Right about the time the East Carolina football team had a national ranking attached to itself last season, opponents began a trend of going off script either for a play, a drive or even a game to try to beat the Pirates.
Teams started to implement the element of surprise by installing new looks, plays or schemes, things that wouldn’t necessarily be on the game film the Pirates were studying.
While the tactic was largely an attempt to offset ECU’s powerful offense, it was often the Pirate defense that bore the brunt of other teams’ tactical tinkering.