East Carolina faces a major test this week when they hit the road to take on undefeated and 7th ranked Cincinnati this Friday in front of a nationally televised audience.
The Pirates won the first seven games and 12 of the first 14 contests between the two schools dating back to the mid 1980’s, but Cincinnati has turned the tide taking eight of the last nine games.
Luke Fickel has now won 71 percent of his games at Cincinnati and has won two of his three matchups against the Pirates with ECU’s last win coming in 2017 in a 48-20 victory in Greenville.
Last year’s night game in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium was a 46-43 slugfest where in the end Cincinnati came out on top. Holton Ahlers threw for 535 yards and three touchdowns for ECU, but the Pirates did not muster much of a run game and didn’t seem to need one. Meanwhile, Michael Warren rushed for 141 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bearcats.
“It’s the same players. When you look at their roster, the same guys have been playing for multiple years. They are seniors backed up by juniors across the two deep. We played well against them offensively last year. Tough game. We lost on a kick there at the end. Obviously, having to travel up there and playing on the road will be tough,” Mike Houston told PirateIllustrated.com, “I think they are much improved, even from the team I saw at the beginning of the year. Great depth across the board so I just think we are playing a really good football team Friday night.”
Cincinnati(6-0/4-0 AAC) is a good looking group with exceptional speed that gives offenses fits trying to move the football. The Bearcats are also difficult to cover offensively.
“It’s not just their defense but, looking at all three phases, it’s their team speed. I think they run really well at all three levels. They have good size on the defensive line and those kids can really move,” said Mike Houston on Monday, “They run really well in the secondary and at the linebacker position. You’ll see them play some drop eight where it’s just a three-man rush and they are still getting pressure on people. They also bring a variety of pressures just like we do. People have struggled to run the ball against them this year. They’ve been very stingy.”
ECU(1-5/1-4 AAC) digressed a bit last Saturday in a 38-21 loss to Tulane where the Pirates had difficulty scoring enough points to have a realistic chance to win.
Ahlers managed to pass for a solid 351 yards and three scores despite being sacked three times. ECU appeared to be a bit one dimensional though offensively against the Green Wave. One of the big issues last week was the lack of enough of a run game to keep the Tulane honest.
The Pirates ran the football just 20 times from the running back position and quarterback Holton Ahlers carried the football just eight times, but most were just sacks and scrambles out of the pocket where he netted negative yardage overall.
“We would like to be balanced. That’s been consistent throughout. I don’t want to be one dimensional. Tulane made us one dimensional last week,” Houston told PI, “We’ve got to do a better job of being balanced this week. We’re going to have to throw the ball effectively against Cincinnati, but we’d also like to run the ball effectively also. Coach (Donnie) Kirkpatrick and his staff have been working diligently since early Sunday morning to try to come up with a game plan that will give us the best opportunity for success.”
Houston said Trevion Freshwater who arrived at ECU originally as a defensive end and moved to defensive tackle this fall has moved to tight end. Houston says it could take a while to see him develop there.
“Traveon was not overly competitive at the defensive tackle position throughout the fall. He has some God-given ability. Traveon and I have talked multiple times. It was a combination of continuing to develop the tight end room as well as Traveon’s desire to get back to the offensive side of the football,” said Houston.
“There was a need there. It was something he wanted to do so we made that adjustment. It will be a year or so before you see how that adjustment plays out. It’s going to take time to develop him at that position. It was something he wanted to do. Hopefully it will give us some more depth there.”
Linebacker Aaron Ramseur, running back Darius Pinnix and wide receiver Jsi Hatfield who were all out for last week’s game against Tulane could return this week.
“All three were battling injuries. We are hoping to have them back Saturday, but we will have to see how practice goes,” Houston stated on Monday.
Game time is set for 7:30 Friday night when ECU travels to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats on ESPN2. Stay tuned all week as coverage of Cincinnati week continues here on PirateIllustrated.com.
