(Smith Cameron Photography)
East Carolina wins the party, but North Carolina wins the game.
One thing about football in Greenville, it is one heckuva a pre-game atmosphere. The way Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is situated on the edge of campus, completely surrounded by park land and parking lots, the tailgating starts early and runs right into kickoff. And this time, it may go beyond kickoff.
That’s because the Pirates don’t have much of a football team these days, and their fans know it. So they will still come out in numbers and eat and drink themselves into a dither, but once the game starts the Tar Heels will prove to be the better team. Not because they are so great, but because ECU is just not very good.
Look at last week’s openers for both teams. UNC played dismally in a first half at Cal when the Heels could barely move the ball. But they fought back in the second half and only a questionable blocking call on an on-side kick kept them from a decent chance to tie the game in the final minute. While Nathan Elliott came back with an improved second half, the running game will prevail for North Carolina Saturday.
The Pirates ran for only 68 yards against FCS North Carolina A&T, which is still a formidable opponent built by former UNC star Rod Broadway, who retired as the Aggies’ coach after the 2017 season. But the strength of UNC’s play at Cal was its defense, and if ECU throws the ball 65 times like it did against A&T, the Tar Heels secondary will have a field day after basically shutting down Cal’s much better air attack.
Although both teams had 3-9 records last year, North Carolina was ravaged by injuries and still had a chance to win three or four more games against power 5 opponents. East Carolina, on the other hand, lost seven of its nine games by 24 points or more. New coach Scottie Montgomery is already on the hot seat, and it won’t cool off after the Pirates lose again to a school they hate.
But it will still be a great party down east.
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