Tag: East Carolina Pirates

Things you may not have known about Michigan football’s 30-3 win over ECU

Really great stuff you probably didn’t know about the game! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was a slow start offensively and the run game never really quite got going, but Michigan football erupted in the pass game and on the defensive side of the ball.

And it did so without head coach Jim Harbaugh and multiple players.

The Wolverines cruised to a 30-3 victory over the Pirates with acting head coach Jesse Minter overseeing the maize and blue. The only three points the defense surrendered in the game came as time expired in the fourth quarter. The offense moved the ball down the field regularly with seeming ease. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy amassed 280 yards passing with three touchdowns and completed 87% of his throws.

While that’s the gist of the game, there are many things that happened you might not have known about. That’s where MGoBlue.com comes in clutch, sharing the factoids that aren’t as obvious when watching the game.

Notes and tidbits:

  • Saturday’s announced attendance of 109,480 marks the 309th consecutive game at Michigan Stadium with a crowd in excess of 100,000.
  • Saturday’s matchup marked the first meeting between Michigan and East Carolina.
  • The Wolverines added to a home winning streak that has reached 16 straight games, dating to the 2021 season. It is the longest home winning streak under head coach Jim Harbaugh and the program’s best since home win streaks of 16 games (2002-05) and 21 games (1997-2000) under former head coach Lloyd Carr.
  • U-M improved to 118-23-3 all time in season openers, while head coach Harbaugh is 16-4 in season openers, including 7-2 during his tenure at Michigan.
  • Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was acting head coach for Saturday’s season opener and was credited with the victory. He is 1-0 as a collegiate head coach.
  • Today’s honorary captains were NASA astronaut Josh Cassada and award-winning sports reporter Gene Wojciechowski.
  • Ten Wolverines earned their first collegiate start: senior Myles Hinton (offensive line), graduate student Drake Nugent (offensive line), sophomore Keon Sabb (safety), graduate student Josh Wallace (cornerback), graduate student Keshaun Harris (cornerback), sophomore Ernest Hausmann (linebacker), junior Josaiah Stewart (linebacker), senior AJ Barner (tight end), graduate student James Turner (kicker) and graduate student LaDarius Henderson (offensive line).
  • Thirteen players made their U-M debuts in today’s game: Fredrick Moore, Karmello English, Semaj Morgan, Hausmann, Stewart, Barner, Hinton, Wallace, Turner, Nugent, LaDarius, Jyaire Hill and DJ Waller Jr.
  • Moore (2 receptions, 18 yards) and Hall (2 carries, 2 yards) recorded their first collegiate statistics.
  • After punting on its first drive, the Wolverine offense scored on five consecutive drives, recording four touchdowns and a field goal.
  • Senior running back Blake Corum posted 10 carries and 73 yards and added a 2-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter. He had 18 rushing touchdowns last year, ranking third nationally.
  • Junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy registered his best career passing game at home (280 yards, three touchdowns). McCarthy’s 86.7% completion percentage (26-for-30) ranks the second highest in Michigan history, behind Elvis Grbac’s 90.9% (20-for-22) against Notre Dame (Sept. 14, 1991).
  • In McCarthy’s 14 starts, U-M has scored in 61 of 68 red-zone trips with 51 touchdowns. When McCarthy starts and finishes a drive, U-M has produced 59 touchdowns and 26 field goals on 145 drives. Today, U-M was 3-for-3 from the red zone in the first half and 1-for-2 in the second.
  • The Wolverines earned a 23-point lead in the first half with three touchdowns and a 50-yard field goal from graduate kicker James Turner while shutting out the Pirates. It was Turner’s first field goal in maize and blue.
  • U-M capitalized on graduate student defensive back Mike Sainristil’s first-quarter interception with a 14-yard touchdown to senior wide receiver Roman Wilson for the Wolverines’ first score of the season.
  • Sainristil recorded U-M’s first interception of the season. It was also Sainristil’s second career interception; he previously returned an 8-yard interception against TCU in the College Football Playoff on Dec. 31, 2022.
  • It was Wilson’s second multi-touchdown game; his last was two against Penn State on Nov. 13, 2021. The last time a Wolverine had three receiving touchdowns in one game was Nico Collins at Indiana (Nov. 23, 2019). Wilson upped his total to 11 receiving touchdowns.
  • Sophomore tight end Colston Loveland posted four receptions, tying his career best, for a career-high 57 yards.
  • Defensively, U-M held the Pirates without a point for 59:55 until ECU kicked a 33-yard field goal as time expired. The most recent Michigan shutout was last season against UConn on Sept. 17, 2021.
  • Junior linebacker Junior Colson led the Wolverine defense with 101 total tackles in 2022; he was credited with five tackles and two TFL in today’s game.

East Carolina OC Donnie Kirkpatrick: ‘We have a lot of concerns’ about Michigan football defense

How do you think #Michigan’s defense will do in Week 1? #GoBlue

A couple of years ago, it was an anomaly — the Michigan football defense was one of the worst in college football after being, at worst, a top 11 unit across the sport.

Jim Harbaugh switched things up, bringing in Mike Macdonald in 2021, and the Wolverines were on a strong upswing. After he departed for the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator job, Jesse Minter came aboard and continued the trajectory. The expectation is to build off of the last two years in the more NFL-oriented system.

It’s something that East Carolina offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick is wary of.

Though there have been some personnel losses — defensive tackle Mazi Smith, edge rushers Mike Morris, Eyabi Okie, and Taylor Upshaw, as well as cornerback DJ Turner — the Wolverines feel like this has the potential to be a better unit than last year. Kirkpatrick is on high alert for what his offense is set to face on Saturday, noting it’s not just the scheme that gets you, it’s the sheer talent that Michigan football has.

“Their players, they’ve got really good players,” Kirkpatrick said. “Defensively, what did they give up? 16 points a game last year — now, that was last year’s team, I get that. But they got most of them returning, they did lose some players. But you know, programs like that, they just reload.

“They’ve lost, what? Three games in two years or something like that. So they’re used to winning, they’re used to having success. That means that they’re recruiting well. And then they just have outstanding talent. I mean, they don’t, they don’t do anything that’s, ‘OK, wow, what scheme is that?’ They have good schemes. Coach Minter does a great job, he’s got NFL experience, he’s got a lot of NFL stuff in.

“But that’s not what worries you. What worries me is their defensive line can just explode off the ball and just throw the offensive lineman down, and go make the tackle. And then there’s like four other guys there when they make the tackle as well.”

That’s mostly the front, but Kirkpatrick is also well aware that there are players in the secondary who can make big plays.

Though cornerback Will Johnson and safeties Rod Moore and Makari Paige are questionable, and there could be some new faces, given the talent and the way that Jesse Minter and defensive pass game coordinator Steve Clinkscale coach the back-end, there’s a lot to worry about for Kirkpatrick, there, too.

“They do a nice job with interceptions, a lot of tipped balls. I’ll tell you what, you better not tip the ball as a receiver, because they do a great job of breaking on the ball and getting the turnovers and setting the offense up for success.

“So a lot of concerns. We have a lot of concerns, have a lot of respect for them.”

Michigan football will kick off against East Carolina on Saturday at noon EDT from The Big House. The game will be nationally streamed on Peacock.

ECU DC Blake Harrell shares challenges Michigan football offense poses

He’s well aware of the team he’s going up against. #GoBlue

There are a series of challenges for the East Carolina defense on Saturday when it comes to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan football offense.

It’s not just the scheme, or the talent. There’s uncertainty about what the Pirates will see. Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh is suspended for the first game, as is offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. That means that Jesse Minter, the team’s defensive coordinator, will act as interim head coach, while quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell will be stepping into the interim offensive coordinator role.

For ECU defensive coordinator Blake Harrell, while he’s looking back at Campbell’s previous experience, he doesn’t expect to see much different in terms of style of play from the maize and blue on Saturday.

“Yeah, not much,” Harrell said. “I think, obviously, the new playcaller was at ODU. So you get back in touch a little bit with his background. And I think actually going back (into the past further), he was the offensive coordinator at Alderson Broaddus, we played them back in, I think, 2013.

“So, the history there, it goes back a ways, but I don’t think it changes who the players are, who their identity is, or what they really want to do with football. I think they’re gonna be who they are, and who they have been over the last couple of seasons. Which is pound the football. Obviously, they keep talking about they want to be more balanced. So they’ve been 60-40, run-to-pass. Obviously, J.J. McCarthy is a really good quarterback and they want to be more balanced 50-50. But at the same time, they’ve been very successful doing what they do.

“So we prepare for both, a little bit more passing game, but at the same time, prepare for what we see on film, what we’re gonna get into.”

RELATED: ECU head coach Mike Houston talks Michigan football matchup

While Harrell is certain he’ll see a more aggressive pass game from the maize and blue, he’s well aware that that isn’t considered the Wolverines’ strength at the moment. That honor belongs to the run game, featuring Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, bolstered by the two-time Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line.

Harrell notes that they can’t just come up with one idea and sit back and see if that works. He says they’ll be changing things up early and often, in hopes to get the run game out of rhythm.

“They obviously do a really good job running the football and got two good tailbacks to do that, a good O-line to do that,” Harrell said. “So we got to have various ways to take care of the run game. And I think where they get a lot of running yards, if you go back and watch the tape, is in the second half, they just kind of wear on people and wear them down in the fourth quarter. You’ll see a 10-10 ballgame, all of a sudden look up and it’s 31-10. And (they just take advantage). Somebody misses a gap and they have the ability to break it out and take it to the house.

“So you’ve gotta have various weapons to take in. I don’t think you can sit there and play them one way all game — or at least that’s not our philosophy right now. We’ve got multiple ways — one is pressure or base defense to throw at them, because they’re very good. I think if you just throw one thing out, one pitch at them all day, they’re probably gonna hit that one out of the park. So you better have multiple pitches and they’ve got to be good ones, too.”

Michigan and East Carolina will kick off at noon EDT from The Big House on Saturday. The game will be nationally streamed on Peacock.

What he said: ECU head coach Mike Houston talks Michigan football matchup

Interesting stuff from the opposition. #GoBlue

For the first time ever, Michigan football and East Carolina will match up across the line of scrimmage from each other on a football field.

On Saturday, the 2023 season will begin in earnest for both the Wolverines and Pirates, and while much of the attention in Ann Arbor is captivated by the news of Jim Harbaugh’s three-game suspension and feud with the NCAA, there are fewer distractions for ECU.

But there’s still one really big issue: the maize and blue are expected to be really, really good.

Meanwhile, the Pirates lost a lot of their talent from their 8-5 team a year ago. Still, head coach Mike Houston is enthusiastic about the challenge his program faces.

“Obviously, we’re really excited about the opener with the opportunity to go and play in an iconic venue like The Big House in Ann Arbor,” Houston said. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for our program, players and coaches. I think everyone knows what kind of team we’re encountering. Most experts will tell you on paper that Michigan is the most talented team in the country this year. They return a lot of experience from a College Football Playoff team over the last two years. They’ve done a great job building a tremendous program.”

The odd thing for Houston is that he has likely spent much of his time this offseason expecting to face off against Harbaugh, not defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. However, when it comes to preparing for the Wolverines, he doesn’t really care about who’s on the sideline, knowing the talent of the team that will actually be on the football field.

So the preparation hasn’t changed, because, much like Michigan players have said, there likely won’t be a very big difference in the game plan, nor the execution.

“I’d rather them sit some of their players out,” Houston said. “You know what they have coming back? I don’t think it will impact their scheme at all. They have an experienced play caller that will call the game on Saturday. We know him a little bit and I’m sure that they’re coaching the team throughout the week. They’re going to put the game plan together. They just have to get a couple of guys implemented on game day, so I think it’ll have a minimal impact.”

Saturday’s season opener is set for a noon EDT kick. The game will be nationally streamed on Peacock.

Oklahoma’s season ends in Charlottesville in 8-5 loss to ECU

Oklahoma was eliminated by the ECU Pirates 8-5 in the NCAA Tournament to end their season Sunday afternoon.

Oklahoma’s 2023 baseball season has come to an end. Oklahoma lost on Sunday in its second elimination game of the Charlottesville Regional to the East Carolina Pirates, 8-5.

Oklahoma entered the day with a tall task ahead of it to advance to the super regionals. It needed to beat ECU and then regional hosts UVA twice. The first step was beating the Pirates, but Oklahoma failed Sunday just as it did when the programs faced off Friday.

ECU cashed in both games with timely hitting with runners in scoring position, whereas Oklahoma failed to convert across both games against ECU. On Sunday, left-hander James Hitt took the mound for the Sooners. Hitt entered the game 6-1 with a 4.50 ERA.

Oklahoma started great, loading the bases and threatening to put up a crooked number. Yet, the Sooners scored only one run, on a sacrifice fly from Anthony McKenzie in the bottom of the first.

Hitt retired the first six batters he faced. The top of the third inning proved much more problematic. ECU plated three runs on RBI singles from Jacob Starlin and Cam Clonch and a fielder’s choice.

Oklahoma produced nothing in response. The Sooners put two runners on with one out in the bottom of the third, but ECU got out of trouble with an inning-ending double play.

After loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth, Oklahoma lined into a double play. A John Spikerman groundout ended the inning with Oklahoma still down 3-1.

The top of the fifth is when ECU took control. ECU ripped off five runs to build an 8-1 lead. Two of ECU’s best bats, Carter Cunningham and Josh Starling, highlighted the eruptions with an RBI double and an RBI single, respectively.

Oklahoma did its best to answer in the bottom of the fifth. Shortstop Dakota Harris brought in a run with an RBI single. The Sooners made it 8-3 on a balk by Pirates pitcher Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman.

Easton Carmichael had an RBI double in the seventh, and Bryce Madron homered in the bottom of the ninth to draw the Sooners closes, but it wasn’t enough.

Harris and Madron each finished 3-for-4 at the plate for the Sooners, while Carmichael had two hits.

Oklahoma’s lack of success with runners in scoring position kept it from making this game more competitive. The two missed opportunities with the bases loaded and the third-inning double play were absolutely crushing.

ECU (47-18) takes on Virginia in the regional final. It must win twice to move on to the super regionals.

For Oklahoma (32-28), its season ends in Charlottesville. It heads back to Norman as a team that should be proud of all it accomplished. After a magical run to the 2022 College World Series in Omaha, the team was decimated by the MLB draft and graduations.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.

Sooners take on talented, battle tested ECU team to kickoff NCAA Tournament

Oklahoma will take on the ECU Pirates in their first game of the Charlottesville regional at 6 pm on Friday evening.

Oklahoma has its work cut out. Friday evening, they’ll take the field to play against the best the American Athletic Conference offers in baseball. The East Carolina Pirates are a dangerous and scrappy team fully capable of winning the Charlottesville Regional and moving on to the Super Regionals.

Oklahoma is just a year removed from a magical run to the NCAA championship series in Omaha. Things are very different this time around for the Sooners. Why, you might ask? Well, for starters, they lost so many players from that team.

Josh Callaway of Sooners Illustrated perfectly captures the sheer magnitude of what losses Oklahoma overcame to make the tournament.

On top of those losses, the Sooners had the 16th most difficult schedule in the nation. They are tested and hung in there enough to make the 64-team tournament.

15 of OU’s 31 wins this season came against teams in the NCAA Tournament field. Many detractors will say they don’t belong here, but arguing against their schedule is a difficult one. They enter the tournament winners of 12 of their last 19 games despite their lackluster showing in the Big 12 tournament.

Their opponents on Friday night, the Pirates, should come in locked in after losing a chance at an AAC tournament title and the possibility of hosting a regional when they failed to defeat Tulane. The Green Wave became the worst team ever to make the NCAA tournament after they pulled off a Cinderella run through the conference tournament.

Starting on the mound will be Trey Yesavage, a sophomore righthander who is 6-1 with an ERA of 2.80 and a team-high 98 strikeouts. He is 11th in hte nation in WHIP (0.99) and 17th in strikeouts per nine innings (12.48).

Yesavage is tracking to be a top 50 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, so getting to him won’t be easy.

Offensively, the Pirates were second in the AAC with a team batting average of .292. Outfielder Carter Cunningham leads the way, batting .324. He has hit eight home runs and has 35 RBIs. Five other ECU players are batting over .300. Josh Moylan is the chief run producer with 19 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs, and a team-high 66 RBI.

Oklahoma and ECU have never met on the diamond. That changes on Friday night. The game will be shown at 6 p.m. CT on Friday at Davenport Field at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2/ESPN+.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.

5 things to know about Nishad Strother, Oregon’s newest OL transfer

Strother has ample experience starting at LG, but his path to starting at Oregon is going to be fraught with competition.

The transfer portal window is closed for the summer, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still a major topic of conversation in the world of college football. While players can no longer opt into the portal unless they are a graduate transfer, anyone who is already looking for a new team is free to take visits and ultimately commit.

That’s exactly what happened for the Oregon Ducks on Monday, with East Carolina Pirates’ offensive lineman Nishad Strother announcing that he would be transferring to Eugene and joining Dan Lanning, A’lique Terry, and the Ducks.

Strother is a three-year player with two years of eligibility that has a load of experience starting for the Pirates.

Looking to find out more about Strother? We’ve got you covered. Here’s our breakdown so you can get to know the newest Duck a little bit better.

Former LSU guard Cam Hayes’ transfer destination revealed

The North Carolina native is returning to his home state.

Former LSU basketball guard [autotag]Cam Hayes[/autotag] is returning to his home state of North Carolina.

The Greensboro native announced his commitment to East Carolina on Tuesday. He will have one remaining year of eligibility with the Pirates.

A 6-foot-2 player who started his career at NC State, Hayes transferred to LSU after two seasons and was one of the biggest transfer commitments for new coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] last offseason. He appeared in 31 games for the Tigers this season, making 18 starts.

Statistically, it was the most productive of his career as he averaged 8.1 points and shot 40% from the floor, both the best marks he’s had in college.

However, he decided to follow many of his teammates into the portal following a disappointing Year 1 under McMahon. He’s one of seven players to enter the transfer portal since the conclusion of the season.

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Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno

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McGuire’s Musings: Please don’t talk about the College Football Playoff race yet

McGuire’s Musings: Too early for playoff debate, Billy Napier’s big debut at Florida, bad coaching awareness in Week 1, the new cutest animal sidekick in college football, and more

The college football season is still being broken in, and I already am having gripes with some of my most hated features of college football; a lack of goal-line cameras, bad coaching, and way-too-early College Football Playoff debates.

Of course, neither are avoidable any time you settle in for a weekend of college football consumption. And with a top-five showdown between Ohio State and Notre Dame and a game pitting Georgia and Oregon, you are bound to hear the phrase “playoff implications.” That’s a bunch of garbage as far as I’m concerned, and it’s about to be even more ridiculous once the College Football Playoff expands. So, naturally, as Utah lost to Florida hours after Oregon was demolished by Georgia, the quick reaction from some was to ponder if the PAC-12 had been eliminated from the playoff already.

Have we not learned the lessons of the past that show one loss in Week 1 or Week 2 is not the kind of playoff eliminator some may want to believe it is? Going 11-1 and winning your conference still gives you a mighty strong argument to make for the playoff conversation, and we can have those conversations later in the season.

When is the appropriate time to start talking about the playoff hunt? How about at least waiting until after the first release of the College Football Playoff rankings? Honestly, that’s probably still too soon to take it seriously. But I have decided I’m not going to start talking about the playoff picture until I at least move out of shorts weather. And I like to try sticking to shorts until my birthday, which isn’t until early November.

Anyway, I think Alabama and Georgia are going to have a good chance to be in.

Did Notre Dame just give the Big Ten some hope?

Coming into the season, there was little dispute that the Ohio State Buckeyes are the team to beat in the Big Ten. And that may still be true! But the Buckeyes had a struggle against Notre Dame at home in a highly-anticipated matchup. The Irish felt they were being disrespected coming in, and I’ll be among the first to admit I was on board with the idea of Ohio State pulling away and taking care of business.

Whoops.

Ohio State still managed to get the win thanks to a tough and resilient roster built by head coach Ryan Day, but it took time and patience to cross the finish line with the win.

But the question now becomes is anyone in the Big Ten good enough to do what Notre Dame did to Ohio State, to the point that the Buckeyes still are not the team to beat in the conference? Michigan seems to be the most likely candidate, as they should be after topping Ohio State last year and winning the Big Ten. But is there anyone else in the Big Ten that could pose a similar threat to Ohio State?

In fairness, Ohio State did lose their dynamic playmaking wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but there should still be a load of offense coming from Ohio State this season. Notre Dame’s defense deserves credit for causing the problems it did for the prohibitive Big Ten favorite.

I certainly would hate to be Arkansas State in Week 2. The RedWolves come into Ohio Stadium next weekend, and it may not be pretty as Ohio State looks to vent some frustrations over this one.

NEXT: Billy Napier scores a big win in his Florida debut

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East Carolina Pirates Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players

East Carolina College Football Preview 2022: Team breakdown, season prediction, keys to the campaign, and what you need to know

East Carolina Pirates Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the East Carolina season with what you need to know and keys to the season.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

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East Carolina Pirates Preview
Head Coach: Mike Houston, 3rd year at East Carolina, 14-19
12th year overall, 94-44, 2021 Preview
2021 Record: Overall: 7-5, Conference: 5-3
Keys To The Season | Season Prediction, What Will Happen
East Carolina Top 10 Players | East Carolina Schedule

East Carolina Pirates Preview 2022

East Carolina was fun.

It was the first winning season since 2014, the seven wins were as many as the first two years in the Mike Houston era, and the program was going bowling again only to see the game get canceled.

The offense was strong, the defense wasn’t totally miserable, and the team did exactly what it had to in a stepping-stone season – it beat the teams it was supposed to. Now the next step is to start beating the better ones.

It was a weekly thrill ride with seven games decided by a touchdown or less before the battle with Cincinnati that – for a while – was closer than the 35-13 final score.

It’ll take some patching to get the offense up to speed, but the defense has experience, the key backups from last year should be ready to shine, and with what’s coming soon in the American Athletic Conference, this is the year for the program to reposition itself as the future star of the league.

For now, just getting bowl eligible again would be good enough.

East Carolina Pirates Preview 2022: Offense

The Pirate offense was better than it’s been in a while, but it still has to be a whole lot better in pass protection and it could stand to be a tad more explosive.

The yards were there, and few teams were better at scoring after getting in the red zone, but the receiving corps has to be redone, the line needs to be stronger, and – more on this in the Keys section – the running game has to be good every time out.

The passing game will be fine. QB Holton Ahlers is a longtime veteran quarterback who knows what he’s doing – he’ll throw for at least 200 yards every time out – and the receiving corps should be fine.

Tyler Snead took off early, but CJ Johnson is a dangerous deep threat and Ryan Jones is a nice tight end who caught 37 passes and five scores. Like last year, Ahlers will spread the ball around.

The line will at least be experienced. Now it has to block a pass rusher. Too many teams lived rent free in the backfield, but there’s a decent base of starters returning, West Virginia’s Parker Moorer should find a spot at left tackle, and overall the front five will be better.

The Pirates went way young in the running back rotation. Ahlers will take off and add yards, too, but the combination of sophomore backs Keaton Mitchell and the more thumping Rahjai Harris should once again push for well past 1,500 yards. Getting North Carolina transfer Kamarro Edmonds is going to be a big deal at some point.

East Carolina Pirates Preview 2022: Defense

The defense was okay. Don’t blow that off as any sort of dismissive thing – 2015 was the last time ECU didn’t give up six yards per play. It’s not like it was a brick wall, but the D was at least in the middle of the AAC pack. That’s a massive improvement, and now there’s experience after taking a whole lot of lumps with underclassmen in key spots.

The Pirates used a whole lot of parts, and now it should pay off. All-star LB Bruce Bivens and S Jaquan McMillian are both gone, but they only made 57 and 56 tackles, respectively. Myles Berry is back at one inside linebacker spot, Jeremy Lewis will once again be a key pass rusher from his hybrid spot – however, he only led the team with four sacks – and Xavier Smith is about to play a much bigger role.

The secondary had a nice mix of parts last year. Again, the rotation mattered, and now the safeties should be okay after getting their feet more than wet. Malik Fleming is a veteran all-around corner to build around.

Keys To The Season | Season Prediction, What Will Happen
East Carolina Top 10 Players | East Carolina Schedule

East Carolina Pirates: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats NEXT

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