East Carolina may arguably boast the toughest schedule in Conference USA, and their season is not getting any easier.
The Pirates (1-3, 0-1 C-USA) will travel to Houston to take on a Cougar (2-1, 1-0 C-USA) team that just came back from a 17-3 deficit to beat Colorado State on Saturday at Robertson Stadium.
So far the competition level for East Carolina has been extremely high.
They’re coming off a 48-7 thrashing handed down by West Virginia on Saturday and have lost close games over the past three weeks.
The Pirates opened their season Sept. 1 at Virginia Tech and took a 17-7 loss.
ECU then went to Greenville, N.C. on back-to-back weeks and came out 1-1, beating North Carolina (34-31) on Sept. 8 and losing to Southern Miss (28-21) on Sept. 15.
"(We’re) beat up, and there’s no doubt," East Carolina head coach Skip Holtz said. "You could say you were close here and close there but the reality of it is that you’re still 1-3.
"So right now, we’re fragile – we’re definitely fragile. (We’ve) already played the best team in the division, now (we) get to play the best team in the conference."
With the emergence of redshirt freshman quarterback Case Keenum, it seems that opposing teams could take focus away from senior running back Anthony Alridge, but Holtz knows how good the rest of the Cougar offense is.
"Keenum is an impressive quarterback on what he can do. … Both Alridge and (freshman running back Terrance) Ganaway are averaging six yards-a-carry, so they spread you out," Holtz said. "If you spread out and try and stop the passing game, they’ll kill you with the running game up inside.
"Their offensive line does a great job with it. … Keenum is a very good player, but I also think he’s in a very good system. So, we’re preparing for a quarterback to play extremely well regardless who is in there with them."
The biggest threat to the Cougars is running back Chris Johnson. A lot like Alridge, Johnson is an all-purpose player, leading East Carolina in rushing, receiving and touchdowns.
Johnson’s rushing (42 yards) and receiving yards (44.5 yards) per game are nothing too impressive. But Johnson is putting up 158.8 all-purpose yards per game, mostly through kickoff returns, averaging a little more than 72 yards per game.
He has also accounted for 36 of the 69 points and six of the nine touchdowns for the Pirates.
"(Johnson) has done a great job for us, he really has. He’s a senior, he’s playing his best football of his career, he wants to win and he wants to be good," Holtz said. "He’s one of the few seniors we’re playing this year, and he’s a guy that has just grown as a football player, and he’s really starting to mature and he’s doing great things."
Of UH-ECU games, East Carolina owns the series 4-3 and the Cougars last defeated the Pirates in 2004 (34-24) at Robertson Stadium.
However, Holtz said East Carolina will have to work for a win.
"I got some concerns about us going on the road, taking that long plane trip to Houston and showing up there and playing really well," Holtz said. "It’s going to take our best effort if we’re going to have a chance to win this game."
