East Carolina and N.C. State are preparing for the season opener in Raleigh on Thursday, Aug. 28, at 7 p.m. (ACC Network).

It will be a rematch of the Military Bowl, which the Pirates won, 26-21, in Annapolis on Dec. 28 as Rahjai Harris had a decisive 86-yard scoring run inside the 2-minute warning.

Much of the personnel, including Harris, that played in the 2024 finale is gone for 2025.

Athlon projects the Wolfpack with six returning starters on defense and four on offense, including quarterback C.J. Bailey, who was picked off by Dontavius Nash on State’s final possession.

ECU has four returning starters on offense, led by quarterback Katin Houser and former NCSU receiver Anthony Smith. Two starters are back for the Pirates on defense, but Coach Blake Harrell has noted that ECU has a lot of returning players with experience even if they weren’t starters.

The lineup voids have created a lot of position battles in the state capital.

“‘I’m excited about the depth and the competition,” said Pack coach Dave Doeren at a recent news conference. “We have really good competition right now on both sides of the football from the specialists all the way through the position groups.

“It’s been refreshing. Sometimes when you get to your twos and threes, there’s a massive drop-off. We’re not seeing that. We’re seeing guys know what they’re doing. They’re playing hard. They’re getting better. It’s been a fun training camp competitively.”

Weather relents

The extended forecast has the temperature in the mid-70s with a nine percent chance of rain for kickoffthe ECU-State game.

Extreme heat in early August caused the Pirates to practice an hour earlier in the mornings for a span

Both programs have enjoyed a break from the 90-plus degree heat.

“It’s like spring weather,” Doeren said. “You can’t control that. You do the best you can. We had a nice humid day, … got the guys sweating. As always, we expect September games at home to be warm. The first one, being at night, helps a little bit, probably.”

Doren noted that there were 140 snaps in a scrimmage in the rain without a fumble.

Crediting coachability

Doeren likes the attitude of the 2025 team.

“It’s a really fun group to coach,” he said. “They listen. They take criticism well. They want to get better. They’re intentional about it.

“They communicate. There’s no ego. It’s guys trying to get better, helping teammates out — coaching guys they’re competing against and with.”

Early game week for Pirates

ECU coach Blake Harrell said the practice focus has turned to the Wolfpack.

“It feels good to finally be out of camp mode and into opponent prep,” Harrell said Tuesday. [View YouTube clip of Harrell’s press conference] “Yesterday was a typical Monday practice and opponent week for us. … Really excited about where the guys are, the direction they’re going.

“Obviously, we’ve got a long ways to go moving forward and a lot of preparation to do. Learning how to prepare and how to attack an opponent as far as the game plan. Learning the game plan and some tweaks there and going through the process of getting into that schedule and out of the camp schedule.

“That’s been our main focus this week and it’s been all about our opponent. And although we make it about our opponent and preparing for those guys, we also make it about ourselves and making sure our motivation, our energy, comes from within ourselves.

“That’s what we make it about, at the end of the day, because that’s who matters, the energy we bring, the effort we bring, the execution we bring to game day.”

Hollywood double

Harrell said the Pirates have been getting a good scout team look from Eddie Love Jr., a freshman from Fort Walton Beach, FL.

“Eddie is over there playing running back for us,” Harrell said “Just a little scat back. I think he’s very similar to Hollywood (Smothers), their tailback. He’s just a younger kid probably, a younger version. Their kid is obviously very talented, but I think Eddie is doing a good job trying to simulate that as well and doing some good things in there as he cuts.

“And then, Johnny Williams, a local guy from Havelock here, came up to me and was like, ‘Hey, I’m just going to try to give you and the guys the best look and make you better,’

“If they will do that, if they’ll have that mindset, like I’m going to make the offense better or defense better every single day, in return, it’ll make them a better player over time.

“Sometimes, when you’re a young guy, you don’t realize you’re going against a really good defense or a really good offense and older players. That can help develop your game and develop your skill set. Eventually, it makes you a better football player.

“It’s early right now, but I haven’t seen anybody hanging their heads, and that’s awesome that they’ve all got that team mentality, team mindset.  We’re going to do this thing together. So proud of those guys for that attitude.”

Repeating game week pattern

If this is game week then what is next week? Harrell explained.

“You’ve got a little bit of a trial run this week, as far as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday are a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday practice for us,” he said.  “At some point, we’ll rinse and repeat and go through the same cycle again.

“So you’re getting two Tuesday practices, two Wednesday practices, so on and so forth. Our heavy work is this week and this weekend.  We’ll start to pull back as far as taking off some pads and doing some things there and making sure we’re saving our legs. We want to be fast and fresh for game day on the 28th and make sure we’re ready to go.”

Conditioning

The team that’s in better shape could be a determining factor.

“We did a little bit of extra conditioning there at the end of practice today,” Harrell said. “I don’t like doing conditioning, where you just line up and run, I’d rather do it in a game setting mode.

“That goes back to probably me as a high school basketball player, believe it or not. I wasn’t a post guy, but I was a point guard. Our conditioning came from just playing up and down the court, and that’s what I want our stuff to be out there.

“Playing up and down the field and just doing some tempo drills and offense versus defense up and down the field, and we’ll continue to do that this week to make sure we’re ready for a long drive and make sure we’re in the best shape that we can be in for the 28th.”

Crowd noise

Harrell has had some special effects designed to simulate the pending environment.

“The thing we piped into the practice today was the crowd noise,” he said. “You’re in Annapolis, it’s a crowd where we may have had the edge there, and I thought our fans were awesome on that day. I give all the credit to our fans. They brought the energy and I thought that fed over into our team.

“Then, you’re going into their house this season and it’s going to be a loud environment, and it should be. You’ve got two schools fairly close to each other and a game that was the last game of the season and kicking off the first game of this season. I’m sure it’ll be a packed house. But we just piped in some of that crowd noise to simulate that and try to be prepared for that.

“At some point, you’ve got to put the ball down, you’ve got to block, you’ve got to tackle, you’ve got to do all the things fundamentally to win a football game. Take care of the football, take the ball away, get third-down stops, get third-down conversions, all those things to help you win a game.”

More personnel changes

Not only will the upcoming ECU-State matchup feature difference personnel on the field, there will be new leadership on the sideline and upstairs.

“There’s going to be some different personnels,” Harrell said. “They’ve got two different coordinators, so those things will be slightly different. But I think the biggest change, if you’re talking about from December to now, will be the fact that it’s in their stadium with their crowd noise.

“We’ve got to know how to handle that. Like I told our players at the end of practice, the crowd noise is just a factor of the game. We’ve got to control what we do and that’ll help take care of the crowd noise as well.”