ECU Football Preps for Home Opener Against Harding
ADA, Okla. - After months of preparation and a fall camp looking at many familiar faces, East Central squares off against their first opponent of the year, and there's no time for easing into the campaign.
Nationally ranked and defending Great American Conference champion Harding at Koi Ishto Stadium on Thursday at 6 pm. It is the second consecutive year that the two have met with Harding shutting out the Tigers 28-0 last year in Searcy, Ark.
"Our practices have been good," said Head Coach Kris McCullough. "We've spent the last two weeks preparing for Harding, so we're ready to go."
Harding is a unique team in its style of play. Offensively, the Bisons run a triple-option that eats time off the clock. Defensively, the Bisons were NCAA Division II's best in the fewest points, allowing 12.8 points a game.
"We're going to be opportunistic," McCullough said. "We need to come up with turnovers and give our offense excellent field position."
ECU's offense has nearly all their returning starters back, especially in the skilled positions.
"Offenses typically have 10-to-12 drives to score," McCullough said. "It's important for us to have a good series early on. We can't afford any three-and-outs. We want to get into a groove and control the clock and field position."
Opening at home against the defending champs is something that McCullough and squad have given the team extra incentive.
"We wouldn't have it any other way. Our goal is to be conference champions and to do that, we will have to beat the good teams like Harding. Hopefully, we'll continue that trajectory," McCullough said.
