The Pirates of ECU will host USF football on October 26th at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina. This will be the eighth game of the season for the Bulls.

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The University of South Florida Bulls will face the East Carolina University Pirates for the ninth time in the two programs’ history. USF holds a lopsided 8-1 record in the series, with their last game a 20-13 victory for the Bulls. The sole win for ECU was by a score of 28-17 back in 2014.

ECU has completed their third straight 3-9 campaign in 2018. Their only wins came against NC A & T, UConn, and Old Dominion. Despite the one win in the nine-game series, the Pirates have designated the USF game as their homecoming game.

Those three seasons were the product of head coach, Scottie Montgomery, who was terminated prior to the last game of last season. His record with the Pirates was 9-26.

Montgomery was replaced by Mike Houston, former head coach of James Madison University. In his three years as head coach at JMU, Houston won two Colonial Conference Championships, an FCS National Championship, and a 37-6 record.

Offense

Donnie Kirkpatrick is the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Pirates. It’s a homecoming of sorts for Kirkpatrick, who spent 11 years on the ECU staff between 2005 and 2015. From 2016-2018, he was the JMU offensive coordinator.

Six starters return for the Pirates on offense. Sophomore quarterback, Holton Ahlers is a left-handed, dual-threat quarterback projected to start in a spread offense. Ahlers won the starting job from then-sophomore, Reid Herring, who will assume the backup role again, this season.

Ahlers finished 2018 with 1,785 yards, 12 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He averaged 179 yards per game, but completed just 48% of his passes. Combined with Herring, they had the 20th best passing offense in the country, averaging 285 yards per game.

Ahlers was also the team leader in rushing, with 592 yards and six touchdowns on the season. The second leading runner, last season, was then-senior running back, Anthony Scott. Junior running back, Darius Pinnix Jr. will have the job of replacing Scott’s nearly 600 yards of rushing. Pinnix had 56 carries for 222 yards in 2018, the fourth best production on the team. As a team, the Pirates ranked 112th in rushing offense, averaging just 130 yards per game.

Sophomore receivers, Blake Proehl and Leroy Henley project to start in X and Z receiver positions. As freshman, Proehl and Henley had 329 and 232 yards receiving, respectively. Departed senior, Trevon Brown, had over 1,000 yards receiving, last season, leaving a big hole in his absence. Brown ranked 16th in the nation with this 94 receiving yard average, per game.

Defense

The Pirates ranked 101st in total defense and 120th in scoring defense in 2018. The good news for them is that they have a new defensive coordinator and return seven starters on the defensive side of the ball.

Bob Trott, named defensive coordinator late last year, coached on Houston’s staff at JMU in the same role. His 2018 defense ranked in the top 25 in 11 categories. Under his supervision, the Pirates will run a 4-2-5 defense.

Davondre Robinson returns at free safety after finishing last season second on the team in total tackles with 77. The number three tackle leader, linebacker, Aaron Ramseur, also returns. They lose the nation’s #4 sack leader, Nate Harvey, to graduation. Harvey had 14.5 sacks, almost half of the team’s total.

ECU was not a turnover threat, last season. They had just five interceptions and six fumbles recovered all year.

As a unit, the Pirates’ defense ranked 73rd against the rush, allowing 170 yards per game, and 122nd against the pass, allowing 270 yards per game

Expectations

This is one of those situations where there is almost no place to go but up. The new coaching changes will likely have a positive impact, and their starting quarterback, Ahlers is a good foundation for the offense. Defensively, they seem to have more questions than answers. They struggled on defense last year, and what they have this year looks like it might be a step back.

Summary

Game lines are not currently available for the USF matchup, but ESPN’s Football Power Index computers predict a 65% chance of a Bulls’ victory. Gaming site, FanDuel, has set the over / under for team wins for ECU at 3.5. At present, this game is not scheduled to be televised, but this is subject to change based on the way the season unravels. The date is set for October 26th, but no game time has been selected at this time.