Notes From Greenville, NC

[PonyKai]

ECU fans are some of the nicest and most welcoming around. Haven't been to Marshall for a game yet, so can't compare to them, but they were universally friendly, warm, chatty, and happy for our fans to be there. Even the dirt-road alumni for ECU were good folks, and the drunks were a lot of fun as well.

Having been to the Navy game multiple times, including this year, Annapolis is a great venue and town, but once again their fans and alums fall far short of some of the other schools we play, which is disappointing.

It's tough to expect a large turnout of SMU fans for a regular season game in semi-rural Eastern North Carolina, 1400 miles away from the school, when we have a small alumni base, little walk up support, and a small student enrollment. As expected, our contingent was fairly small, but very loud, excited, and passionate. We may not have the most fans, but darn it we have some good ones. While winning is becoming more of an expectation and regular occurrence, it's still so much fun to see the excitement from people who have had no reason to expect a result like this in a very long time.

The God's must have been smiling on our game, because it rained all morning, during tailgating, during pre-game, and then magically stopped as soon as we got in the stadium, and never started again. In fact, it actually turned out to be a pretty pleasant afternoon, even got to see some sun toward the end.

ECU has a pretty darn good game day presentation, as Kate noted in the DMN, especially for a non-AQ school with a limited budget. With the stadium now enclosed at one end and seating upwards of 50,000 it's a pretty good venue, and gets very loud even when it isn't that close to being full. Love the "No Quarter" flags they have, and the video and flag run-up they do to start the fourth quarter. Honestly, SMU could, and should take notes on ECU because there are more than a couple things we can do to improve upon on own presentation.

Knowing that Crawford was being heckled mercilessly by the Pirate student section down at the opposite end of overtime action, it was a lot of fun to see him tear down the field and rush in to their end zone to start the celebration right in front of them. Guys on the team really love to see support from fans for away games, obviously.

ECU gets a lot of support from the local community, so it was awfully fun to walk out there in SMU gear.

[mustangbill67]

I have been to a lot of away games but this was one of the best as far as game atmosphere is concerned. The rabid purple clad Pirates were fun to interact with. A blue collar crowd for sure but very friendly. Arrrr

[Terry Webster]

Marshall was a great town when I went last year. Good fans, lots of history with the team at the bar we were hanging at.

[carolina stang]

What a day! Crawford's interception gave us all an out of this world feeling. I didn't make Marshall last year, but was there in 05. Marshall fans IMO way nicer. It's not even close for me. There were many cordial fans as we entered the stadium, but the ones near us (the guys that looked to be wearing deer hunting pants) were obnoxious. One guy was so mad at the officiating, I thought he might have a stroke. And this is after every call had gone against SMU in the early going.
Regardless, what a fabulous day in every way! Great to see other Mustang fans so happy too!