Old Dominion was favored by 2.5 points at home against East Carolina on Saturday night. The Monarchs were 0-5 all-time against the winless Pirates and had a 17-7 lead in the second quarter.

From those somewhat dire circumstances, ECU rallied for a 20-17 victory as the Pirate defense held a 10-win program in 2025 — with a returning quarterback from a 24-10 bowl triumph over South Florida— scoreless in the second half.

Sixth-year ODU coach Ricky Rahne said ECU played better in a round-about sort of way.

“We made too many mistakes to win the game,” Rahne said. “I don’t want to take anything away from them. I don’t necessarily think they made plays to win the game, but they made less plays to lose it, which is a huge thing.”

Biggest among the plays the Pirates made was a 67-yard pick six by Ayden Duncanson that tied the score at 17 in the third quarter.

“That’s a huge thing,” Rahne said. “That’s not a knock. I don’t want that to come across as a knock. … That’s the first thing you have to do in order to win the football game and we made too many plays that did not allow us to win.

” … They made one of those (Duncanson’s interception return which earned him the American Conference Defensive Player of the Week honor).

“We kind of forced that one, you know what I mean? We made that play. So they really didn’t make too many of those plays to not allow themselves to win.

“They’re going to look back at the tape and say, ‘Hey, we could have made this play, this play, this play, this play, this play,’ which is probably accurate.

“What they aren’t going to see is they’re not going to see a whole lot of plays that caused them to lose. And ultimately that was the difference in the game.”

Building process

ECU coach Blake Harrell was realistic in his reaction as the Pirates got into the win column, although he admitted it wasn’t pretty.

“I think Skip Holtz said, ‘It’s an ugly baby, but it’s our baby,'” Harrell said of the outcome. “We’re going to be happy about it. We’re going to grow from it. We’re going to move on and make sure that the goal is still the same.

“Whether you’re going from week one to week two or week two to week three, winning doesn’t decrease the work, losing doesn’t increase the work. It’s all about the next opportunity and that requires the same commitment and the same preparation. It’s about the process. …

“We’ve obviously got a long ways to go, a lot to improve on, but we can build on that.”

Record clarification

Last week’s column reported that ECU led the series with ODU, 8-3-1, but that involves some games that are recorded as being against William & Mary by the Pirates.

Old Dominion opened in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary. Old Dominion College became an independent entity from W&M in 1962. The institution became Old Dominion University in 1969.

The series data is on the Winsipedia website.

History lesson

East Carolina has had multiple name transitions over the years.

East Carolina Teachers Training School operated from 1907 to 1920. It was East Carolina Teachers College from 1920 to 1951, becoming East Carolina College in 1951 until 1967.

The name was changed to East Carolina University after a legislative battle in 1967.

The Pirates began playing football in 1932 and have a 482-465-11 overall record, a .509 winning percentage.

ECU is 15-7 under Harrell.

N.C. Central

The Pirates (1-2) look to even their record for the season on Saturday when N.C. Central (2-2) comes to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for a 4 p.m. kickoff (ESPN+).

The Eagles are 0-1 all-time vs. ECU, a 52-7 loss in Greenville in 2014. NCCU scored first in that game on a 31-yard fumble return by C.J. Moore.

The Pirates took a 10-7 lead on a 41-yard scoring pass from Justin Hardy to Zay Jones with 3:21 left in the first quarter.

Purple jerseys

Harrell announced ECU’s attire for Saturday.

“Going to wear the purple helmets, purple jersey, white pants,” he said.

Receivers recovering

The receiving corps for the Pirates is not 100 percent, but the rushing attack was able to compensate in Norfolk with 173 of ECU’s 276 total yards.

T.J. Engleman had 16 carries for 99 yards in the win.

Receivers Landon Sides, a transfer from North Texas, and Brock Spalding, the lone starter returning on ECU’s offense and a preseason all-conference selection, have yet to play.

Wake Forest transfer Jeremiah Melvin saw limited action at ODU.

Running back Ashton Gray hobbled to the sideline during the game.

Harrell noted that the stationary bicycle area had been busy at practice. Injured players can get some cardiovascular conditioning on the bikes.

“We’ve got a few guys over with the bikes,” said the Pirates coach. “We call it Muscle Beach over there. I never like it when it gets crowded over there. … As a football coach, it upsets you a little bit.

“Injuries are going to happen. Bumps and bruises are going to happen. You try to make sure that we’re ready to be resilient and fight through those things.

“Ashton has an MRI (Monday), didn’t practice (Monday). We’ll see kind of where that goes. I think he’s going to be fine. He played after it happened. It looked worse Sunday than it did Saturday night. That gives you hope that it’s just a little bump or bruise there.

“Jeremiah’s been having some stiffness in his back. He played, I think, 11 snaps the other night but just couldn’t get up to full speed, couldn’t play the way he wants to play. It was kind of hurting us more than it was helping us.”

Melvin is day to day going onto the NCCU game.

“Landon (hamstring) is getting closer and closer by the day,” Harrell said. “He practiced (Monday), did some things out there and if things keep trending that way throughout the week, we hope to see him this week. I hope it’s sooner than later.

“I saw Brock jogging around a little bit today. He’s looking better each and every day. I think he’s still a couple of weeks away, but it’s trending in the right direction.”

The Pirates have an open date after the N.C. Central game which should allow some time for the roster to get healthy before the American Conference opener with Rice in Greenville on Oct. 10.

Good ruling for Lampley

Defensive lineman J.D. Lampley was part of a legal action in Indiana that resulted in an injunction to an NCAA appeal.

Lampley, a 2022 recruit to ECU, is eligible to begin playing his fifth season for the Pirates this Saturday. He began practicing with the team in August.