Essentials WHAT #2 Michigan (0-0) vs East Carolina (0-0) WHERE Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI WHEN 12:00 Eastern THE LINE M –36.0 (Vegas) M -41.0 (Bill C) TELEVISION Peacock TICKETS From $76. WEATHER partly cloudy 11 mph wind 84 degrees Overview The long and winding path to eternal college football glory for Michigan's 2023 season begins tomorrow with one of three non-conference tune-ups. First up on the schedule are the East Carolina Pirates, the first ever meeting between ECU and the Wolverines. The Pirates hail from the American Athletic Conference and are coming off a solid 8-5 campaign, albeit one that failed to meet the lofty expectations the program had going into the year. Now comes the projected fall, as the Pirates sustained heavy losses on both sides of the football in the offseason: Bill Connelly ranked ECU 130th out of 133 teams in returning production back in February, and that was before they sustained further losses via the portal post-spring. This team is completely different. Mike Houston is a good coach who has won everywhere he's been, Lenoir-Rhyne (DII), The Citadel (FCS), James Madison (then-FCS), and now East Carolina. ECU was 9-27 in the three seasons preceding Mike Houston's arrival and it took him a few years to get them off the ground. They went 4-8 in 2019, then 3-6 in the abridged COVID season. After the pandemic, Houston got ECU to bowl eligibility with a 7-5 season (the Military Bowl was never played due to BC withdrawing after a virus outbreak). They loaded up to go all-in for 2022 with veteran players across the roster, but had an infuriating repeat 7-5 season, losing games by 1, 2, and 3 points. A season-ending bowl win over neighboring Coastal Carolina was merely a small treat to numb the pain of the 2022 season. [AFTER THE JUMP: Positional groups against other positional groups]