Ahoy from Pitt County, mateys. Bart Quidley here, reporting from the same tailgate spot my family has held since before I could walk, with a purple tricorn hat on the seat beside me. I only wear it for big games. I have been staring at it all week. It's coming to Memphis.
East Carolina fans are, arrr-guably, the best fans anywhere. We needed every one of them last Thursday. So let's do this the honest way: first the storm we sailed through in Birmingham, then the voyage to the Mississippi River. Hoist the colors.
Part 1: Lost at Sea in Overtime, UAB 30, East Carolina 17
For three quarters and change, it was a pirate's dream. The Pirates opened the game on Oct. 15 with a 14-play, 75-yard drive, and Emory Williams flipped a 3-yard touchdown to Ray Ray Joseph Jr. for a 7-0 lead. Forty-seven seconds into the second quarter, Williams hit Ismael Smith Flores on a 16-yard pass, the ball came loose at the goal, and Dawson Quarterman fell on it in the end zone. Touchdown, ECU, 14-0. I'll take a treasure chest however it washes ashore.
UAB answered only with Jonah Delange field goals, from 41, 26 and 50 yards, and Noah Perez hit a career-long 43-yarder with 9:24 left to make it 17-9. The Blazers had not scored a touchdown all night. I had the tricorn halfway onto my head.
Then the wind turned. UAB quarterback Ryder Burton drove the Blazers 93 yards in 10 plays without a timeout and hit Bam McReynolds for a 17-yard touchdown with 35 seconds left. Burton ran in the two-point try. Seventeen all. In overtime, Burton threw a 6-yard touchdown to Rod Robinson II, and on our possession Delvon Gulley intercepted Williams and went 80 yards the other way. Final: UAB 30, East Carolina 17.
There is no hiding the box score, and Bart doesn't hide things. Williams finished 18 of 27 for 126 yards, two touchdowns and the interception. TJ Engleman Jr. carried 26 times for 104 yards, a real workhorse night, and Ashton Levells-Mitchell led the defense with six tackles. The defense held UAB without a touchdown for 59 minutes and 25 seconds. That deserves a cheer from the crow's nest. It just needed 35 more seconds.
We're 3-3 and 1-1 in the American. The season has had squalls, a 48-10 loss at Alabama and a 27-24 loss to App State, and fair winds, too: a 20-17 win at Old Dominion, a 42-9 win over North Carolina Central and a 28-12 win over Rice. A short week and a road game. Pirates were built for this.
Part 2: Sailing for the Bluff City
Thursday night, 7:30 p.m. Eastern, on ESPN2, East Carolina (3-3) visits Memphis (5-2, 2-1 American) at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
Respect for the Tigers' Big Guns
I'll be gracious, because pirates have a code. The Memphis offense is a man-of-war. It averages 512.6 yards per game, sixth in FBS, with 237.7 rushing yards (eighth) and 274.9 passing yards (25th). Marcus Stokes has thrown for 1,841 yards and 18 touchdowns, Jaylin Carter has 780 rushing yards and eight scores, and Hunter Tipton has 380 receiving yards and five touchdowns. That is a lot of cannon.
But Have You Seen the Hull?
Now look at what happened last Friday night in New Orleans. Tulane forced six turnovers in a 31-17 win over Memphis. Six. TJ Smith returned an interception 76 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the first half, and Kevin Adams III picked off another late to seal it. AP noted Tulane had forced one turnover in its first five games combined. Then Memphis handed over a half-dozen in one night. Mateys, that's not a ship. That's a treasure chest with the lid propped open.
The Memphis defense allows 372.4 yards per game (89th) and 172.9 rushing yards per game (104th). That's a happy port for Engleman. If ECU can run the ball the way it did in Birmingham, the Pirates can keep the Tigers' man-of-war anchored on the sideline.
Our Own Repairs, Logged Honestly
I won't pretend our ship is seaworthy everywhere. ECU converts 31.3 percent of third downs, 125th in FBS, and scores on 73.7 percent of red zone trips, also 125th. We average 26:57 of possession, 132nd. Memphis's red zone defense ranks sixth. Those numbers have to change on Thursday, or the Tigers will play keep-away.
But here's the good news from the lookout. Our defense allows 326.5 yards per game, 38th in FBS, and 187.5 passing yards per game, 34th. For 59 minutes and 25 seconds last week, it didn't allow a touchdown. That defense is the keel of this ship.
The Treasure Map
CollegeFootballData.com lists East Carolina ahead 18-8 in this series. ECU won 30-29 at Memphis in 2021, 47-45 in Greenville in 2022 and 31-27 in Greenville last season. That's three straight, mateys. Our colors have been flying over this matchup since 2021, and I intend to fly them again.
Mascot Costume Review
I grade every opposing mascot's costume, and fairness is the pirate's code. Memphis has Pouncer, a costumed tiger, and a solid effort: good stripes, nice posture, a B-plus. Memphis also has TOM, a live Bengal tiger tradition that dates to 1972. Wikipedia reports that TOM attended home games in a special soundproof, air-conditioned trailer. A soundproof, air-conditioned trailer, mateys! Our PeeDee the Pirate walks into Dowdy-Ficklen on his own two boots, in the North Carolina heat, and he's never once asked for a climate-controlled carriage.
Port Report: Greenville vs. Memphis
Greenville. Our home port sits on the Tar River, 87,521 strong at the 2020 census and growing. It's the health, entertainment and educational hub of North Carolina's Coastal Plain. Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium holds 51,000, and on Sept. 3, 2022, 51,711 of us packed it for NC State. The field is Bagwell Field. The stadium opened in 1963 with a win over Wake Forest, with 10,000 seats. We've been adding seats ever since because the crew keeps growing.
And here's my go-to bit of local history. For more than a century, Greenville was known for its tobacco market and "a small state-supported college," founded as East Carolina Teacher's Training School. The athletic teams were once called the Teachers. Then they changed it to the Pirates. Mateys, we went from grading papers to raiding ships. That's the greatest glow-up in college sports.
Memphis. Memphis is a big, proud river city, 633,104 strong at the 2020 census, with Beale Street, Sun Studio and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. It hosts the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, which Guinness lists as the largest pork barbecue contest in the world. I respect a city that cooks.
But I have a few questions for the harbormaster. Memphis has a pyramid. A pyramid, mateys, on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. It's one of the city's listed landmarks. I've sailed a lot of rivers in my imagination, and I've never seen a pharaoh come up one.
And the Tigers' stadium was built in 1965 on the old Mid-South Fairgrounds, next to an amusement park called Libertyland that has since been demolished. So the Tigers play next to a former amusement park, which explains last Friday. Six turnovers. That was a roller coaster.
Weigh Anchor
Here's the voyage plan. Run Engleman. Win third down. Protect the ball, because the Memphis defense needs gifts, and Tulane proved it will take them. Make Stokes earn every yard against a pass defense that ranks 34th. The Tigers have the bigger cannons. We have the streak, the hat and a crew that never quits.
Hoist the colors, mateys. The tricorn is packed.
My call: Memphis Tigers 33, East Carolina Pirates 21.