ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- If you're already looking ahead to 2025 in college football, mark this season opener down: East Carolina at NC State on Aug. 30.
The Pirates and Wolfpack began brawling in the final minute of East Carolina's 26-21 victory in the Go Bowling Military Bowl on Saturday night, and the teams won't have to wait long to see each other again. They face off to open next season.
"I'm embarrassed as a coach," NC State coach Dave Doeren said. "I know our players are too. That is not how people of this program, the players of this program, staff of this program, want anything to do with something like that. To me, it was a terrible response to something that happened to one of our players, and there's no excuses for it. So I apologize to ECU and their team for the way we responded."
Emotions were understandably high for this matchup. NC State and East Carolina are about 80 miles apart, and although they don't play every season, they have been on each other's schedule plenty over the years.
NC State rallied from a 20-7 deficit in the fourth quarter and led by a point when East Carolina's Rahjai Harris capped a spectacular day with an 86-yard touchdown run that gave the Pirates a 26-21 lead with 1:33 to play.
An interception gave East Carolina the ball back with 44 seconds left, needing only to run out the clock. But after a run up the middle by Harris, the fight broke out around the hash marks closer to the East Carolina sideline.
"Obviously, didn't like the last little bit of the game," Pirates coach Blake Harrell said. "No place in sports for that."
East Carolina wide receiver Yannick Smith appeared to swipe a towel off the waist of NC State defensive back Tamarcus Cooley, who then chased Smith toward the sideline and pushed him to the ground. Two other East Carolina players came to Smith's defense. As the fight spread, it took roughly a full minute to bring the situation under control -- and around eight minutes before the ball could be snapped again for a final kneel-down.
At least one official had his face bloodied after the fight, and the referee seemed to be reading off a slip of paper when he announced the ejections of eight players.
It makes sense if East Carolina had a bigger chip on its shoulder entering this game, given NC State's popularity in the state of North Carolina. Although afterward, Harrell seemed to have more choice words for other in-state teams as opposed to the Wolfpack.
"I don't think you can look at our fans and tell them it's not a rivalry. It's an hour and 15 minutes up the road," Harrell said. "And there's a couple of other schools about the same distance. Maybe they should put us on their schedule as well, instead of trying to take our players. They want to call our players and take our players. Well how about put us on the schedule?
"We're going to be looked at like a little stepbrother, that's fine. These guys are going to compete, they're going to take up the challenge. I know we got to go play these guys again next year, at the beginning of the year. But we're going to celebrate this one tonight."