East Carolina College Football Preview, Best Players, Top Transfers, Season Prediction, Win Total 2024

East Carolina Pirates Preview 2024

Okay, East Carolina, ha ha. You had your clunker relapse, now go back to winning lots of games.

The program that was so good for so long in the mid-2000s to 2014 hit a wall. Six straight losing seasons hurt, and then head coach Mike Houston turned things around with 15 wins in two years before going 2-10 in 2023.

There were some bad runs over the decades, but 2004 was the last time ECU was this bad. It was a rough campaign, there wasn’t any offense, but …

The schedule was sneaky-tough, the defense was decent for the first time in a very, very long time, and five of the ten losses could’ve very, very easily gone the other way.

This year? The transfer portal should fix several of the offensive issues, the defense should be every bit as strong, and best of all, the American Athletic Conference isn’t very good.

Granted, everyone else in the league is thinking the same thing, but Memphis, Tulane, and probably South Florida are the three teams to worry about, and East Carolina doesn’t play any of them.

And it doesn’t play Michigan this time around, or SMU, and there aren’t any games against Power Four programs to deal with.

So call 2023 a reset, and rebuild, a down year, or whatever else. Call it quickly forgotten if 2024’s team does what it’s supposed to.

East Carolina Preview 2024: Offense

- All of a sudden the East Carolina offense stopped working. The 2022 attack hadn’t put up that many points since 2014, and then the 208 put up in 2023 were the fewest in a season since 1986.

The main culprit was the lack of a downfield passing game - the Pirates averaged just under ten yards per completion, among the fewest in the country. That’s potentially changing fast with two transfer quarterbacks with experience joining the fun.

Between Jake Garcia (Missouri) and Katin Houser (Michigan State) the ECU O will get a whole lot more out of the position.

- The receiving corps has a potentially nice mix. Leading receiver Chase Sowell made 47 grabs for 622 yards and a touchdown in his freshman year, and Jhari Patterson is back as a short-range target, but Anthony Smith (NC State) and Winston Wright (Florida State) should crank up the production fast.

- The running game didn’t help the cause. Three starters are back up front with a little help coming in from the transfer portal, and the backs are in place if they can get some room. Rajai Harris and Javious Bond combined for 716 yards and six scores, and now they need more carries.

East Carolina Preview 2024: Defense

- Oh great. The defense finally works at East Carolina and the offense didn’t help. The Pirate D had one of its best seasons in years, allowing just 341 yards and 22.4 points per game thanks to an impressive ability to limit first downs. That seems basic, but this bunch was amazing at keeping them a minimum.

- More sacks would be nice. The tackles for loss were there, but the pass rush wasn’t. End Chad Stephens was great at getting behind the line with 12 tackles for loss, D’Anta Johnson was active on the nose, and edge rusher Ryheem Craig is coming in from Louisville to add a boost.

Missouri transfer Dameon Wilson didn’t do much in Columbia, but he should be one of the team’s leading producers for the Pirates with second-leading tackler Mike Edwards on the outside.

- There were just six picks from the D, but the secondary did a good enough job to bend but not often break. Shavon Revel is one of the best corners in the AAC - he does a little of everything right - with Andrew Wilson-Lamp coming in to take over on the other side. Former Maryland Terp Gavin Gibson should be a top tackler at free safety.

East Carolina Key To The Season

Get that passing game going again.
The 2022 team that won eight games and the Birmingham Bowl did it by winging it all over the yard. The passing attack hit 267 yards or more in every game in two, and even when it didn’t work it still managed 197 yards.

Last year’s offense never got to 250 yards through the air.

This should change. The quarterbacks are in place to do more, and the receivers should be okay, but it’s more than just the yards. The QBs have to start hitting the throws that are there, and that’s why …

East Carolina Key Player

WR Chase Sowell, Soph.
The quarterbacks are a bigger deal - that’s coming up next. They need playmakers to work with, and it starts with the big true sophomore who rose up to be one of the team’s steadier producers averaging 13 yards per grab. If he’s a true No. 1, the passing attack should pop back up because …

East Carolina Top Transfer, Biggest Transfer Loss

Top Transfer In: QB Katin Houser, Soph. & QB Jake Garcia, Jr.
One of them will take over the quarterback gig and be solid. Garcia comes in from Missouri and before that Miami, and Houser saw a little bit of time at Michigan State. ECU did this right - both can play, and now it has options.

Top Transfer Out: S Teagan Wilk, Sr.
He missed most of last year with a neck injury suffered early on, but in 2022 awe was a nice all-around producer with 55 tackles and five broken up passes. He’s off to Houston.

East Carolina Key Game

UTSA, Sept. 28
Will the Pirates be a factor or not? After last year’s disaster they should be off to a decent start, and they don’t play a team that went bowling in 2023 the rest of the way. That’s not to say the AAC title game is theirs with a win over the Roadrunners, but this should be the toughest conference test.

East Carolina 10 Best Players

1. Chad Stephens, EDGE Sr.
2. Shavon Revel, CB Sr.
3. Raja Harris, RB Sr.
4. D’Anta Johnson, DT Sr.
5. Mike Edwards, LB Sr.
6. Chase Sowell, WR Soph.
7. Jake Garcia, QB Jr.
8. Kaitin Houser, QB Soph.
9. Andrew Conrad, PK Jr.
10. Elijah Morris, DT Sr.

East Carolina 2023 Fun Stats

- Fumbles: Opponents 20 (lost 10), East Carolina 8 (lost 7)

- 3rd Quarter Scoring: Opponents 50, East Carolina 17

- Passing TDs: Opponents 19, East Carolina 7

East Carolina 2024 Season Prediction, Win Total, What Will Happen

Last year’s team started the season against Michigan, had to deal with what turned out to be a fantastic SMU squad, and dealt with Tulane. Overall it wasn’t that bad a slate, but there five teams on it that won nine games or more and one of them won a national title.

Be floored if more than one team on this year’s slate gets to ten wins. Fine, maybe two, but there aren’t a slew of killers. Start with the biggest break of all with no Memphis or Tulane in AAC play. Missing Rice, UAB, and USF isn’t bad, either.

The Pirates will struggle a bit, but considering UTSA comes to Greenville there isn’t a game on the schedule they can’t win.

How light and breezy is this? There are four games in September against teams that went bowling. That’s it. The October and November are free of games against 2023 bowl teams, and ECU should win their share of those to make it three winning seasons in the last four.

Set The East Carolina Win Total At … 6.5

Likely Wins: Norfolk State, Temple

50/50 Games: Appalachian State, at Army, at Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Navy, at North Texas, at Old Dominion, at Tulsa, UTSA

Likely Losses: at Liberty