After its week three matchup with West Virginia was cancelled due to Hurricane Florence, NC State added a 12th game with East Carolina this week as a makeup. The Wolfpack comes in to the game seeking its first nine-win regular season since 2002. Technician caught up with Chase Carroll, sports editor of ECU’s student newspaper The East Carolinian, via email to break down the matchup.
Technician: Why has this been such a difficult stretch for ECU?
Chase Carroll: This has been such a difficult stretch for ECU, seeing a once respectable, top-25 team become a perennial three-win team. The days of Ruffin McNeill leading the team is over, and Coach Montgomery has done nothing really besides defeat NC State in his first season, and a poor UNC team this season. Teams ECU used to compete with are now defeating them by 50 points, and it’s sad to see.
T: Obviously the win over the Tar Heels was a bright spot in the Pirates’ season, and they beat NC State last time the teams played. Is there any truth to people saying these games are “Super Bowls” for ECU?
CC: There’s definitely somewhat of a truth to that. The game this year against UNC was as close to an ECU game day experience as we may have seen around five years ago when the program was a top-25 team. Simply put the fans have had little reason to be excited about this team, but a chance to face in-state rivals brings the chance for bragging rights, and we definitely felt that in the stadium atmosphere in each of those two wins.
T: What are this team’s strengths and weaknesses?
CC: The offense this season has really had one strength this year, and that is in freshman quarterback Holton Ahlers, someone NC State was actually very interested in during the recruiting process. Since he has taken over as starter, he has been the entire offense, posting two 400-yard passing performances, as well as a four passing touchdown day in a win over UConn. He also has been the Pirates only effective form of runner, leading the team in rushing yards with 592, with ECU’s next leading rusher being it’s starting running back Anthony Scott who only has 355 yards rushing on 3.9 YPC, which brings us to our weakness, the run game.
T: Who are some key players?
CC: One key player to watch on the defensive side is senior defensive end Nate Harvey, who is third in the nation in sacks with 13.5, and first in the nation in tackles for loss with 24. This is an incredible story, as he was moved to the defensive side of the ball during preseason practices after being a walk-on transfer running back, sitting 5th on the depth chart.
Another will be who I mentioned previously, freshman quarterback Holton Ahlers, who really has become ECU’s entire offense this season.
T: How do the Pirates match up with NC State?
CC: In my opinion, ECU does not match up well with NC State at all. Our defensive backs are very susceptible to giving up the home run play, whether it be through the air or on the ground. I fully expect Ryan Finley to bounce back from his less-than-ideal week last week against UNC and put up one of his best games of the season against ECU by airing it out with multiple big plays.
T: What is your prediction for this game?
CC: I predict a lopsided victory for NC State, ultimately being the final straw for head coach Scottie Montgomery in what has been an awful tenure as head coach for ECU. NC State wins 38-14, which may be a generous margin given how ECU got dismantled by Cincinnati last week by a 56-6 margin.
