East Carolina @ Memphis Football Preview

Pirates look to get a road win against surging Tigers

Date: Saturday, November 3rd

Time: 2:00 p.m. (EST)

Location: Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (62,380); Memphis, TN

Television: WITN ( Eastern NC)

Records: East Carolina (5-4 overall, 4-1 CUSA); Memphis (4-4 overall, 3-1 CUSA)

Rankings: None

All-Time Series Record: East Carolina leads 9-6

Last Meeting: Saturday, September 16, 2006—East Carolina 35 Memphis 20

ECU vs. Memphis General Overview

The Pirates and Tigers will tangle this weekend in a game that has significant CUSA East title implications.

After dropping a heartbreaking 34-20 decision to rival NC State, East Carolina bounced back in a big way and posted a 41-6 blowout of UAB on Homecoming. The Pirates’ win coupled with UCF’s 34-17 win at Southern Miss has placed ECU in a familiar position with a similar task: win out and represent the CUSA East Division in the league’s title game a month from now.

Tommy West and Memphis struggled to a 1-3 start where its lone victory was a 35-14 win over FCS opponent Jacksonville State; however, UM has since posted three wins in CUSA while leveling its overall mark at 4-4. In doing so, the Tigers have positioned themselves with USM, UCF and ECU to make a run at the CUSA East crown. Memphis was hammered 56-20 by UCF in the third game of the season, and the game was not even that close as the Tigers trailed 42-0 at the break. However, the UM offense has performed more consistently in recent weeks. That, along with the Tigers’ tendency to take the ball away from their opponents, has resulted in the recent string of success. The stretch began with a 24-21 home win over Marshall. Following a disappointing 21-7 home loss to Middle Tennessee, Memphis has responded with consecutive road wins at Rice (38-35) and Tulane (28-27).

Last season, ECU erased a 20-7 halftime deficit by scoring 28 unanswered second half points—including 21 in the fourth quarter—to notch a 35-20 victory in Greenville. Prior to that Pirates’ triumph, Memphis had narrowed the gap in the all-time series to 8-6 by winning three straight.

Memphis Offense vs. East Carolina Defense

Advantage: Memphis

The East Carolina defense delivered what head coach Skip Holtz termed the best performance during his three seasons at the helm of the program in the Pirates’ 41-6 win over UAB. The Pirates held the Blazers out of the end zone in the contest—a feat that had not been accomplished an ECU defense since the program shutout Duke (38-0) to begin the 2000 season.

While the outing certainly had to be encouraging to the Pirates and provided a needed confidence boost to a struggling secondary, they will receive a much stouter test this week when they travel to Memphis.

The sun set on the Blazers when the Pirates extended their lead to 41-6 in the third quarter last Saturday.

Coach Tommy West really believes his high-octane offense—which is averaging 419 yards per game—is starting to execute with the consistency that he knows it can. The Tigers have put up 66 points and over 1,000 yards of total offense in winning back-to-back road contests at Rice and Tulane. Prior to this explosion, they were, however, limited to 248 yards in a 21-7 home loss to Middle Tennessee.

The Tigers’ strength is their passing game (280 yards per game), which features a talented quarterback in Martin Hankins and a host of play-making wide receivers.

Hankins, who has passed for 300-plus yards in five of the Tigers’ eight games, has thrown for 1,493 yards and ten touchdowns despite missing two games this season. He has completed 62.8 percent of his attempts while being picked off seven times. Against Tulane, Hankins was 25-of-38 for 355 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

Sophomore Duke Calhoun (6-4, 195) leads the skilled receiving corps that includes several tall, rangy wideouts. Calhoun, who missed two games with a knee injury, has hauled in a pass in 19 consecutive games. After posting a career-effort of 119 yards against Rice, he caught five balls for 39 yards—including the five-yarder that tied the game with only 36 seconds to play. On the season, he has 32 receptions for 395 yards and three scores.

Maurice Jones, Earnest Williams, Carlos Singleton and Steven Black are also all bonafied targets. Jones (6-4, 225) and Earnest Williams had record games versus Tulane. Jones, who is averaging an impressive 19.1 yards per catch, caught four balls for 117 yards while Williams hauled in three for 96—including a key 41-yard reception to convert a third down on the game-winning drive. Singleton (6-8, 215) has 26 receptions for 324 yards and three scores while Black has 21 for 292.

The running game has been average at best, as it yielding just less than 140 yards per contest. The Tigers possess talented backs in senior Joseph Doss (5-9, 196) and redshirt sophomore T.J. Pitts (5-10, 203), but they’ve been playing behind an inconsistent offensive line. Doss has rushed for 419 yards (4.5 ypc) and Pitts has 303 (4.0 ypc).

The offensive line, which benefits from the Tigers’ short-passing game, has done a good job of protecting the passer—surrendering only eight sacks to date. However, they’ve shown improvement in recent weeks.

Hankins and company is likely anxious to face an ECU defense that is giving up nearly 290 yards per game through the air.

The Pirates’ strength is their front seven. However, their leading tackler is safety Van Eskeridge. Eskeridge, who played linebacker last season, has made a team-high 73 stops. He registered his first career interception versus UAB. Defensive ends Zack Slate and CJ Wilson lead the way up front. Slate has made a team-leading 11.5 tackles for loss and is second with 4.5 sacks—trailing only Wilson, who has a team-high five. The linebackers are talented, but banged up. Linebacker Quentin Cotton, who has NFL ability, has 51 stops—including nine behind the line.

East Carolina Offense vs. Memphis Defense

Advantage: East Carolina

The Pirates had one of their most productive games of the season versus UAB. They established the run early, which opened up the passing game for Patrick Pinkney and company later on in the contest.

East Carolina rushed for a season-high 216 yards against the Blazers. Chris Johnson had another solid day and ran for 79 yards on 15 attempts—which included an eye-opening 20-yard scoring run in the third quarter that featured a terrific spin move off a tackle before running over a Blazers’ defender to reach the end zone.

Freshman John Williams had what was by far his most productive game to date. Williams put ECU ahead early with a 35-yard scoring jaunt and finished the day with 63 yards on only five carries.

The offense also welcomed the return of diverse quarterback Patrick Pinkney. Pinkney, who had seen his play time diminish in recent weeks, led the Pirates on a scoring drive in his only action in the first half. After ECU did nothing on its opening drive after the break, Holtz opted to go with the hot-handed Pinkney. He proceeded to lead the team to three consecutive touchdown drives. He demonstrated great touch on a couple of deep balls to Jamar Bryant while also making plays with his feet. He finished his day 6-of-7 for 159 yards and two scores. Kass concluded the game 10-of-17 for 69 yards.

Patrick Pinkney, who had played sparingly the past couple weeks, engineered the East Carolina offense to four touchdowns on as many possessions versus UAB. Pinkney completed 6-of-7 passes for 159 yards and two scores against the Blazers.

Both quarterbacks will play with the extent of their playing time being based on the Memphis’ defense and the success that each is having moving the offense.

Jamar Bryant is the top threat in the passing game and he hauled in 6 catches for 114 yards against UAB. Running back Chris Johnson is also one of the Pirates’ prime targets, as he has 26 receptions for 354 yards and four scores.

Dwayne Harris is a guy that you’ll see do a little bit of everything. ECU likes to get the powerful and elusive Harris the football in a variety of ways. Although his primary role is as a receiver, he will run the ball on direct snaps, reverses and throw the ball.

The offensive line will be attempting to deal with a shake-up due to a key loss suffered against UAB. Center Fred Hicks sustained a season-ending leg injury, which will make Stephen Heis the full-time starting center. Starting guard Matt Butler, who has experience there, will be his replacement and Sean Allen will also see snaps at the position.

Defensively, Memphis is like East Carolina in that it has relied heavily on turnovers. The Tigers are giving up 428 total yards and nearly 200 on the ground. Tulane ran for 350 yards in its loss. However, the opponent miscues and solid red zone defense have been huge.

Schematically, UM presents a variety of looks. The Pirates will be forced to prepare for 4-4 and 4-3 schemes. The strength of the unit is its extremely active and experienced secondary.

However, the Tigers have had a hard time of getting off the field on third down, as opponents have converted 52 percent of their attempts.

Linebacker Jake Kasser leads the unit with 62 stops and also has three fumble recoveries. Kasser, who used to play defensive back, is a candidate for the 2007 Draddy Trophy—which is awarded annually to the player who demonstrates excellence in the classroom, in the community and on the football field.

Fellow linebacker Quinton McCrary has recovered a team-high and school record six fumbles.

Freddie Barnett (6-2, 300) and Jada Brown (6-2, 265) lead the team in sacks with two each.

Special Teams

Advantage: East Carolina

The Pirates get the nod in the always important kicking game.

East Carolina is near the top of the nation in kickoff return yardage and that is largely due to speedster Chris Johnson, who has the tenth highest mark in the nation with 30.6 per return. John Williams has also shown that he is dangerous for team’s that try to kick away from “CJ”, as he is averaging just under 25 yards per return on ten attempts.

Michael Grandberry is averaging 21 yards per attempt on 34 returns for Memphis.

Both teams possess quality punt returners. Dwayne Harris had five returns for 96 yards against UAB while Earnest Williams is averaging 10.3 yards per return on ten attempts.

Each team’s punter has punted the ball well at times, but neither team’s net average is very good. ECU nets only 33.2 yards per boot, but Memphis is worse and nets 29.3. Matt Dodge is averaging 42.6 yards per kick while Brent Sutherland has punted 32 times for a 40.8 mark.

Give Ben Hartman the edge at the kicking spot despite Memphis’ sophomore Matt Reagan earning CUSA Special Teams Player of the Week honors recently. Reagan is 7-of-12 on the season and is 0-for-3 from beyond 40 yards. On the other hand, Hartman is 11-of-17 on the year and has made good on all 31 of his point after touchdown tries. He has the better range, which is shown with his having made a 52-yarder against UTEP.

These two also handle the kickoff duties for their respective teams.

Intangibles

Advantage: Even

Both of these teams has grown up in recent weeks. They have won games in ways that has undoubtedly increased their confidence.

East Carolina controls its own destiny and is attempting to do what it was unable to do last season when it was in a similar situation.

Both teams are in the thick of the CUSA East Division race and need this game in the worst way. As Skip Holtz said, the Pirates and Tigers are essentially participating in what amounts to a single-elimination playoff; therefore, both clubs should have zero trouble being prepared to play this contest.

And if the Tigers don’t have enough to play for, they are playing for former Taylor Bradford. Bradford was shot and killed prior to the Marshall game.

It is also Memphis’ homecoming.

Final ECU vs. Memphis Analysis & Prediction

There will likely be plenty of points in this key conference battle. Both defenses give up plenty of yards while relying heavily on winning the turnover battle. They rank 1-2 in CUSA in turnover margin and this area will play a big role in deciding this one. The running games will also be very important. Memphis struggles to stop the run; therefore, East Carolina will need to deliver a second straight strong performance on the ground. If it can do so, it will open up the passing game while keeping the potent Tigers’ attack off the field. ECU will struggle to stop Memphis, as it will likely allow around 300 yards through the air, but its defense will produce a couple key turnovers while limiting Memphis’ damage in the running game. The Pirates will pile up over 400 yards of offense with Chris Johnson and Jonathan Williams combining to rush for at least 150 yards. It will be anything but easy, but East Carolina will extend its conference win streak to five.

East Carolina 41 - Memphis 30