KNOW YOUR FOE: East Carolina riding emotional high into rubber match with UCF

UCF's final head-to-head battle with East Carolina — for the immediate future, anyway — will be a rubber match.

Pitted annually all but once since 2005, first in Conference USA before both programs jumped into the American Athletic Conference, the Knights and Pirates have split 20 all-time meetings evenly.

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East Carolina dominated the series in its early days, winning eight of the first nine contests. UCF enters Saturday's 7:30 kickoff, however, on a six-game winning streak against the Pirates.

Both teams storm into the showdown with momentum, too.

UCF (5-1, 2-0) crushed Temple 70-13 last week, scoring touchdowns on 10 of its 12 offensive possessions in prime time to move within touching distance of the AP Top 25. East Carolina (4-3, 2-2) rallied from 17 down in the first half and prevailed 47-45 in four overtimes over Memphis.

UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee and East Carolina safety Julius Wood were chosen as the AAC's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively. Plumlee accounted for seven touchdowns, tying a single-game school record, while Wood brought the Pirates even with Memphis on a pick-six in the third quarter.

It's a make-or-break stretch of the season for both teams to accomplish important goals.

UCF desires to exit the AAC as champions once more, but plays three of its next four games on the road — with two contests on the horizon against ranked opponents (Cincinnati on homecoming, and at Tulane). The Knights officially join the Big 12 on July 1, 2023.

East Carolina needs two more wins to secure bowl eligibility, having not participated in a postseason game since 2015. The Pirates were selected to the Military Bowl last year, but it was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols for their scheduled opponent, Boston College.

Stephen Igoe, a reporter for Hoist The Colours and 247Sports, provides the rundown on all things ECU this week in Know Your Foe.

Boyle: Well, the Pirates are certainly riding high after a four-overtime win over Memphis. What was the pulse of the team and the fan base after that game, and how can they carry it over Saturday to make things tougher on UCF?

Igoe: It was definitely a huge win. Coming off the poor performance against Tulane (which ECU felt was a winnable game), the Pirates needed a bounce-back, especially with a gauntlet of a stretch in the schedule coming up. Things didn't exactly look promising late in the first half when it was 17-0 Memphis, but give credit to the team. The Pirates needed one spark and they got it from a long offensive scoring drive, and the game changed from there. Then it was big to pull out a close win. The Pirates really let two get away against N.C. State and Navy despite largely outperforming their foes. So to make the clutch plays late in a crucial game should really give them confidence, especially going into what should be another highly competitive contest against UCF.

Boyle: East Carolina ranks 21st in FBS in total offense with quarterback Holton Ahlers at the controls. UCF fans will know Ahlers well; he's started each of the past four meetings, dating back to 2018. Where has he made the biggest strides in commanding this team?

Igoe: The biggest difference for Ahlers is he's just in complete command on the field. He knows the entire offense, he's making checks at the line of scrimmage based upon looks the defenses are giving him and he's making changes to protections as well. Along with his play at quarterback, it's like having another coach on the field. On top of that, he's a vital leader for the entire team, but especially the offense. Put all those things together, and he's having the best season of his career. There are a handful of plays he'd like to have back, but that largely comes with playing the position.

Boyle: ECU has a +26 scoring margin in the second quarter, and a +18 margin in the third quarter. What consistent adjustments are the Pirates making, and how have they consistently been able to get back into or seize control of games in the middle segment?

Igoe: I think it shows the coaching staff is good at making in-game adjustments, for the most part. It also, in my opinion, shows they have gotten off to some surprisingly slow starts. The offense has struggled to score early touchdowns at times. But when they get in a rhythm, they can score in bunches. And the defense feeds off that. It's a very complementary football team. We saw that late in the first half against Memphis. It was a miserable start. But ECU finally broke through with a long TD drive, the defense followed with a pick and the offense scored on the very next play to score 13 unanswered in the blink of an eye.

Boyle: Defensively, the Pirates are near the bottom in both passing yards allowed and pass defense efficiency. Where have the breakdowns come from, and how do they plan to contend with John Rhys Plumlee and the Knights' receivers?

Igoe: A lot of it has come from a lack of consistent pass rush, and some new pieces on the back end. ECU plays a pretty large amount of zone defense, and they bring lots of pressure. If you can't get home in those situations, there are going to be holes on the back end. Conversely, ECU does create a high number of negative plays with this style, so it can be very risk/reward. It'll be interesting to see how they try and approach things against Plumlee and Co. Limiting explosive plays against UCF's offense would seem to be part of an ideal game plan, but ECU still generally likes to play its aggressive style to try and force the opposition into mistakes.

Boyle: These teams have met just about every year since 2005, and 20 times overall. Will fans, players, coaches and/or administrators miss the annual rivalry? What would you call ECU's signature moment in its 10 victories over the Knights?

Igoe: I think the rivalry will be missed by both sides. We're talking about probably the two best game-day atmospheres and fan bases in both Conference USA and the AAC during their times together — when things are going right for both programs. Obviously UCF has gotten the better of ECU lately, but these things tend to be cyclical. And there were also some down years for the Knights; they just rebounded much better from them. The one things that kind of stinks looking back at the series is we rarely got to see both teams play each other when they were each at the top of their game. So the games and feelings surrounding them weren't always intense as they could've been. For ECU, the highlight in the series probably has to be the consecutive, competitive wins in 2008 and '09 that led to back-to-back Conference USA titles. A win Saturday would certainly be a new high point, though.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF Knights football: Know Your Foe, East Carolina Pirates