East Carolina has made its first coaching change of the 2024 season.
The school announced Sunday that Mike Houston had been fired. The Pirates are 3-4 on the season after a loss to Army Saturday. The Black Knights won 45-28 a week after ECU lost 55-24 in Charlotte.
“After an extensive evaluation of our football program, I made inquiries Mike Houston this morning that we are making a change in leadership,” ECU athletics director Jon Gilbert said in a statement. “This was a very difficult decision. Mike has led our program with tremendous class over the past five seasons and has had a positive impact on so many student-athletes. After earning back-to-back bowl invitations, we seemed primed for further success. Unfortunately, we have not seen the results we all want, and a change is needed to move the program forward. We have high expectations and they don’t change.
ECU was 27-38 in five-plus seasons under Houston. The Pirates had two seasons above .500 and went to the Birmingham Bowl at the end of the 2022 season. The Pirates won that game 53-29 against Coastal Carolina and finished 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 a season ago. The Pirates were 2-10 last year and averaged just 17 points per game, while the three quarterbacks combined to throw seven touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
Success has been difficult to achieve in recent seasons. The 2022 Birmingham Bowl appearance 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.
