ANNAPOLIS, Maryland – If you’re already looking ahead to 2025 in college football, mark the first game of this season: East Carolina at NC State on August 30.
The Pirates and Wolfpack began fighting in the final minute of the East Carolina game. 26-21 victory in the Military Bowl on Saturday night, and the teams won’t have to wait long to see each other again. They face each other to open next season.
“I feel embarrassed as a coach,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. “I know our players are too. That’s not how the people of this program, the players of this program, the staff of this program, want to have anything to do with something like this. For me it was a terrible response to something that happened to one of our players and there are no excuses for it. “So I apologize to ECU and their team for the way we responded.”
Understandably, emotions were high for this matchup. NC State and East Carolina are separated by about 80 miles, and while they don’t play every season, they have been on each other’s schedules many times over the years.
NC State rallied from a 20-7 deficit in the fourth quarter and led by one point when ECU’s Rahjai Harris capped a spectacular day with an 86-yard touchdown run that gave the Pirates a 26-21 lead with 1:33 left to play.
An interception gave the ball back to East Carolina with 44 seconds left, just needing time to run out, but after a Harris run up the middle, the fight broke out around the markings closest to the ECU sideline.
“Obviously, I didn’t like the last stretch of the game,” Pirates coach Blake Harrell said. “There’s no place in sports for that.”
East Carolina receiver Yannick Smith appeared to grab a towel from the waistband of NC State defensive back Tamarcus Cooley, who then chased Smith to the sideline and shoved him to the ground. Two other ECU players came to Smith’s defense. As the fight spread, it took about a minute to control the situation, and about eight minutes before the ball could be captured again for a final kneel.
At least one referee appeared to have a bloody face after the fight, and the referee appeared to be reading from a piece of paper when he announced the ejections of eight players.
It makes sense if ECU would have a bigger grudge coming into this game, given NC State’s popularity in the state of North Carolina. Although later, Harrell seemed to have more words for other teams in the state than for the Wolfpack.
“I don’t think you can look at our fans and tell them it’s not a rivalry. It’s an hour and 15 minutes away,” Harrell said. “And there are a couple more schools about the same distance away. Maybe they should put us on their agenda too, instead of trying to take our players. They want to call our players and take them away. Well, how about we get on the schedule?
“They’re going to look at us like a little stepbrother, that’s fine,” Harrell added. “These guys are going to compete, they are going to accept the challenge. I know we’ll have to face these guys again next year, at the beginning of the year. But tonight we are going to celebrate.”