East Carolina has made the first coaching change of the 2024 season.
The school announced Sunday that Mike Houston had been fired. The Pirates are 3-4 this season after a blowout loss to Army on Saturday. The Black Knights won 45-28 a week after ECU lost 55-24 in Charlotte.
“After a thorough evaluation of our football program, I reported mike houston this morning that we are making a change in leadership,” ECU athletic director Jon Gilbert said in a statement. “This was a very difficult decision. Mike has led our program for the past five seasons with tremendous class and has positively impacted many student-athletes. After earning back-to-back bowl invitations, we seemed poised for continued success. Unfortunately, we have not seen the results we all desire and change is necessary to move the program forward. We have high expectations and those are not changing.
ECU went 27-38 in five-plus seasons with Houston in charge. The Pirates had two seasons above .500 and reached the Birmingham Bowl at the end of the 2022 season. The Pirates won that game 53-29 over Coastal Carolina to finish the season 8-5.
Defensive coordinator Blake Harrell has been named the team’s interim coach.
However, ECU already has more wins this year than it did a season ago. The Pirates went 2-10 last year and averaged just 17 points per game while their three quarterbacks combined to throw seven touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
Success has been hard to come by in recent seasons. The Birmingham Bowl appearance in 2022 was the school’s first bowl game since the end of the 2014 season and ECU’s 7-5 campaign in 2021 was the school’s first winning season in seven years.
