Rice @ East Carolina

Pirates look to get back on winning track in Homecoming game vs. winless Owls

Date: Saturday, October 17, 2009

Location: Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, Bagwell Field (43,000); Greenville, NC

Time: 3:30 p.m. (EST)

Television: MASN

Records: East Carolina (3-3 overall, 2-1 CUSA); Rice (0-6 overall, 0-2 CUSA)

Rankings: None

All-Time Series Record: Tied at 1

Last Meeting: November 18, 2006— Houston, TX—Rice 18 East Carolina 17

Injury/Personnel Report:

East Carolina

WR Michael Bowman, arm; doubtful

RB JR Rogers, knee; questionable

DL Antonio Allison, foot; out

RB Jonathan Williams, knee; out

Rice

General Overview

Following a frustrating defeat to SMU in Dallas, East Carolina returns to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium where it will entertain the winless Rice Owls on Homecoming.

These programs had never met until Rice joined Conference USA. The Pirates captured a 41-28 victory over the Owls in 2005—which was Skip Holtz’s first season in Greenville and Ken Hatfield’s last in Houston. That triumph marked their second victory under their new head coach.

The next season, ECU went to Houston in search of a CUSA East clinching win. However, the Pirates were unable to take care of business and found themselves on the short end of a somewhat bizarre 18-17 contest.

After escaping with five-point victories against UCF and at Marshall, East Carolina was unable to secure its third straight win against SMU despite surpassing the Ponies in nearly every statistical category except the most meaningful—the scoreboard. A plethora of offensive and special teams mistakes overshadowed a good defensive effort. The Mustangs managed to win despite running nearly 30 fewer plays and having 160 yards in penalties.

In his second season, Rice coach David Bailiff rode an explosive offense to a ten-win season and the Owls first bowl victory in more than a half century. This year, the Owls have seen their offensive production drop off significantly. Meanwhile, their defense has struggled and the result has been a 0-6 start.

East Carolina Offense vs. Rice Defense

Advantage: East Carolina

The East Carolina offense doesn’t receive the edge in this match-up because of its “explosion” for 357 yards—the second most total yards its managed in the first six games—but only because Rice’s defense has been among the worst in the nation.

The Owls have, however, played some offenses that are very difficult to defend. They faced Big 12 offensive juggernauts Texas Tech and Oklahoma State early on before attempting to tackle Navy’s vaunted triple option attack last week.

Rice is allowing 44.3 points per game—worst in the nation—and 472.2 yards (115 th nationally). The Owls are surrendering 215 yards per game on the ground after giving up 471 ground yards to Navy. They also rank just 103 rd against the pass, as they allow nearly 260 yards per game through the air. Opponents are converting 42 percent of their third downs while the Owls have forced just six turnovers.

The struggling unit actually was making some progress prior to facing the Midshipmen’s tough to prepare for triple option. It had limited Tulsa to 27 points—the fewest allowed all season.

Free safety Andrew Sendejo is the standout contributor. The 6’1”, 225-pound senior defensive back leads the team with 55 stops—17 of which came last week versus Navy. With two tackles at East Carolina, he will move into third in all-time tackles at Rice.

Defensive end Scott Solomon has recorded four of the team’s ten sacks. He leads the way in that category while also totaling a team-high 4.5 tackles for losses.

While the Pirates did produce 24 first downs and controlled the clock with their second best rushing output of the year with 176 yards against SMU, red zone woes and the lack of explosion plays continue to limit this unit’s point production.

East Carolina continues to be content with employing a power approach from a jumbo formation at the goal line despite its limited success. On its second possession, the Pirates had first-and-goal at the two, but were stoned on three consecutive plays. Then, they were attempting to sneak it in on fourth down, but suffered a false start penalty. The ensuing field goal was blocked and a golden scoring opportunity was squandered.

The Pirates were nearly turned away again in the third quarter, but scored on fourth down when Giavanni Ruffin took it in on a toss sweep around the left end.

While it worked at Marshall, the power approach out of a tight formation has failed much more often than it has worked. Thus, the Pirates should seek to show a little more creativity at the goal line. They should try play-action passes out of the tight sets or running out of a more spread set where the defense can’t clog the middle. It’s been apparent that they can’t create the necessary movement consistently.

ECU’s first score came on a ten-yard run by Dwayne Harris out of its wildcat formation.

The team’s leading rusher, Dominique Lindsay, had 144 yards on 24 carries (6.0 ypc) despite battling the flu before and during the game. It was a career day for the senior while picking up the slack with Jackson at home in Greenville.

With Brandon Jackson and JR Rogers not on the travel squad and Jonathan Williams going down with a knee injury in the first half, last year’s leading rusher Norman Whitley saw his first action. Whitley had just two yards on three attempts and caught a pass for nine yards.

Jackson and Rogers may be available against Rice, but Whitley’s playmaking ability should warrant a few for him as well.

The passing game remained status quo for the Pirates. Patrick Pinkney battled the flu to go 20-of-34 for 181 yards. However, he didn’t throw a touchdown and had an interception taken back for a touchdown in the third quarter. All of his completions were of the underneath variety and the Pirates are yet to complete a pass thrown more than 25 yards down the field.

Jamar Bryant had a team-high 58 yards on five receptions after missing the Marshall game due to a concussion. Dwayne Harris also had five catches, but for just 42 yards—21 of which came on one play. Harris has a team-high 33 catches for 337 yards, but only one touchdown.

Darryl Freeney was more involved with two catches for 31 yards and don’t be surprised to see others get into the mix against Rice. Speedster Jacobi Jenkins is a name to look for.

Rice Offense vs. East Carolina Defense

Advantage: East Carolina

The Pirate defense continued to improve its play against SMU. ECU allowed the Ponies’ potent Run-and-Shoot attack to put up just 14 points and 294 yards.

However, the problem was that 96 of those came on one play when the SMU showed the Pirate secondary’s susceptibility to the deep ball that had cost ECU extensively at West Virginia and North Carolina.

The Pirates were able to place some pressure on Mitchell and limit his success through the air. This was partially because of ECU’s ability to limit the Mustangs to 28 yards on 21 carries.

Senior linebacker Nick Johnson, the team’s top tackler, led the way with six stops against SMU. He also forced the fumble with just over three minutes to play that gave the Pirates a chance to tie the game.

Safety Van Eskridge played well, but his senseless personal foul penalty late in the fourth quarter gave SMU new life and led to a two touchdown deficit.

Last season, Rice was one of the most potent offenses in the league. However, the departure of its top three playmakers and an unsettled quarterback situation has led a total reversal in its output this year.

Sophomore quarterback Nick Fanuzzi, an Alabama transfer, is one of three signal-callers that have seen action to date. Fanuzzi, who missed time with a shoulder injury, returned against Navy and delivered a 20-of-33 for 242 yard effort. He threw two touchdowns, but was also picked off twice.

Fanuzzi and the other Owl quarterbacks haven’t had much help from the unit’s ground game. It is yielding just 86.7 yards per contest and produced only 21 yards against Navy.

The team’s leading rusher Charles Ross, who has 140 yards and four touchdowns, may miss this weekend’s game with a hip injury. If Ross can’t play versus the Pirates, Jeramy Goodson (124 yards – 3.8 ypc) will probably get the starting nod.

Toren Dixon is Fanuzzi’s top target in the passing game. Dixon, who has a reception in 32 straight games, has caught 28 balls for 268 yards. He ranks seventh all-time in receiving yards at Rice with 1,354 yards.

Special Teams

Advantage: Rice

The Owls’ special teams are the best of the three phases.

Rice’s return game is strong with Shane Turner averaging nearly 25 yards per kickoff return. He has a long of 52. Andrew Sendejo handles the punt returns. The standout free safety boasts a stellar 16.2 mark on eight attempts and has taken one back 47 yards.

However, they’re even better in the kicking aspects.

Punter Kyle Martens is averaging nearly 46 yards per boot and has forced seven fair catches. He is netting 40 yards per punt and has pinned the opposition inside its 20-yard line on five occasions.

Kicker Clark Fangmeier is 5-of-7 and both of his misses were blocked. He is 2-of-3 in the 40-to-49 yard range with a long of 45. East Carolina’s special teams performance against SMU wasn’t very sharp in the kicking aspects. The Pirates had two field goals blocked and the second was returned for a touchdown. Ben Hartman’s 23-yard attempt in the first quarter was blocked as the result of a low kick; therefore, Holtz opted to give sophomore Ben Ryan on ECU’s next attempt. Ryan’s 45-yarder was kicked extremely low and hit the SMU defender in the facemask. The Mustangs scooped it up and took it 63 yards to tie the game at seven late in the first half.

Matt Dodge continued to punt the ball well. Two of the senior’s four punts were inside the 20 and he had a long of 70. The 70-yarder nearly pinned SMU inside its own five, but was returned 37 yards by the electric Emmanuel Sanders.

Prior to last weekend, the Pirates kickoff return game had produced very little. However, with his team trailing by two touchdowns with just over five minutes to play, Dwayne Harris went on a jaw-dropping 77-yard jaunt to pull his team within a score. The return was ranked fourth on ESPN’s Top Ten plays of the day.

Intangibles

Advantage: East Carolina

Both of these programs desperately need a win this weekend.

The Pirates played nowhere near the level that most people expected them to during the first half of the season and the result was a 3-3 mark where the victories were more like escapes than wins.

Despite that, East Carolina sits atop CUSA’s East Division and still controls its destiny. They will begin the second part of their schedule with a homecoming date against winless Rice. It should provide them with an opportunity to get back on the winning track and continue to figure out some of its issues—particularly on offense.

The Pirates have averaged 43,244 for its home dates with Appalachian State and UCF. This game could feature a few no-shows, but with it being homecoming in Greenville the crowd could still be near capacity.

ECU has won five straight and eight of its last nine at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

After a rare ten win campaign in ’08, Rice is currently one of seven winless teams around the nation. The Owls have lost every game by atleast 17 points. The last time out they allowed a school record 63 points and suffered their worst loss of the year in a 63-14 loss to Navy.

If they’re going to have any shot at wining the West, they’ll likely need to win out (and maybe get some help). However, at this point, Rice would just like to get into the win column and go from there.

Final Prediction & Analysis

Last week’s loss at SMU was pretty much a microcosm of the first half of East Carolina’s season. Most people would’ve expected the Pirates to be at least 4-2 at this point. However, they’re not just 3-3, but they’ve played a very ugly brand of football with minimal offensive production.

If ECU is going to repeat as league champions, the turnaround must begin this week. The Pirates couldn’t ask for a better opponent to help it get well. That said, it is anything but a sure win with the poor offensive output to date.

The Owls have been outscored 59-7 in the first quarter this year and the Pirates have started quickly in most of their games. They need to jump on Rice quickly and not give them any hope of competing.

David Bailiff’s ball club is surrending 215 yards per game on the ground so expect Dominique Lindsay and company to have a big day on the ground. They may top the 176-yard effort they produced at SMU last week.

When it gets in the red zone, the ECU offense must score touchdowns because Rice averages just 16 points per game and it will be hard pressed to top that total against an improving Pirate D.

Unless ECU helps the Owls’ cause the way it did SMU’s, it should win this game by a couple touchdowns or more.

East Carolina 27 Rice 13