East Carolina coach Blake Harrell went through the factors that the Pirates focused on in downing Charlotte, 48-22, at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday.
No doubt, it was a complete victory as ECU improved to 6-3 overall and gained bowl eligibility while keeping its hook in the conference race with a 4-1 mark in the American.
The logjam at the top of the league standings also includes Navy (5-1), North Texas (4-1), South Florida (4-1) and Tulane (4-1).
Harrell cited six factors that helped the Pirates dominate in their first win in three tries against the 49ers.
“Our plan to win are these six things and I thought we won all six,” said Harrell, who is 11-4 since becoming coach on Oct. 20, 2024.
The turnover battle went the Pirates’ way, 2-1, with Tymir Brown contributing a 45-yard pick six and Jackson Barker recovering a fumble.
“The explosive play battle — thought we did a good job pushing the ball down the field, both in the pass game and thought we had a few big runs there as well,” Harrell said. “Won that.
“Won the red zone. We scored on a hundred percent of our red zone attempts. I think in the stats it’s going to show up as the last one we didn’t score on, but that’s the one we took a knee on. So we’re a hundred percent there.”
The Pirates outgained the visitors, 183-40, on the ground.
“Won the rushing battle,” Harrell said. “The one I think we’ve come the furthest on this season and grown the most is our penalties.
“We only had one penalty and that was a silly celebration there in the end zone. I told ’em in the meeting this morning. I said, ‘If we get up, 28-0, bring the ball to me. I’ll spike it and I’ll get the penalty.”
Areas to improve
Charlotte managed to outscore the Pirates, 22-20, after the 28-0 lead was established as former Duke quarterback Grayson Loftis threw three touchdown passes.
“We talked about our expectations and our standard and how we’ve raised the bar in our locker room,” Harrell said. “We’ve got to keep continuing to get up 28-0, keep putting the foot on the gas and that’s what we’ve got to improve.”
ECU was six of 16 on third down conversions and two of four on fourth downs.
“We’ve got to do a better job on conversion downs,” Harrell said. “We didn’t do as good as we’ve done throughout the season.
“Gave up some big plays defensively, relaxed a little bit there. So those things are just things we’ve got to keep attention to detail even when you have a lead like that.”
Homecoming
The Pirates are 57-13 in homecoming games after Saturday’s triumph. One of the setbacks took place in 2023 when the 49ers managed a 10-7 win in the first ever matchup of the in-state foes in football.
“What a great homecoming weekend,” Harrell said “I think just the buzz all weekend, not just on campus or at the stadium on Saturday, but just all weekend, Went down and spoke at Freeboot Friday and it started there.
“It was great to have just so many Hall of Famers back and, obviously, the three inductees (from football: Shane Carden, Justin Hardy, Dwayne Harris). We had the letterwinners, David Garrard was on campus. We had three former NFL players on the sidelines. (Shavon Revel Jr., Ja’Quan McMillian and Julius Wood). Great to have all those guys back.”
Bowl rings
Players from ECU’s 26-21 Military Bowl win over N.C. State to cap the 2024 season were on hand Saturday to receive bowl rings.
The 2025 team will have an opportunity for similar hardware.
Pirate Walk
The Pirate Walk is a relatively new phenomenon for home games and Harrell cherishes the pregame interaction with Pirate Nation.
“It just started for me in the Pirate Walk,” Harrell said. “The Pirate Walk was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it. Shane and Justin and Dwayne all jumped in there with us. Just to have those guys and be able to walk with them was special. They were all three talking about they didn’t get to experience that as players.
“Sometimes we forget how blessed and how fortunate we are to have something like that. Just thank you to the fans and everybody who made that happen, the city of Greenville and everybody in Pirate Nation. A huge shout out to Chancellor (Philip) Rogers and Jon Gilbert (athletic director) for everything they continue to do in pushing this program to the forefront and making it the top in the conference. …
“One of our goals is to reach a bowl game, which we are now eligible for that, but it is not the single goal of this program.”
‘Protecting Dowdy’
The Pirates have their final home game of the season on Saturday (4 p.m., ESPNU) against Memphis (8-2, 4-2 AC), which is coming off a 38-32 loss at home to Tulane on Friday night.
“I’m excited to be back home this weekend and back in Dowdy (-Ficklen Stadium),” Harrell said. “We just talked about one of our goals is making a bowl game. Another one of our goals is protect Dowdy, protect our house.
“That takes everybody. We’re 4-1 at home … trying to make it number five and I think that’s going to take everybody to get it done. We talk about everybody in our locker room, offense, defense, special teams, scout team, everybody.
“It will take all of Pirate Nation to get it done this week.”
Eye on the Tigers
Harrell summed up the Tigers defensively.
“We’re facing a good Memphis team,” he said. ” … They’ve been in the Top 25. They’re preseason favorites to win the American Conference.
“Led by (Coach) Ryan Silverfield. He’s won 50 games there and he’s done it at all levels. He’s been an NFL coach. He’s been a high school coach, D-III coach and very successful there at Memphis.
‘”The last two seasons, he’s had double digit wins, I think 10 two years ago and 11 last year. …
‘Defensive coordinator, Jordon Hankins. I’ve known Jordon for a long time. He does a great job, coaches ball the right way. They’re kind of an odd front. They’ve got guys that can run, athletic. Got good depth over there. The guy that kind of stands out to me, he was at media days, No. 9, (William)Whitlow up front, does a good job.
“Their linebackers are very active. They’re going to pressure. They’re going to bring it from different directions. They ain’t afraid to zero out and bring six, seven guys.
“They’re only giving up 125 yards on the ground and then 230 in the air. Offensively, we’ll have a work cut out for us.”
Memphis with the ball
ECU is allowing 17.3 points per game, which ranks 27th in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Tigers are scoring 37.1, which is 26th.
“The other side of the ball, Tim Cramsey (offensive coordinator), kind of a familiar name,” Harrell said. “We saw him in ’21 when he was at Marshall. In ’22, when he was at Memphis. He’s in his fourth season there. Does a great job.
“They’re kind of a spread RPO (run pass option), very balanced offense, … 430 total yards a game. It’s very balanced between the run game, pass game.
“They may lead the nation in the red zone. I think they’ve scored 40 of 41 times. I think the only time they didn’t score it was maybe against UAB (Alabama Birmingham) at the end of the game.
‘They’re led by Brandon Lewis, their quarterback.”
Lewis has 2,186 yards passing with 12 TDs. He has run for eight scores.
“He was kind of in and out of the game a little bit the other night,” Harrell said. “We’ll prepare for him. We’re going to prepare for all the quarterbacks, obviously. (Arrington) Maiden a redshirt freshman came in after that. A freshman from Houston County (GA) (A.J. Hill), played earlier in the year.
“So, we’ll prepare for all three of those guys. But I think their game really starts in that running back room. Sutton Smith, a kid out of Atlanta, does a really good job. He’s also their kick returner, punt returner. Very fast, has the ability to take it to the house. And then No. 13, Greg Desrosiers Jr. Does a really good job back there.”
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