#79 East Carolina

Greenville, NC

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium

September 20, 2025

BYU 34 - East Carolina 13 (ESPN Recap)

There are no states called North Michigan or South Michigan, but there is one called Michigan. Within Michigan there are universities called Michigan, Michigan State, and directionals called Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan.

North Carolina and South Carolina are two separate states, but between the two states, you will also find universities named Western Carolina, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Carolina, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina State, and South Carolina (among many others ie UNC-Xs). Do you know what state East Carolina University is in?

I did not know where ECU was located until about a week ago, and pulled the trigger to go to this 3-0 vs 3-0 battle between ECU and BYU on 24-hours notice.

Booked two points flights (Delta/JetBlue) and a cheap rental car and thought I was slick spending $42 all-in on transportation. Turns out though that if an airport decides to give all their rental cars away for free (~$30) one day, that the lines to obtain those cars end up stretching down the parking lot, taking two hours to pick one up. That was two hours I wasn’t willing to give. The good news is that ride share was easy to get and the drive from RDU to Greenville was the length of the 1H of Texas Tech @ Utah, which I streamed every snap of from the back seat. Luis and Shane were life savers on Lyft today!

I did research before the trip and set my destination in Greenville to “Coco’s Sports Bar.” Easy choice given my affinity for Coco Gauff and that their internet presence showed a good TV setup and that it was walking distance to the stadium. When I arrived, Coco’s was permanently closed… or ”cerrado” as Luis said to me looking distraught after a long drive. Another pivot to BWW a few minutes away and it was time to groove.

Not long after I sat down, a young guy rocking a University of Nebraska polo sat down next to me. I immediately engaged in the obligatory “you lost boy?” conversation, which led to the spawning of a day’s long friendship. Ty is a student at Nebraska (transfer from ASU), visiting his GF (Grace) who is a student at ECU. They are both from Colorado. He is a big college football fan (UT Vols his team followed by Huskers) and needed somewhere to post up until Grace got off work. We got along all day until I found out he went with his dad to Alabama at Tennessee in 2023 (goal posts in the river) and the 4th and 31 Iron Bowl at Auburn, at which point I had to overcome 15 seconds of jealous hate for him. Once I overcame the jealousy, we bet equal amounts on CFB games the rest of the day, while talking about his future career at Fivetran Denver because Fivetran would only hire the superior athlete between he and his brother. I eventually got to meet Grace at BWW, and her older sister via FaceTime who was looking for an evaluation of “Ty Ty”. I said, “any 21-year old student in college, who leaves Lincoln the weekend of the Michigan game which is the biggest game in a decade, to take 2 planes to get to ECU for a weekend, really likes your sister! We like Ty Ty!”

Walked to game and must have been in a chatty mood because ended up with a pocket of 16-or-so BYU fans (probably a single family). Spoke with Paul who is a BYU grad and professor in Blacksburg at Va Tech. We exchanged numbers because I was a little tipsy and also foreshadowed that I might be making the trip to Lubbock in November for BYU @ Texas Tech.

I bet the Under 49.5 which felt good considering a 5-person straw poll of people I came across on planes and walking were unanimously on the over when asked. BYU thoroughly dominated the game and the under was very strong, yet I had to sweat the last 4.5 mins when BYU broke a 40 yard rushing TD as they were running out the clock. Play of the game was this bonehead coaching decision by ECU to throw on 1st and 10 from their own 1-yard line and under a minute left, down 3, right before half, with BYU only having 1 timeout. Points for the other team, as ECU deserved. ECU really felt like they were playing the final couple minutes just for the over, using timeouts on defense with under 2 minutes left down 21 (34-13). No one scored again. Big win!

Keeping today’s theme consistent, my randomly purchased single ticket on SeatGeek was next to Aaron and Zach Toomey’s brother, Daniel. Daniel is of no relation to the Toomeys, but is really from Greensboro, could definitely pass as Aaron’s brother, and his brother-in-law was kicked out of Bishop McGuiness. He’s a sicko too and went to 14 CFB games last season, which I assume was one with one of each of his siblings and then a few games solo.

ECU has a passionate fan base. The stadium was jam full, and not only because BYU filled two sections. The tailgating was solid throughout the outside of the stadium as people were gearing up to get Rowdy at Dowdy. I would rate it in the Top 5 for G5 gameday experiences so far on this journey (along with UCF, JMU, & SMU). Daniel and I were sitting directly behind a diehard ECU fan who happened to be a UNC grad but not a Heels fan because “UNC takes winning for granted” and “when ECU beats State in Greenville, it’s a bigger deal than if Chapel Hill wins a natty.” He taught us that ECU hates NC State more than anyone, that ECU is a “classy-trashy” school, and we overheard him screaming these comments to the officials and ECU sidelines:

“How much are they paying you?! He was riding him like a horse?!” (after clean coverage no call) “Stop running the ball! They are bigger and stronger than you! (with 8 mins left in 1H).” “Nice tackling boys!” (after a bunch of broken tackles by the BYU RB (then some sarcastic slow claps on random bad plays later in the game) Not much to be happy about as a ECU fan in that game.

Watched west coast ball at BWW with Ty and Grace. Washington covered everything. Cal covered nothing. Got back to Raleigh with not a lot of time to sleep before morning flight back to FL.