NC State, ECU players fight after Pirates earn Military Bowl win. Here’s what we know
A mass of purple and red flooded the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium with 33 seconds remaining in the Military Bowl as a fight broke out between players from N.C. State and East Carolina after ECU snagged an interception to secure a 26-21 victory.
Punches were thrown. Blood dripped down umpire Rod Tucker’s face. Eight players — five from N.C. State, three from ECU — were ejected.
The Pack’s DK Kaufman, Tamarcus Cooley and Val Erickson were ejected. Officials said Nos. 54 and 59 were also ejected for the Wolfpack, but the roster features two 54s and no 59. An N.C. State athletics spokesperson did not know the other two players ejected.
ECU’s ejections included Jayson Tarpeh, Dontavius Nash and Jhari Patterson.
At one point, Tarpeh shoved Wolfpack defensive tackle Brandon Cleveland from behind. Cleveland lost his helmet, which then hit Tucker in the face and led to bleeding and bruising on his left cheek. N.C. State players rushed to their teammates’ defense as several smaller skirmishes popped up in different spots across the field.
Cooley and ECU’s Yannick Smith fought after one took the other’s towel. Another N.C. State player ended up fighting alone against a scrum of Pirates players near the sideline.
“I would like to apologize for our football team for how that ended. I’m embarrassed, as a coach, and I know our players are, too,” N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren said after his press conference, as quarterback CJ Bailey nodded in agreement. “That’s not how people in this program, the players in this program, the staff in this program want. (We) don’t want anything to do with something like that.
“Terrible response to something that happened in one of our players. There’s no excuse. I apologize to ECU and their team for the way we responded.”
ECU head coach Blake Harrell also addressed the melee in his postgame press conference.
“Obviously, didn’t like how the last little bit of the game that (ended),” Harrell said. “No place in sports for that. At the end of the day, we got to clean that up.”
It’s unclear if the players will be suspended for the first game of next season. The officials did not specify if the players were ejected for fighting or general unsportsmanlike conduct.
This story was originally published December 28, 2024 at 9:56 PM.
