tulane).
• The Pirates were held without a TD in the first half for the first time since Nov. 10, 2007 at Marshall. ECU loss the game 26-7.
• ECU forced at least two TOs in five straight games and 11 of last 12, 14-of last 16 (Quentin Cotton-1st quarter and Pierre Bell-4th quarter).
• ECU had four TOs in the game the most since Oct. 13, 2007 against UTEP (four).
• Norman Whitley’s 51-yard TD reception in the third quarter was the longest play from scrimmage this season.
• Cotton’s 44-yard TD return on a blocked FGA extended ECU’s streak to 129 games with out being shutout. The last time the Pirates were blanked came on Oct. 4, 1997 when they fell to Syracuse 56-0 in the Carrier Dome.
• ECU had seven receivers with a reception of 10 or more yards on the afternoon (Whitley-51; Freeney-27; Harris-25, 13; Drew-16; Bryant-14; Simmons-11; Williams-10).
• ECU’s blocked FGA was the first since Sept 29, 2007 vs. Houston which was also by C.J. Wilson. It was ECU’s second blocked quick that resulted in a TD (Lee vs. Va. Tech – punt).
• Since 1999, ECU has scored 38 non-offensive TDs when Cotton returned a blocked FGA 44-yards for the score.