Video
No. 14 North Carolina A&T (1-0) vs. East Carolina (0-0)
Date: September 1, 2018
Time: 6 p.m. EST
City/Venue: Greenville, N.C./Dowdy-Ficklen (50,000)
Series: First meeting
TV: ESPN 3
ESPN Triad Radio: Donal Ware (play-by-play); Al Swann (analysts)
Stations:
600 AM/101.5 FM Winston-Salem
1320 AM/93.7 FM Greensboro
1230 AM/104.9 FM High Point
920 AM/104.5 FM Burlington
1200 AM/95.1 FM Burlington
OFFENSIVE DEPTH CHART
DEFENSIVE DEPTH CHART
The Matchup: North Carolina A&T will get another shot at trying to defeat a Division I-FBS program when it travels to Greenville, N.C., to face the East Carolina Pirates. The Aggies have won two out of their last three games against Division I-FBS programs including a 39-35 quadruple overtime win at Kent State. They also defeated the Charlotte 49ers 35-31 last season in Charlotte. East Carolina will be the seventh FBS school the Aggies have faced in their history. N.C. A&T is 2-4 in those games. In addition, the Aggies beat Appalachian State while they were making the transition to FBS in 2013. The Aggies have lost those four games to FBS's (Wake Forest, Louisiana Lafayette, North Carolina and Tulsa) by an average of 39 points. Once the Aggies and the Pirates do battle, there will be only two football-playing school UNC System the Aggies have not played – UNC Pembroke (who just started their program) and N.C. State.
ECU will come into the game with an advantage with more scholarship players and therefore more depth. The Pirates are coming off a 3-9 season where they surrendered 541.7 yards per game. The Pirates passing game, however, was stellar. They ranked 12th in the nation in passing offense registering 317.9 yards per game. The Aggies are coming off a game where they surrendered 320 yards passing to Jacksonville State. ECU was not as good in the running game averaging 107.7 yards per game. N.C. A&T held the Gamecocks to mark the 46th time in 82 games the Aggies have held an opponent to under 100 yards rushing. The Pirates do return all-everything receiver Trevon Brown who had nine receptions for 270 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Cincinnati last season. He was 25th in the nation in receiving yards with 1,069. The Aggies have a pretty good receiver of their own in Elijah Bell who caught his 20th career touchdown receptions in the Aggies win over Jacksonville State last week.
News and Notes:
- North Carolina A&T will play the Pirates for the first time on Saturday. The Aggies are 169-74-9 all-time against in-state schools. The Aggies are 67-18-4 against private in-state schools while they have compiled a 102-56-5 record against public in-state schools.
- Redshirt season Malik Wilson returned a second-half kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown last Saturday versus Jacksonville State. Wilson's returned marked the sixth straight season the Aggies have either returned a punt or a kickoff for a touchdown in their opening game.
- Sam Washington became the first person to beat a nationally-ranked opponent in their first game as N.C. A&T's head coach.
- N.C. A&T has done well under the bright lights with Celebration Bowl wins over Alcorn State (2015) and Grambling State (2017) and two wins over FBS programs. The Pirates are 25-2 against programs who currently compete or have competed on the FCS level.
- N.C. A&T's last loss came on Nov. 26, 2016. The Aggies have now gone 644 days without losing a football game.
Opposing Point of View
"There is one thing I will say about this football team. I have looked at a lot of teams. I have looked at a lot of teams. I have watched a lot of teams for a long time – coaching football, playing football. Their culture of playing hard rivals anybody I have ever seen on tape.”
East Carolina head Scottie Montgomery
