The Go Bowling Military Bowl will be an exciting matchup between two 8-4 programs as the East Carolina Pirates face off against ACC representative, Pittsburgh Panthers at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.
This will be the fifth meeting between the two programs with the series being tied at two-all dating back to 1984. The Panthers won the first two contests in 1984 (17-10) and 1989 (47-42), before the Pirates claimed consecutive victories in the series 1991 (24-23) and 1992 (37-31).
This clash for the troops has a sweeter aspect underlining it with this game being a collision course of the best that the Group of Five and Power Four has to offer. The head coaches, Pat Narduzzi of Pittsburg and Blake Harrell for Eastern Carolina, sat down with the media last Sunday night to preview this upcoming bowl matchup.
“We look forward to a great matchup, obviously two 8 and 4 teams. We’re lucky to have both teams and excited for a great day,” said President and Executive Director of the Military Foundation, Steve Beck as he announced both teams for this bowl game.
This isn’t the first rodeo for East Carolina and head coach Blake Harrell, as the Pirates (8-4, 6-2 American) will be making their return to Annapolis after a hard-fought 26-21 victory over NC State last season. That win, which was marked not only by Harrell’s first bowl triumph but also by some postgame fireworks between the two programs, underscored the intensity of the matchup. Now, with history on their side, the Pirates look to become repeat champions in the bowl’s 15-year history.
“We always celebrate winning around here, and we’ll always be grateful that we’re going to a bowl game. That’s something East Carolina needs to get back to doing on the regular. And we’ve been able to do it back to back years and get to go back to Annapolis to do it again,” said Coach Harrell.
The Military Bowl is more than just a game to Coach Harrell. He mentioned the tight-knit relationship East Carolina has with the military community in the North Carolina area.
“Many military families in Eastern North Carolina that are connected to our university and our program in this part of the state and just have a connection to the military. And just for those folks to go back up to Annapolis and be a part of that. It’s pretty special and obviously, I appreciate all the men and women who served our country over the years,” said Coach Harrell.
Sunday’s bowl selection surrounded the main conversation of compare and contrast in competition between Group of Five and Power Four.
East Carolina has some experience playing against power four teams such as Big XII runner up BYU, and ACC’s NC State this season. Coach Harrell explained how pumped up the players in the locker feel to finish the year against another major program and represent the American Conference while doing it.
“For the guys in our locker room, they get excited about that and it means a little bit more. You can’t tell them there’s a huge difference between G[roup of]5 and P[ower] 4. They look forward to the challenge. We’re excited to go represent the American Conference.”
The American has worn the Group of Five badge with pride as the conference has won six matchups this season against Power Four opponents, but with a 1-4 record against the ACC, the Pirates have a tough task ahead of them if the program wants to reach nine wins.
“The feeling the [seniors] have put back in Pirate football has been pretty special. Eight wins, most wins since 2014. Six conference wins, the most conference wins since 2013. An opportunity to go win number nine is pretty special. And back to back bowl games in back to back years since the 60’s,” stated Harrell as he detailed the legacy the seniors on the Pirates team has left.
Pitt (8-4, 6-2 Atlantic Coast) on the other hand comes into this game with an opportunity to right their wrongs from last season after coming up short in an 48-46 thriller against Toledo in the GameAbove Sports Bowl.
Head Coach Pat Narduzzi will make his first appearance in the Military Bowl for the first time in a decade, a game that the Pitt coach holds dearly as this was his bowl game he led the Panthers to. Unlike last year, Pitt isn’t letting the difference in conference mess with their focus.
“We’re excited to be back 10 years later to represent the University of Pittsburgh in this game and got a great opponent. We know how competitive it is, we know the parity. Group of Five or Power Four, it really doesn’t matter. They’re football players and they all got hearts. And it comes down to who plays with more toughness and who wants it the most.” remarked Narduzzi.
When asked about how full strength the roster will be as of the Dec. 27 kickoff, Coach Narduzzi told reporters that he has “no indication” as of Sunday night whether players will call out of this bowl game to prepare for the NFL Draft or the transfer portal. And he looks to have the same lineup that the Panthers had out on the field in their season finale against Miami.
With a multitude of teams declining bowl invitations on Sunday, Coach Narduzzi further extended his gratitude for being able to play in a bowl game and what it means to the program as a whole.
“Regardless of what bowl game it is, we’re all blessed to be able to play in these and blessed to put them on. We’ve got great tradition at Pitt, bowl games are bowl games. It’s a celebration, it’s an opportunity to go out and play one more football game with your football team. We try to uphold that tradition all the time,” declared Narduzzi.
Both coaches feel confident in their team being able to play at an early time. The teams accredit morning practices and a good amount of noon games this season to their ability of playing early games.
“This will be right down our alley. We had about eight noon games, so we’re just talking about an hour early, but our guys used to getting up early and playing,” said Narduzzi.
“We went on that run of all night games until November and had those four Thursday night games and didn’t play a Saturday game in October. So definitely a weird layout throughout the season for that, but did play the last game of the season, FAU there at noon. But you know, I think fire guys, just like coaches, we practice in the morning, so getting up and going at it,” said Harrell.
Go Bowling Military Bowl will air live on ESPN.
