East Carolina opens the 2024 football season at home against Norfolk State on Saturday, Aug. 31, at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

It will be the first gridiron meeting between the two programs, located approximately two hours apart. There was a matchup scheduled as the third contest for ECU in 2020 but it was scrapped due to COVID protocols.

Both teams are looking for a resurgence after disappointing results in 2023. The Pirates went 2-10 last season amid offensive struggles. The Spartans finished 3-8. ECU was 8-5 with a 53-29 Birmingham Bowl win over Coastal Carolina in 2022.

Norfolk State was 2-9 in 2022 after going 6-5 in 2021 in its first season under Dawson Odums as coach.

Coach Odums

Odums came to NSU from Southern University in Baton Rouge. He took over as interim coach of the Jaguars in 2012, after the second game of the season and went 4-5. He then led Southern to eight straight winning seasons.

Odums had diverse skills as a player. He was a linebacker and quarterback at Crest High School in Boiling Springs.

He was an All-CIAA selection as a defensive lineman at North Carolina Central.

He has worked on staffs at North Carolina A&T, Bethune-Cookman, Clark Atlanta, Georgia Southern, and Gardner-Webb.

Scholarship disparity

ECU competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision and has 85 scholarships. Norfolk State plays in the Football Championship Subdivision and is limited to 63 scholarships.

More scholarships does not guarantee success.

The Pirates dropped their last two openers against FCS foes at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium under the previous coaching staff.

Those outcomes included a 34-14 loss to a James Madison team, guided by current ECU coach Mike Houston in 2017, and a 28-23 setback from A&T in 2018.

The Pirates bounced back to beat UNC-Chapel Hill, 41-19, in Greenville the following week in 2018.

Week two for Spartans

A&T had a game with Jacksonville State before playing in ECU’s first game in 2018, topping the Gamecocks, 20-17, in Montgomery, AL.

Norfolk State will be in a similar situation this year with a game against Florida A&M in Atlanta on Aug. 24, at 7:30 p.m. (ABC).

The Pirates will get a live look at the Spartans before they come to Greenville.

Coaches say there is more improvement from week one to week two than at any other time during the season, so that factor will be in play.

QB question

Otto Kuhns has been the starter at quarterback for the Spartans for most of the past two seasons after transferring from Eastern Illinois.

Kuhns completed 96 of 192 passes last year for 1,244 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

He ran 63 times for a net of 254 yards with three scores.

Kuhns was not on hand for spring practice at NSU and his status was not certain going forward although Odums expressed hope that Kuhns would be back.

Cameron Sapp, a transfer from Florida A&M took the initial snaps in the Spartans’ spring game. He started two games for Norfolk State last season. He completed 32 of 61 attempts for 553 yards with six TDs and three picks.

Also seeing action in the spring game at quarterback were JaVon Tott, a transfer from Copiah-Lincoln Community College, and Nolan James. who threw incomplete on his only pass for NSU last season.

Contrast in openers

ECU opened the 2023 season before a throng of 109,482, in the Big House at Michigan, the largest crowd ever to see the Pirates play. The trip resulted in a 30-3 loss but was a testimony to ECU’s effectiveness on defense.

Although limited to 26 minutes, 34 seconds of possession time on offense, the Pirate limited the Wolverines to a relatively low production offensively as Michigan scored more than 30 points nine tines during a 15-0 national championship season.

ECU ranked 27th nationally in rush defense, allowing 122.2 yards per game. The Pirates were 37th in total yards allowed (341.3).

ECU certainly will have more advantages comparatively in its 2024 opener — playing at home against an FCS foe.

Non Conference schedule

The Pirates also will play a Tidewater team the second week of the 2024 season as they travel to Norfolk to face Old Dominion on Saturday, Sept. 7, at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

Three of ECU’s nonconference opponents are based in Virginia.

After a home game against Appalachian State on Sept. 14 (4 p.m., ESPNU), the Pirates will go to Lynchburg, VA, to take on Liberty (6 p.m. on an ESPN platform).