What: No. 23 East Carolina Pirates at Temple Owls
When: 12:00 PM ET, November 1, 2014
Where: Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IA
TV Schedule: ESPN News
Live Stream: ESPN
Where They Stand:
No. 23 East Carolina Pirates (-7.5) (6-1, 3-0 American)
Temple Owls (4-3, 2-2 American)
The No. 23 East Carolina Pirates look to improve their resume against the Temple Owls in a battle of American Conference teams.
East Carolina has won five-straight games and with a win on Saturday they will have passed their longest streak in 15 years. The Pirates find themselves at No. 23 this week, winning as the No. 20 team in the nation last week. East Carolina coach Ruffin McNeill didn’t think much of the ranking and said as long as the team is winning, it will take care of itself.
"We just want to win by one," McNeill said.
"A couple weeks ago, we didn't even play and moved up two spots. That's why I don't focus on them," McNeill said of the rankings. "I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I am informed. We didn't play a game and moved up. We don't coach for rankings.
"What we coach is playing our best on every play and embracing our roles to make the team better. That's what we can control.”
The Pirates close out the season with no ranked opponents on the schedule, but will have a showdown with the UCF Knights on December 4 for the right to be crowned the champion of the American Conference.
Temple comes in riding a two-game losing streak and have fallen to the middle of the pack in the conference. If they have any hope in making something out of this season, it starts with a win in Saturday and a win against the Penn State Nittany Lions on November 15.
East Carolina leads the all-time series against Temple 7-3 and the Pirates have taken six of the last seven against the Owls.
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