I've noticed a few interesting storylines for some of our games this year. I'd love for others to chime in.
Saturday, August 31st The Battle for Hampton Roads vs Old Dominion - 7:00 PM, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium First Meeting
For decades, the East Carolina Pirates have recruited hard against schools like UVA and Virginia Tech in Old Dominion's backyard. Now that the Monarchs have an FBS team of their own, they'll be looking to make a statement against the Pirates in their first trip to Greenville. Plenty of ODU fans who can't find a seat in Foreman Field for other games will make the 120-mile trek to Greenville.
Thursday, September 5th The Tomorrow Bowl vs Florida Atlantic - 7:30 PM, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium First Meeting
ECU is already taking Cisco to court for Pirating the school's motto. Let's settle the following on the field: East Carolina's Motto is "Tomorrow Starts Here". FAU's Motto is just too darn close... "Where Tomorrow Begins". The Burrowing Owls, once run by ECU enemy Howard Schnellenberger, will be making their C-USA conference game debut. Winner gets rights to tomorrow.
Saturday, September 14th Return of the Signal Stealers vs Virginia Tech - 12:00 PM, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium VT leads series 12-5
Last time VT came to Greenville (2011), they squeaked out a 17-10 victory over the Pirates. Making matters worse, they exposed the inexperience of our young OC by stealing our signals and knowing exactly what we were going to do. Odds are, without that edge, the Pirates could have been victorious. It's payback time.
Saturday, September 28th Facing Fedora at Cheater Hill @ North Carolina - TBA, Kenan Memorial Stadium UNC leads series 2-12-1
VS the Tar Heels. VS Larry Fedora. 'nuff said.
Saturday, October 5th Rejected Bowl @ Middle Tennessee - TBA, Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium First Meeting
By the time this game is played, ECU and MT will have faced two common opponents; FAU and UNC. MT head coach Rick Stockstill was OC in Greenville during a year many Pirate fans would rather forget. After he led MT to a 10-3 season and a New Orleans Bowl win in 2010, it was rumored that he was going to be the next ECU head coach. According to WLTX, Stockstill - know as Standstill to many ECU fans - turned down an offer from the Pirates to stay at MT. The Pirates went with Ruffin McNeill, who has gone 19-19 (16-8) in his first 3 seasons as a head coach. Stockstill has gone 16-21 since rejecting ECU's offer. The Pirates want to prove they got the right guy.
Saturday, October 12th
@ Tulane - 2:30 PM, Mercedes-Benz Superdome ECU leads series 10-2
Saturday, October 19th This Better Not Be Over Bowl vs Southern Miss - TBA, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium USM leads series 11-26
The Pirates and Eagles have squared off every season since 1982, and had met 3 three times in the 70's and 3 times in the 60's before that, but after this season, ECU finds itself without Southern Miss on any future schedules. USM has dominated the series, but ECU has won 3 of the last 4 meetings and the series has been an even 4-4 over its last 8 games. As fun as it would be to face Southern Miss in a bowl game setting, I'd much rather see these two teams duke it out as conference foes.
Saturday, November 2nd
@ FIU - TBA, FIU Stadium First Meeting
Saturday, November 9th
vs Tulsa - TBA, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ECU leads series 5-5 (just kidding, it's tied 5-5)
Saturday, November 16th
vs UAB - TBA, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ECU leads series 8-4
Saturday, November 23rd NIU Huskies Bowl/Psychological Advantage Bowl @ NC State - TBA, Carter-Finley Stadium NC State leads series, 11-16
NIU had an historic season last year that they capped off with a trip to the Orange Bowl. And after the trip from Illinois to Florida, things continued to go south for the Huskies. First, they lost the game to Florida State 31-10. Next, they lost head coach Dave Doeren to NC State. Finally, they lost Athletic Director Jeff Compher to East Carolina. So this game gives us NIU's former coach against their former AD, but there's more. The woman who hired Doeren to replace Tom O'Brien at NC State, East Carolina flunk-out Debbie Yow, doesn't want to play ECU anymore because it's not an even playing field. I'll just let her speak for herself.
Ironically, Wolpfack fans got mad when UNC made similar comments about them.
Friday, November 29th The Finale @ Marshall - 12:00 PM, Joan C. Edwards Stadium ECU leads series 10-4
Raheem Cato and Shane Carden are most writers' picks for first and second team C-USA QB, respectively. 3 of the last 5 meetings between these teams have seen overtime. I'm pulling for the Herd this season. Not in this particular game, mind you, but I would love nothing more than to see both East Carolina and Marshall roll into this game with 7-0 conference records. What a finale in the C-USA series for these two schools, linked forever by the plane crash - that would make! But there's a long way to go before that happens.
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2013 11:57 AM by Chappy.)
I doubt Yow's sentiments are shared by NC State's players and coach staff. Ill-advised, and hilarious comments from her. Just looked it up. The record is 16-11 in favor of NC State. Good stuff from ECU! I can't wait for "The Battle for Hampton Roads"
Tulsa and Tulane make for interesting contests as we will be playing them in the AAC in the future.
USM has the story line of possibly being the last time we play USM and they have been one of our longest tenured opponents. Ohh, and USMs rebound from last year.
(06-23-2013 09:29 AM)Wooglin157 Wrote: Sad that UCF isn't on the schedule this year. :(
It is the one away game that everyone in my family (we are all ECU graduates) want to attend. Beautiful campus and their fans are super. Thank goodness the old gang members (such as ucf) will be back together again playing home and home games:)
(06-23-2013 09:29 AM)Wooglin157 Wrote: Sad that UCF isn't on the schedule this year. :(
It is the one away game that everyone in my family (we are all ECU graduates) want to attend. Beautiful campus and their fans are super. Thank goodness the old gang members (such as ucf) will be back together again playing home and home games:)
You better have thicker skin in person than you have on this message board, especially if you walk past the mall before their cops run the tailgaters off.
*I only have one game there to speak of, but the words 'family friendly' wouldn't be in the vocabulary of anybody that had a similar experience to me. I'm sure most non-students are fine people to meet, but steer clear of campus prior to a game. Their fan-base is young, and brings with it all in which that implies.
(06-24-2013 07:37 AM)Cr8n Wrote: If Beamer is shown the door it will take .33 seconds for the message board rumors to jump all over Wilder leaving ODU.
(06-24-2013 07:24 AM)shiftyeagle Wrote: I think ECU beats VT this season and Beamer is shown the door Jeff Bower-style.
ECU has a good shot at beating VT. Losing to ECU won't cost him his job though. VT showed a good deal of patience with Beamer at the beginning of his career and I expect them to give him comparable consideration in the semi-slump that VT is currently in. A poor year could make his seat a little warmer, and if his 2014 team isn't back to 10 win seasons I could see him dismissed then.
Whatever Bud Foster wants to do will likely play a large part in when Beamer's career ends at VT.
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2013 09:44 AM by 200yrs2late.)
(06-24-2013 07:24 AM)shiftyeagle Wrote: I think ECU beats VT this season and Beamer is shown the door Jeff Bower-style.
lol, why would that cause Beamer to lose his job? We beat VT often enough for it to not be a shock
Yeah, lets not overstate things. ECU has been very competitive against VT lately and I doubt losing to ECU is looked at as a 'bad loss', but I wouldn't say ECU beats VT "often" in any sense of the word.
(06-22-2013 09:43 PM)Fatalisk Wrote: I doubt Yow's sentiments are shared by NC State's players and coach staff. Ill-advised, and hilarious comments from her. Just looked it up. The record is 16-11 in favor of NC State. Good stuff from ECU! I can't wait for "The Battle for Hampton Roads"
You'd be surprised. They now have a team and staff that's pretty unfamiliar with the rivalry (apparently not a rivalry to them) and when we win they'll say, "well it means more to them" "we're their Super Bowl".
(06-24-2013 07:24 AM)shiftyeagle Wrote: I think ECU beats VT this season and Beamer is shown the door Jeff Bower-style.
lol, why would that cause Beamer to lose his job? We beat VT often enough for it to not be a shock
Yeah, lets not overstate things. ECU has been very competitive against VT lately and I doubt losing to ECU is looked at as a 'bad loss', but I wouldn't say ECU beats VT "often" in any sense of the word.
According to a link I saw VA Tech is 12-5 against ECU.
(06-24-2013 07:24 AM)shiftyeagle Wrote: I think ECU beats VT this season and Beamer is shown the door Jeff Bower-style.
lol, why would that cause Beamer to lose his job? We beat VT often enough for it to not be a shock
Yeah, lets not overstate things. ECU has been very competitive against VT lately and I doubt losing to ECU is looked at as a 'bad loss', but I wouldn't say ECU beats VT "often" in any sense of the word.
Precisely. ECU is 1-7 vs VT since the formation of the BCS. 2-9 since they joined the Big East.
(06-24-2013 07:24 AM)shiftyeagle Wrote: I think ECU beats VT this season and Beamer is shown the door Jeff Bower-style.
lol, why would that cause Beamer to lose his job? We beat VT often enough for it to not be a shock
Yeah, lets not overstate things. ECU has been very competitive against VT lately and I doubt losing to ECU is looked at as a 'bad loss', but I wouldn't say ECU beats VT "often" in any sense of the word.
According to a link I saw VA Tech is 12-5 against ECU.
We lose to them by about a TD every game. They are all close games.
(06-22-2013 09:43 PM)Fatalisk Wrote: I doubt Yow's sentiments are shared by NC State's players and coach staff. Ill-advised, and hilarious comments from her. Just looked it up. The record is 16-11 in favor of NC State. Good stuff from ECU! I can't wait for "The Battle for Hampton Roads"
Since our first meeting outside of Raleigh (at the 1992 Peach Bowl), the record is 5-4 ECU. Or we have won eight out of the last fourteen played. It would be something to tie up the overall series.
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East Carolina 2013 Football Game Storylines
