| Mode: | football |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Team: | East Carolina Pirates |
| Conference: | American Athletic Conference |
| Division: | East Division |
| Short Conf: | The American |
| Record: | 3–9 |
| Conf Record: | 1–7 |
| Head Coach: | Scottie Montgomery |
| Hc Year: | 3rd |
| Hc Games: | first 11 games |
| Head Coach2: | David Blackwell |
| Hc Games2: | interim; final game |
| Off Coach: | Tony Petersen |
| Oc Year: | 3rd |
| Off Scheme: | Multiple |
| Def Coach: | David Blackwell |
| Dc Year: | 1st |
| Def Scheme: | 3–4 |
| Stadium: | Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium |
The 2018 East Carolina Pirates football team represented East Carolina University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Pirates, led by third-year head coach Scottie Montgomery, played their home games at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, and were members of the East Division in the American Athletic Conference. They finished the season 3–9, 1–7 in AAC play to finish in fifth place in the East Division.
On November 29, head coach Scottie Montgomery was fired.[1] He finished his tenure at East Carolina with a three-year record of 9–26. Defensive coordinator David Blackwell was the interim head coach during their final game of the season. On December 3, ECU hired James Madison head coach Mike Houston as their new head coach.[2]
Listed in the order that they were released
| Fred Biletnikoff Award[3] | Trevon Brown | WR | SR | |
| Wuerffel Trophy[4] | Garrett McGhin | OL | SR |
The AAC media poll was released on July 24, 2018, with the Pirates predicted to finish in last place in the AAC East Division.[5]
| Media poll (East) | |||
| 1 | UCF | 175 (25) | |
| 2 | USF | 140 (5) | |
| 3 | Temple | 132 | |
| 4 | Cincinnati | 91 | |
| 5 | UConn | 51 | |
| 6 | East Carolina | 41 | |
Schedule Source:[6]
See also: 2018 North Carolina Tar Heels football team.
See also: 2018 South Florida Bulls football team.
See also: 2018 Old Dominion Monarchs football team.
See also: 2018 Temple Owls football team.
See also: 2018 Houston Cougars football team.
See also: 2018 UCF Knights football team.
See also: 2018 Memphis Tigers football team.
The high-scoring affair features a combined 1,200 yards by the two teams. Holton Ahlers, in his second start in relief of Reid Herring, led the Pirates in both rushing (17 carries for 57 yards) and passing, completing 34 of his 62 passes for 449 yards (fourth in school history to Shane Carden's 480 in 2013, Blake Kemp's 465 in 2015, and Gardner Minshew's 463 in 217)[17] and three touchdowns without an interception. Trevon Brown had 10 receptions for 193 yards (eighth in ECU history) and two of those touchdowns. The second of these tied the game at 31 midway through the third quarter, but the Pirates were outscored 28-17 the rest of the way in the loss.[16]
See also: 2018 Tulane Green Wave football team.
See also: 2018 UConn Huskies football team.
See also: 2018 Cincinnati Bearcats football team.
See also: 2018 NC State Wolfpack football team.
Note: This game was scheduled on October 2, 2018, to replace NC State's game vs. West Virginia and East Carolina's game at Virginia Tech, both of which were canceled due to Hurricane Florence. This game will not take place if either NC State or ECU qualifies for their respective conference championship.