Provo • East Carolina and BYU will play each other in football for just the second time ever on Saturday in Greenville, N.C.
It won’t be the last.
Two days before their 5 p.m. MDT matchup at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, the Cougars and Pirates announced they have extended their series that began in Provo in 2015 to four games. They will meet again on Oct. 15, 2022 at LaVell Edwards Stadium and on Oct. 19, 2024 at ECU.
“We have enjoyed the opportunity to play teams from the American Athletic Conference, including the current series with East Carolina,” said BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe in a news release. “ECU is a great matchup and it was an easy decision to schedule another series with them.”
BYU at East Carolina<br>Saturday, 5 p.m. MDT<br>TV • CBSSN
The Cougars downed ECU 45-38 two years ago as then-freshman quarterback Tanner Mangum returned from a hamstring injury and drove the Cougars 75 yards for the winning touchdown late in the game.
“It provides our team a unique travel opportunity, and it gives Cougar fans who live in the Southeast another opportunity to see us play,” Holmoe said.
Keeping their chins up
BYU players and coaches were remarkably upbeat when they met with reporters on Monday and Tuesday at the Student Athlete Building. The Cougars spoke clearly and succinctly about their 1-6 start and vowed to play better on Saturday.
“There is an energy this week that definitely I could feel in practice,” said defensive end Corbin Kaufusi. “Everyone has kind of got the mindset of, ‘OK, this is a new season for us.’ The second half of the season is completely new, and there is nothing we can do but look forward.”
Linebacker Butch Pau’u, who is playing with a heavily-wrapped fractured hand, said some of the seniors were crying in the locker room after the 35-10 loss to Mississippi State, but the mood had changed when they got back together Monday morning.
“I am one of the positive guys on the team, so for me I am excited to come every day,” Pau’u said. “The passion is still there, but I feel like it is not quite [as intense] as it was at the beginning of the season. So it will mean the world to change this whole thing around and have the guys say, ‘We are not really as bad as everyone thinks we are, at 1-6.’ I feel like if we win this game, things are going to start flying for us. And that comes down to us doing our assignments.”
Pleading, and preaching, for fans
Perhaps fearing that BYU fans will overrun Dowdy-Ficken Stadium on Saturday, ECU coach Scottie Montgomery and athletic director Jeff Compher both publicly pleaded for Pirates fans to attend the school’s Homecoming game.
“Fight with us, not against us,” Compher wrote in an email to Pirate Club members.
“I would be remiss if I did not address the status of our football program,” Compher said in the letter. “Frankly, we are not where any of us wanted or hoped to be.”
BYU expects a large contingent of fans at the game.
Holmoe and former BYU great Chad Lewis will speak at a fireside on Friday night at 7 p.m. EDT at the chapel at 307 Martinsborough Road in Greenville, N.C.
Montgomery referenced BYU’s ability to draw large crowds on the road at his press conference on Monday.
“BYU is known for a lot of things,” Montgomery said. “They are known for their maturity on the field, but they are also known for the atmosphere that they create when they are playing [away from] home, and this is my appeal: I am asking everybody this homecoming weekend to come out and support the Pirates. Come out and support the university.”
Another honor for Fred Warner
Senior linebacker Fred Warner is one of 104 college football players nominated for the Wuerffel Trophy, which recognizes community service and academic achievement. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Warner led BYU with 86 total tackles in 2016 and has 56 this season, including six for losses.
Warner has donated his time this season to BYU’s True Blue Hero program and coach Kalani Sitake’s More to Life Foundation.