The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Plays Host To East Carolina Thursday At Legion Field
11/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 11, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB Blazers will face one of the nation's top offenses when they play host to the East Carolina Pirates Thursday night in a Conference USA contest at Legion Field.
Kickoff is set for 7:04 p.m. CT. CBS College Sports will televise the game nationally. The contest will also be carried live on the Blazer Sports Network, airing locally on 107.7 WUHT-FM. The pregame show beginning at 5:30 p.m. CT.
The Blazers (3-6, 2-3 C-USA) will be looking to get back on track after a sub-par performance against Marshall last Saturday as the Thundering Herd came to Birmingham and left with a 31-17 victory.
Like UAB, ECU will try to bounce back from a loss last weekend. The Pirates suffered a 76-35 loss at the hands of Navy last Saturday on their home field.
UAB will also be attempting to stop a three-game losing streak to the Pirates. The Blazers now trail in the all-time series, 5-4, after leading it at one time by 3-1 and 4-2 margins.
In East Carolina, UAB will be facing one of the top offenses in the country. The Pirates will come into the game ranked No. 14 nationally in scoring offense (34.4 ppg) and No. 7 in passing offense (316.2).
Quarterback Dominique Davis is fifth in the nation in total offense at 319.8 yards per game. The Pirates have two receivers rated in the top 20 in the country in receptions per game. Dwayne Harris is averaging 7.8 catches a game while Lance Lewis is at 6.3 per contest.
Harris already has 70 receptions this season for 823 yards and eight touchdowns while Lewis has 57 for 637 with nine scores.
"Without a doubt, they have the two best receivers in our league," UAB head coach Neil Callaway said of Harris and Lewis. They have a good quarterback and a good running back. I think offensively you look at their stats and you see they have an explosive offensive football team."
While East Carolina's offense has put some prolific numbers, the Pirate defense has been susceptible to yielding yardage as well.
ECU ranks No. 117 (41.3) in scoring defense and No. 115 in total defense (456.9).
For UAB, the Blazers hope to get their rushing game going the way it was clicking before last week's loss to Marshall. The Herd allowed only 80 rushing yards to UAB, the first time this season that the Blazers have been held below 100. In fact, the Blazers had rushed for more than 200 on the ground in two of the previous three games before Saturday.
"You look at us offensively (vs. Marshall), we made a couple of runs, made a couple of throws, made some plays," said Callaway, "but we did not do anything on a consistent basis. To score points, you have to put drives together and put plays together, and we just were not able to do that."
Junior Pat Shed leads the ground game with 607 yards and a 5.5 yards per attempt average. He is backed by seniors Daniel Borne (219 yards) and Justin Brooks (168 yards).
QB Bryan Ellis has passed for 1,914 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Defensively, linebacker Marvin Burdette is coming off a 20-tackle performance against Marshall and leads the Blazers with 82 stops. Defensive tackle Elliott Henigan is third on the team in tackles with 43 but leads the Blazers in tackles for loss with 12.
