ECU Pirates 2015
Football Schedule |
DATE |
TIME |
OPPONENT |
TV |
Sept 5 |
6 pm |
Towson |
ESPN3 |
Sept 12 |
7 pm |
at Florida |
ESPN2 |
Sept 19 |
3:30 pm |
at Navy |
CBSSN |
Sept 26 |
TBA |
Virginia Tech |
TBA |
Oct 3 |
TBA |
at SMU |
TBA |
Oct 10 |
TBA |
at BYU |
TBA |
Oct 17 |
TBA |
Tulsa |
TBA |
Oct 22 |
7 pm |
Temple |
ESPN2 |
Oct 30 |
7 pm |
at UConn |
ESPNU |
Nov 7 |
TBA |
USF |
TBA |
Nov 19 |
7:30 pm |
at
UCF |
ESPN |
Nov 28 |
TBA |
Cincinnati |
TBA |
Dec 5 |
12 pm |
Championship |
ABC/ESPN |
|
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|
|
FOOTBALL |
Pirates pad up and pop |
East Carolina head coach Ruffin
McNeill says camp is flying by. I’m
not sure if the players agree, but
the calendar continues to peel off
the dates as we get closer to the
season opener. ...
More from
Brian Bailey... |
|
|
|
|
FOOTBALL: ECU MEDIA
DAY |
Pirates have
questions to answer |
GREENVILLE —
The pertinent
questions were asked at East
Carolina's football media day on
Saturday. The Pirate coaches
essentially said we'll have to
get back to you.
The quarterback situation in the absence of Shane Carden
and the potential impact of Minnesota/Rutgers transfer Philip Nelson as
well as the competition for placekicker are among the issues ECU is
dealing with as the 2015 season approaches. Nelson walked on with the
Pirates and his status for this season is to be determined.
...
Story & pictures from Al Myatt...
|
Pictured: ECU Coach
Ruffin McNeill
expressed his
excitement that the
program is into
preseason camp while
addressing reporters
on media day. (Photo
by Al Myatt) |
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|
FOOTBALL: AAC MEDIA
DAY |
Keeping pace with the Power 5 |
NEWPORT, RI —
For American
Athletic Conference commissioner
Mike Aresco, one element of full
cost tuition for
student-athletes is keeping pace
with the Power Five conferences
– the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big
12, The Pac-12 and the SEC.
Aresco led off the AAC football media day Tuesday at the
Hyatt Regency with wide-ranging remarks and touched on the provisions
for payments to athletes that will begin this academic year. ...
More
from Al Myatt... |
Pictured: ECU coach Ruffin
McNeill responds to a
question during the media
Q&A session at the AAC media
day on Tuesday in Newport,
RI. (Photo by W.A. Myatt) |
|
|
FOOTBALL: AAC MEDIA
DAY |
Monday Fun Day for AAC |
NEWPORT, RI —
The Big East kept
the name for its contingent of
basketball-geared athletic
programs but the American
Athletic Conference retained
some impressive traditions for
its football kickoff.
Those events over the last three years for the AAC
include a round of golf for athletic directors, coaches and media
members at Newport National Golf Club, a well-maintained challenge
complete with occasional sea breezes. ...
More
from Al Myatt... |
Pictured: East
Carolina athletic director
Jeff Compher enjoyed playing
golf at Newport National on
Monday as part of the AAC's
football kickoff. (Photo by
Al Myatt) |
|
|
|
|
By
Al Myatt
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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The 2015 East Carolina football schedule is quite a
conversation piece. There's a rematch with Florida from the Birmingham
Bowl in the Swamp on Sept. 12. The trip to Navy for the Midshipmen's
first ever American Athletic Conference contest ensues Sept. 19.
Then it's
back home to take on Virginia Tech on Sept. 26. The Pirates stretch
their legs for ventures to Southern Methodist (Oct. 3) and Brigham Young
(Oct. 10). ECU hosts Tulsa (Oct. 17) before Temple comes to
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for a Thursday night game on Oct. 22. Then there's
a Friday night contest at Connecticut on Oct. 30 and a home game with
South Florida on Nov. 7.
After 10
games, the Pirates have an open date before a Thursday night game at
Central Florida (Nov. 19). The regular season finale is at home against
preseason AAC favorite Cincinnati on Nov. 28.
The game
nobody seems to be talking about is Towson in the season opener at home
on Sept. 5.
"The games
are a long way off," Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill said recently. "The
team we need to be thinking about is us. We need to be focused on
getting better every day in practice, every play in practice."
Teams with
continuity on their coaching staffs and in their personnel can improve
greatly in the preseason. When there is less transition within a
program, less learning and teaching is required. Installation is
essentially a review for many of the players who will be on the field.
That means a higher degree of comprehension and proficiency within
systems. ECU has some areas of transition but for the most part the
voids are being filled with folks who have been waiting to step up.
The Pirates
have a new offensive coordinator, Dave Nichol, although he has been
around the Texas Tech attack that has evolved into the ECU scheme going
back farther than his predecessor, Lincoln Riley, who left ECU for
Oklahoma after an 8-5 season that included a 5-3 ledger in the AAC.
"I'm 10
years older than Lincoln," Nichol noted at media day last week.
In the next
man up sort of hiring process that McNeill employed, Nichol moved from
outside receivers coach to OC and Garrett Riley, Lincoln's younger
brother, was promoted from staff assistant to outside receivers coach.
McNeill
accepted the departure of Lincoln Riley as well as the exit of offensive
line coach Brandon Jones to California as consequences of success. The
hire of Brad Davis as offensive line coach could be a season changer.
Davis, a starter on the offensive front during a period of high
performance at Oklahoma, is motivated and demanding. He appears poised
to get the best out of an experienced group that has the ability to
enable a skill corps to run and pass.
The defense
tends to play second fiddle when the offense is averaging 533 yards per
game, outgaining all four Power Five teams it faced in 2014. The unit
lost six starters but line coach Marc Yellock, linebackers coaches John
Wiley and Duane Price, and defensive coordinator/secondary coach Rick
Smith have tweaked positions so that the least experienced players will
be on the weak side. The least experienced players defending the
smallest area to the boundary. You have to like the thinking.
"We can
run," Smith said when asked about the strength of his unit. The front
seven should be pretty stout with lineman Terrell Stanley back from an
automobile accident that sidelined him in 2014.
"He's a
grown man," McNeill said of Stanley, who had seven sacks in 2013.
With a
philosophy that stresses running to the ball, mike linebacker Zeek
Bigger is usually among the first to arrive, leading the team in tackles
as a junior.
The
secondary has a greater degree of experience than it did last season.
Smith will get the most out of smoke, mirrors and cultivated talent.
ECU needs
more production out of a field goal unit that was 1-for-8 beyond 40
yards last season. The Pirates had a better conversion rate on fourth
down (11 for 24 for 46 per cent). That's simply an area that must be
improved for ECU to fulfill its self perception in football. The missed
field goals were often costly when weighed against the average margin of
defeat of 7.6 points.
The Pirates'
average margin of victory in 2014 was 21.1 points.
Every team
has its own personality as McNeill has expressed at the outset of
preseason camp, so we will see who assumes leadership roles in the
absence of accomplished quarterback Shane Carden.
The Pirates
need to hit the ground running against Towson, a Football Championship
Subdivision program that was 4-8 overall last season and 3-6 in the
Colonial Athletic Association. The Tigers have 19 starters back.
The second
game of the season might be a good time to play the Gators, who are in
the midst of a transformation under first-year coach Jim McElwain.
Hopefully, the Pirates will be closer to full strength than
when they lost 28-20 to the Gators
in Birmingham despite holding a 536-399 lead in total yardage. The
Pirates had three turnovers at Legion Field and each was huge.
ECU has had
some epic struggles against Navy's option offense and quarterback Keenan
Reynolds is back for his senior season. That will be a challenge as the
Midshipmen have an open date while the Pirates are at Florida. The
outcome against Navy will not impact the Pirates' ability to win the AAC
East Division. Navy is in the West Division and ECU will still control
its fate with head to head matchups against division opponents.
If the
Pirates divide the season into quarters as has been the case in the
past, the Midshipmen will complete the first quarter.
The strength
and conditioning program of Jeff Connors continues during the season and
certainly will be tested against Virginia Tech, which seeks to establish
old school dominance at the line of scrimmage. The Hokies open the
season at home against defending College Football Playoff champion Ohio
State. Virginia Tech travels to Purdue the week before coming to
Greenville.
If ECU can
win its games against SEC and ACC opponents and those teams play well
within their schedules, that factor has the potential to boost the
Pirates in the national picture in terms of strength of schedule.
SMU has a
new coach, Chad Morris, who was noted for his offensive production at
Clemson. A factor worth watching will be what kind of effect matchups
with Baylor and Texas Christian will have on the Mustangs before they
host ECU.
It will be
interesting to see how the lengthy trips to SMU and BYU in successive
weeks have on the Pirates. The matchup with the Cougars in Provo, Utah,
was scheduled when Terry Holland was athletic director at ECU and it
appeared BYU might help access to the Big East.
The Pirates
will no doubt be happy to get home for a pair of games with Tulsa and
Temple. Hopefully, ECU can take better care of the football than when
five lost fumbles and
an upset by the Owls led
to an exit from the national rankings last season. Temple has 10 of 11
starters back on defense and eight returning on offense.
If there
were lessons to be learned from the Temple matchup, it was that the
Pirates need to be focused on every opponent and that severe weather can
be a factor in the AAC.
The trip to
UConn could be subject to the latter factor. The Huskies
played ECU within 31-21 last year
in going 2-10. South Florida has changed its systems. The Pirates'
28-17 win in Tampa last
season required a comeback for ECU's first victory over the Bulls.
The AAC
schedule makers certainly created some potential drama with UCF and
Cincinnati at the end of the Pirates' regular season slate. Hopefully,
ECU can go into those contests in contention for the division title.
The AAC's
first-ever championship game between the East and West division winners
is Dec. 5 at noon. That's really a long way away in college football
chronology.
More
importantly, there are two practices scheduled for today and a scrimmage
Saturday morning.
The Pirates
need to get better in the preseason. The schedule will require ECU to be
at its best week after week.