The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the conference consists of fifteen member universities, each of whom compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I, with its football teams competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest levels for athletic competition in US-based collegiate sports. The ACC sponsors competition in twenty-five sports with many of its member institutions' athletic programs held in high regard nationally. Current members of the conference are Boston College, Clemson University, Duke University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Florida State University, North Carolina State University, Syracuse University, the University of Louisville, the University of Miami, the University of North Carolina, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Wake Forest University.
Williams–Brice Stadium is the home football stadium for the South Carolina Gamecocks, the college football team representing the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. It is currently the 16th largest on-campus college football stadium in the NCAA and is located on the corner of George Rogers Boulevard and Bluff Road adjacent to the South Carolina State Fairgrounds.
Jeff Blake is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League for 14 seasons. Blake was a member of seven teams during his career, with his longest stint being with the Cincinnati Bengals from 1994 to 1999. Prior to his five seasons in Cincinnati, he was selected in the sixth round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, whom he was a member of for two seasons. He spent the second half of his career playing for the New Orleans Saints from 2000 to 2001 and one season each with the Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles, and Chicago Bears.
The Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because its six charter members were all in urban metropolitan areas, though its later members did not follow that pattern. The conference was centered in the Upper South with some strength in the Deep South. The conference never sponsored football, although most of its members throughout its history had Division I-A football programs. In 1995, it merged with the Great Midwest Conference to form Conference USA. The merger was driven mainly by football, as several Metro Conference members had been successfully lured to larger conferences that sponsored the sport.
Louis Leo "Skip" Holtz Jr. is an American football coach who is the current head coach at Louisiana Tech University. He was head coach at the University of South Florida from 2010 to 2012 before being released. Prior to 2010, Holtz served as the head coach of the East Carolina University football team. Additionally, Holtz was the head coach of the Connecticut Huskies football team between 1994 and 1998 and an assistant head coach for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks between 1998 and 2004.
Bagwell Field at Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium is the on-campus football facility at East Carolina University for the East Carolina Pirates in Greenville, North Carolina. The official capacity of the stadium is 51,000, making it the second largest college stadium in North Carolina. The record attendance for the stadium was on September 20, 2014 against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with 51,082 in attendance. The stadium is also the site of Spring Commencement exercises for the University.
Keith Stokes is a former professional Canadian and American football wide receiver. For the 2019 season, he is Special Teams and Offensive Assistant Coach for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.
Henry Lee "Gizmo" Williams is a former American and Canadian football kick returner and wide receiver. After his retirement at the end of the 2000 CFL season, Williams worked as a motivational speaker.
The South Carolina Gamecocks represent the University of South Carolina in the NCAA Division I.
Michael Burnette McGee was an American offensive guard in the National Football League (NFL) who later became a successful college football coach and college athletics administrator. He was an All-American at Duke University and in 1959 won the Outland Trophy, given to the nation's best interior lineman. After playing for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1960 to 1962, he returned as an assistant coach to Duke, and then at the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, before becoming head coach at East Carolina University (1970) and Duke (1971–1978). At East Carolina, he compiled a 3–8 record, and at Duke he compiled a 37–47–4 record. His overall record as a head coach was 40–55–4. His best seasons came in 1971 and 1974, when he went 6–5. He later became athletic director at the University of Cincinnati (1980–1984), the University of Southern California (1984–1993), and the University of South Carolina (1993–2005). McGee was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1990. He died in 2019 at the age of 80.
The East Carolina Pirates are the athletic teams that represent East Carolina University (ECU), located in Greenville, North Carolina. All varsity-level sports teams except for women's lacrosse participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the American Athletic Conference. The women's lacrosse team, newly launched for the 2018 season, is playing its inaugural season as a Division I independent before becoming a charter member of The American's new women's lacrosse league in the 2019 season. The school became an NCAA member in 1961.
The East Carolina Pirates are a college football team that represents East Carolina University. The team is a member of the American Athletic Conference, which is in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Mike Houston is the head coach.
The South Carolina Gamecocks football program represents the University of South Carolina in the sport of American football. The Gamecocks compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. The team's head coach is Shane Beamer. They play their home games at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Christopher Duan Johnson is a former American football running back. Born in Orlando, Florida, Johnson emerged as a senior for East Carolina University where he broke out for 2,960 all-purpose yards and 24 touchdowns. He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft, after running a then-record breaking 4.24 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. In 2009, he won the NFL rushing title with 2,006 yards, and broke Marshall Faulk's record of total yards from scrimmage with 2,509. This earned him the nickname CJ2K. He has been to three Pro Bowls and was the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year in 2009. Johnson has also played for the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals.
The 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders from the Big 12 Conference and the East Carolina Pirates from Conference USA (C-USA) at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas on December 27, 2000. It was the inaugural game in the bowl's history. The game was the final competition of the 2000 football season for each team and resulted in 40–27 East Carolina victory.
The 2009 East Carolina Pirates football team represented East Carolina University in the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season and played their home games in Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium. The team was coached by Skip Holtz, who was in his fifth and final year with the program. The 2009 Pirates were defending their first ever Conference USA Football Championship.
The East Carolina–NC State rivalry is a rivalry between East Carolina University and North Carolina State University. Both teams are located in North Carolina. The intensity of the rivalry is driven by the proximity and the size of the two schools.
Jamey Chadwell is an American football coach and former player, who serves as the head coach and offensive coordinator at Coastal Carolina; he also served as interim head coach in the 2017 season while permanent head coach Joe Moglia was on a medical leave. He was named Head Coach of CCU on January 18, 2019. Chadwell was previously the head coach at Charleston Southern University for four seasons (2013–2016), North Greenville University for three seasons (2009–2011) and Delta State University for one season (2012). He grew up in Tennessee and attended East Tennessee State University where he played quarterback from 1995 to 1999. He began his coaching career in 2000 at East Tennessee State before taking an assistant position at Charleston Southern University in 2004.
The 1995 Liberty Bowl game was a college football bowl game played on December 30, 1995, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. The 37th edition of the Liberty Bowl, it featured the Stanford Cardinal and the East Carolina Pirates.
