The build to East Carolina’s season continues Saturday as the Pirates host Appalachian State at 4 p.m. (ESPNU).

In the books are a dominant 42-3 win at home over Norfolk State of the Football Championship Subdivision and a 20-14 win at Old Dominion.

ECU is 2-0 for the first time since 2016 and has seemingly been impervious to interceptions.

The Pirates’ defense essentially has erased damage from seven picks thrown by Jake Garcia.

Coach Mike Houston addressed the state of the program going into the matchup with the Mountaineers (1-1), who lead the series, 21-12. App won, 33-19, in Charlotte in 2022 and took a 43-28 triumph last season in Boone.

App began the week as a 2.5-point favorite for the trip to Greenville despite absorbing a 66-20 loss at Clemson last week. The Tigers apparently took out some frustration from a 34-3 loss at No. 1 Georgia in week one.

“Great scene up in Norfolk this past weekend,” Houston said Monday. “Loved having all of the Pirate faithful up there and all of the purple in the stands. When we came out, you could hear our fans and you could hear the band. Really appreciate the band making the trip up there. It really made a difference and made it not such a hostile environment for our players.

“Really excited to be able to get the win, ODU has got a quality football team. We knew that. They are very good defensively with a high-powered offense. Just really pleased coming out of there and getting the win. Obviously, we have a lot of stuff we can continue to correct and some things to clean up.

“The one thing that I am probably the most pleased with is to start the season with the intensity level, the effort, the energy just the way our kids played.  Just very, very pleased with that.

“It’s something that we did at times last year and something we had done at times in the past. I feel like we really have a team now that’s doing that.”

Effort is there but execution is an area that is being addressed.

“We have to execute better, and we’ve got to cut some things out,” Houston said. “That’s the challenge early in the season, I think we’ve seen that across the country in a lot of games. Really, really pleased with the way the players are committing themselves to being ready to play and going out and competing at a high level.

“Good to be in the position we’re in. Obviously excited to be back home this weekend. It’s going to be a great weekend in Dowdy-Ficklen. Obviously, a quality opponent coming here, I know that they did not play very well this past weekend.

“That Clemson team I saw on film, I don’t know where they were against Georgia, but they were a completely different team. In that first half you had App struggle and not play very well, which is very uncharacteristic of them, and you had Clemson play flawless.

“Shawn (Clark) is an excellent football coach and he’s done a great job up there; I know he’ll get things fixed. I thought they looked really good against East Tennessee State in the opener. They have a quality football team. They have a lot of guys back from last year.  I think they’re picked to win the Sun Belt this year, so we have a pretty stiff test coming this weekend.

“The players, the coaches, we’re very excited about itI think the fan base is very excited about it and so we should have a rocking stadium come 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon.”

Rahjai running again

Running back Rahjai Harris looked like his old self when he was American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year in 2020 — before a midseason knee injury in 2022.

Harris had scoring runs of 22 and 63 yards at ODU.

“He’s obviously ecstaticm” Houston said. “He and I have spent a lot of time together over the last several years. Because of one thing or another, he hasn’t been as healthy as he was his freshman year. He’s a kid that is super positive with great leadership.

“He’s also a very smart kid and he’s very hard on himself so really excited for him that he went out and was able to pop those two runs. We talked about it, how he’s going to have to break some tackles and on both of them he broke the tackle to spring  the run.

“I was also honest with him that I think he left some yards out there too. I thought our offensive line played well on Saturday. We have a chance to be good up front this year. I thought they created opportunities for all the backs to get positive yardage in the run game. Excited for him.”

Regarding Garcia

Garcia completed 25 of 38 for 283 yards.

:He made some incredible throws,” Houston said. “He keeps our offense aggressive. I think that he allows us to be extremely explosive. He made some mistakes, where he forced a few things. We’re working with him,  You don’t have to hit a home run on every throw. You don’t have to force things. We have a good defensive football team. We have good specialists.

“It’s okay to throw it away. He wants us to be explosive every play. He will continue to improve. …  He did a lot of really good things, too, and he is very hard on himself. He’s determined to make sure he cuts out the negative plays. Those receivers, linemen, defense, they believe in him because they have seen what he can do. We will continue to see a better version of him each time he goes out.”

Road challenge

Houston addressed the challenge of  playing away from home at his ..news conference Monday.

“Let’s start with a regional game with ODU,” Houston said. “I think games like that are good for our fan base, I think they’re good for both schools. It’s hard to win games on the road. That’s what was so special about Saturday. You weren’t perfect, You went into another team’s environment where they felt like they had to match you with their best shot, and you got out of there with a win.

“I think those games like that are good for us. I think this series against Appalachian State is good for both programs, I think it’s good for the state of North Carolina. They obviously have a great history. It’s a great feel between two schools that are passionate about football.

“A lot of schools in the state may have a football program, but they don’t have passion and at East Carolina, this fan base, this region has passion. Same thing in Boone, so you have two schools who have that so when they get together, it’s probably going to be a pretty good game with pretty high emotions and a great matchup.”

Team character

Winning on the road is a statement in the affirmative about team character.

“It says a lot about our team unity,” Houston said. “I told them they were going to see a lot of adversity. We’re facing a quality opponent  We’re on the road. I thought they stuck together really good.

“We didn’t have any breakdowns on the sideline from people losing their head, and at the end of the year, all you’re going to look at is it’s a W. You’re going to have ugly games like that, and you’ve got to win them. If you can win them consistently, it gives you a chance to have a special season.”

App QB Aguliar

Mountaineers quarterback Joey Aguilar completed 17 of 29 for 241 yards with three TDs last year against the Pirates.

“He has improved from last year,” Houston said. “Last year he was very early in his career at App and ended up being Newcomer of the Year for the Sun Belt. I thought he played really well against East Tennessee State. I thought he had moments against Clemson.

“He has a very experienced receiving corps; Kaedin Robinson is one of the better receivers in the Sun Belt. Makai Jackson and Christan Horn both have game breaking speed. Both of them have that big play ability. He’s got two really good running backs there in (Kanye) Roberts and  (Anderson) Castle, so he has a lot of weapons. I think he is a really good operator. He did a good job in the zone read against ETSU. I think he’s a really good player, It’s going to be a challenge.”

Shevon Revel 

Corner Shevon Revel had a pick against the Monarchs.

“The interception he made was probably the toughest one he could possibly make so I’m glad he finally broke the ice there and got that one.” Houston said. “They went at him because of what we were doing with him.

“We were playing some press coverage down into the boundary, and in (ODU’s) offense that tells you to take the shot, and they didn’t hesitate to take the shot. He did a really good job defending it. The one touchdown that we gave up, he actually ran into Mike (Edwards, linebacker). We’ve got to work on our spacing so we don’t pick ourselves right there.”