It is a special day with plenty of food and football for the fortunate.

In addition to the blessings we celebrate, Pirate Nation can be thankful for a second straight bowl game and the restoration of the university’s football identity under Coach Blake Harrell.

The players, coaches and support personnel will have their Thanksgiving meal in the Murphy Center with their football family after practice Thursday morning. There are sacrifices that must be made so others can watch the games.

The Pirates (7-4, 5-2 American) close the regular season at Florida Atlantic (4-7, 3-4) on Saturday at noon (ESPN+).

ECU will be looking to avoid the type of scenario that produced a 58-24 loss last week at Texas-San Antonio. The fast start that the Pirates crave was usurped by the Roadrunners, apparently motivated from some elements of a 30-20 loss in Greenville last year.

UTSA (6-5, 4-3) got out to a 31-0 lead.

ECU battled continually but it was not the Pirates’ day.

Harrell said maybe there was too much focus on the Runners’ winning streak at home against conference competition, which was extended to an incredible 25 games against ECU.

“Maybe it should have been more about us,” Harrell said.

He also made the point that the Pirates can’t let one loss beat them twice. He added that ECU has not lost back-to-back games this season.

Factors that contributed — but did not decide the outcome — were the absence of receiver Yannick Smith plus some questionable calls and no-calls. There was a targeting call on ECU that appeared to be a glancing blow with the helmet and a hit with the shoulder. No call and the defense would have been off the field early in the game.

There was some apparent uncalled holding that helped spring some UTSA plays at the point of attack.

Harrell was weighing the value of potentially letting Yannick Smith play this week against having him sit out and return for the bowl game.

Credit to the Runners as quarterback Owen McCown accounted for six touchdowns in the absence of leading rusher Robert Henry Jr,

The trip to Boca Raton represents an opportunity for redemption. The advance forecast is calling for a balmy 75 degrees. It will be in the mid-40s in Greenville.

“Not a bad tradeoff,” said Malcolm Gray, director of sports media relations on the prospect of working over the holiday weekend.

A lot has changed since ECU took a 22-7 win at FAU in 2023. Andrew Conrad kicked five field goals, but has since slid on the depth chart.

That was one of two wins for the Pirates that season. The other was, 44-0, at home over Gardner-Webb of the Football Championship Subdivision.

That season was a precursor to Mike Houston’s removal as coach during the following campaign. Harrell was in charge for a 49-14 win over the Owls in Greenville last year.

FAU made a change after going 3-9 overall and 1-7 in the American in 2024. Zach Kittley inherited just two returning starters on offense and went heavily into the transfer portal, procuring quarterback Caden Veltkamp from Western Kentucky.

Veltkamp has thrown for 3,458 yards with 24 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, completing 67.5 percent of his passes. His top receiver, Easton Messer, also transferred from WKU. He has 94 catches for 966 yards with six scores.

The Owls are essentially a throwing team with a 109.2-yard-average in the ground game, compared to 343.9 yards passing.

FAU is allowing 35.8 points per game defensively while the Pirates are yielding 21.9.

It would appear that ECU can take care of business Saturday, especially if the Pirates can pressure Veltkamp and accentuate the turnover tendency.

Hopefully, Houser and company can exploit a struggling defensive unit.

ECU must make sure that what happened in San Antonio stays in San Antonio.