Setting the Stage
•    Navy and East Carolina meet on the gridiron for the eighth time overall and the fourth time as American Athletic Conference foes when they square off on ESPN2 (simulcast on ESPN+) Saturday afternoon at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium (50,000) in Greenville, N.C. Attendance for Saturday's game will be limited to 7% of capacity (3,500) and the allotment has already been exhausted by player families for both teams, ECU season ticket holders (based on a donor priority point system) and ECU students.
•    Navy leads the all-time series, 6-1, including a 3-0 mark in American Athletic Conference games. The Mids are 3-0 in games played in Greenville, outscoring the Pirates 198-94 (66.0-31.3). Navy's last trip to Greenville resulted in a 66-31 win in 2016.
•    Since 2015, when Navy joined the American Athletic Conference, the Mids have compiled a conference record of 29-15, which is the third-best mark in the league behind Temple and Memphis.
•    East Carolina will be just the second opponent Navy has played this year that has had just one week to prepare. The first was Tulane, who Navy defeated 27-24.  
•    Navy enters the weekend 2-0 in the AAC and alone in first place. It's the first time Navy has started 2-0 in the league since 2017, when the Mids started 3-0 before losing four of their final-five conference games. Navy also started 2-0 in 2015 and '16 and finished 7-1 in both seasons. The Mids shared the West Division crown with Houston in 2015 and won the West outright in 2016.
•    Navy started three different quarterbacks in its first three games of the season for the first time since 1992 - Jim Kubiak (Virginia), Brian Ellis (Boston College), Jason Van Matre (Rutgers). That 1992 team finished 1-10.
•    Last Saturday's win over Temple was Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo's 100th-career victory. He is the 24th active coach with 100-career wins and just the sixth active coach to achieve it at one school. Please see page 13 of the notes for charts on where Niumatalolo stands nationally in wins among current coaches.
    
Broadcast Coverage
•    ESPN+ will carry Saturday's game with Lincoln Rose and Keith Moreland on the call.
•    The Navy Football Insider Show with Joe Miller will air on Thursday night from 7:00-8:00 pm on WBAL Radio (1090 AM, 101.5 FM). Pete Medhurst, Keith Mills and Scott Wykoff will contribute to the show.
•    The Navy Football Tailgate Show on WNAV Radio 1430 AM / 99.9 FM will air from 10:00-11:00 AM with Wylie Baker and Bill Lusby serving as the hosts.
•    The Navy Football Pregame Show with Medhurst, Miller, Mills and Wykoff will get underway at 11:00 AM on the Navy Radio Network, followed by game action beginning at 12 noon with Medhurst, Miller and Mills on the call.
•    Following the contest, Medhurst, Miller, Mills and Wykoff will recap the day's events in a 30-minute postgame show.

Last Meeting: Navy vs. East Carolina
Sept. 14, 2019 // Annapolis, Md. // NMC Memorial Stadium
•    (AP)  Malcolm Perry ran for four touchdowns, threw for two scores and accounted for 307 yards in offense to guide Navy to a 42-10 rout of East Carolina.
•     Navy scored TDs on each of its first four possessions and coasted to the finish. The Midshipmen have won four straight against the Pirates, averaging 52 points per game.
•     Perry carried 24 times for 156 yards and completed 5 of 7 passes for 151 yards. He is the first Navy quarterback to amass at least 150 yards both running and passing since Ricky Dobbs against Arkansas State in November 2010.
•     Perry ran for touchdowns of 18 and 11 yards before capping an 85-yard drive with a 29-yard pass to CJ Williams for a 21-0 lead. After the Pirates temporarily interrupted the one-sided show with a field goal, Perry scored from the 6 to cap an 11-play march during which the Midshipmen converted a fourth-and-4.
•     Slithering through the East Carolina defense with remarkable ease, Perry topped the 100-yard mark rushing before the middle of the second quarter and had 128 yards on 18 attempts by halftime.
•     Perry has rushed for at least 100 yards in seven of his 10 career starts at quarterback.
•     Navy opened the second half with a 75-yard drive that lasted more than seven minutes and ended with Perry scoring from the 1. After an ECU punt, Perry immediately hit a wide-open Williams for an 80-yard TD, Navy's longest pass play since an 85-yarder by Dobbs in that 2010 game against Arkansas State.
•     After that throw, with the score 42-3, Perry's work was done.
•     Defense was not the Pirates' lone shortcoming in their third game under coach Mike Houston. Unable to reach the end zone until the fourth quarter, East Carolina displayed none of the firepower it showed one week earlier in a 48-9 win over Gardner-Webb.
•     Holton Ahlers went 11 for 23 for 138 yards and an interception.

Scouting East Carolina
•    East Carolina enters Saturday's contest with a 1-2 record, including a 1-1 mark in the American Athletic Conference.  
•    The Pirates are coming off an impressive 44-24 road victory over USF. The Pirates lost to UCF 51-28 in their opener and at Georgia State (49-29) in their second game.  
•    Quarterback Holton Ahlers has completed 60 of his 105 passes for 673 yards with 6 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.  He has also rushed for 77 yards on 24 carries.  
•    Ahlers' favorite target is Blake Proehl, who has 17 catches for 138 yards. Tyler Snead has 16 catches for 155 yards and a touchdown, while C.J. Johnson has been ECU's big play threat, averaging 25.2 yards per catch (6 catches for 151 yards and 3 touchdowns).
•    Rahjai Harris leads the ECU ground attack with 158 rushing yards on 35 carries.
•    The ECU defense is led by Xavier Smith, who has 28 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss and a sack, while Jireh Wilson has 22 tackles, 4.5 tackles for a loss and 2 sacks. Smith has also forced and recovered a fumble.
•    Kicker Jake Verity has made 6 of his 7 field goals, while punter John Young is averaging 41.9 yards per punt.
•    Some statistical notes on ECU: The defense has not allowed a fourth down conversion (0-5) ... ECU has recovered 3 fumbles, which ranks 14th nationally ... ECU's punt return defense ranks 25th nationally (3.0 yds/return) ... conversely, ECU ranks eighth nationally in punt returns, averaging 16.8 yards per return ... the Pirates are 10-for-10 in red zone scoring ... ECU has kept the ball an average of 33:56 per game, which ranks ninth nationally ... Snead is 21st in the country in all-purpose yardage, averaging 131.0 yards per game ... Verity is 15th in field goal percentage (.857) and fifth in field goals per game (2.00) ... Ahlers' 6 touchdown passes are the 25th most in the country ... Snead is 10th in punt returns, averaging 9.5 yards per return ... Johnson's three receiving touchdowns ranks 16th ... Smith is averaging 6.7 solo tackles per game, which ranks seventh ... Wilson's 1.5 tackles for a loss per game stand 16th ... Johnson's 25.17 yards per reception is fourth.

AAC Notebook
•    Navy jumped atop the American Athletic Conference standings as it battled for a 31-29 win against Temple at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The Midshipmen, who have won their two conference games by a combined 5 points, turned away Temple's bid for the tying two-point conversion with 1:02 left to secure the 100th career head coaching victory for Ken Niumatalolo.
•     FB Nelson Smith led the Navy offense with 120 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns, while QB Dalen Morris engineered an offense that finished with 253 rushing yards and 301 total yards.
• Temple, which was playing its season-opener, saw QB Anthony Russo account for 3 touchdowns (2 rushing, 1 passing), while RB Re'Mahn Davis rushed for 97 yards and a TD.
•     Houston played its season-opener as well, and the Cougars shook off some early rust to score a 49-31 win against Tulane at TDECU Stadium. WR Marquez Stevenson led the way with a 41-yard touchdown reception and a 97-yard kickoff return for a score, as he finished with 223 all-purpose yards. DE Payton Turner had 7 tackles, 2 sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss to lead a defense that held Tulane to 70 rushing yards, snapping a 56-game streak in which the Green Wave had rushed for at least 100 yards.
•     Tulane, which had 5 takeaways against the Cougars and held a 24-7 lead in the second quarter, was led by S Macon Clark, who had 2 interceptions.
•     East Carolina picked up its first win of the season as the Pirates pulled away for a 44-24 victory against USF in Tampa. QB Holton Ahlers threw 3 touchdown passes, while freshman RB Rahjai Harris went for 115 yards and 2 touchdowns on 19 carries. K Jake Verity hit 3 field goals and scored 14 points, becoming the Pirates' career scoring leader with 309 points.
•     QB Jordan McCloud led USF as he completed 26 of 35 passes for 298 yards, while RB Johnny Ford added a pair of rushing touchdowns.
•     Week 7 begins with an intriguing Friday doubleheader on ESPN as SMU visits Tulane and Houston hosts BYU. SMU is looking to become the nation's first 5-0 team, while Houston hosts nationally-ranked and undefeated BYU.
•     Saturday's ledger begins with three games at noon. Tulsa hosts Cincinnati on ESPN2 with the Golden Hurricane facing a third-consecutive nationally-ranked opponent to start the season. Navy visits East Carolina and USF is at Temple in the other games in the noon window.
• Saturday's schedule is capped by UCF at Memphis on ABC in a rematch of the 2017 and '18 American Athletic Conference championship games. UCF has won the last 13 meetings between the teams.