East Carolina will have a new offensive coordinator next season as coaching veteran Donnie Kirkpatrick will be stepping aside at the conclusion of a 2023 campaign that has seen the Pirates struggle to score points and win games.
ECU head coach Mike Houston released a statement Sunday announcing the impending change.
“Donnie Kirkpatrick and I met this morning and we have mutually agreed to part ways and go in a different direction offensively at the conclusion of the season,” Houston stated. “I have a lot of respect for Donnie as a person and a football coach. We appreciate his leadership and commitment to our football program.”
Kirkpatrick is in his 40th year as a college coach. In his 16 years on the ECU staff (2005-15, 2019-23), Kirkpatrick has been an integral part of offensive units that have posted seven of the top 10 scoring averages in program history and helped the Pirates earn bowl eligibility on 10 occasions.
This season has been a different story as ECU has been unable to mount a consistently effective offensive effort to take advantage of generally strong performances by its defense. In the team’s latest outing, the Pirates were shut out for the first time in 322 games as Navy recorded a 10-0 victory in Annapolis on Saturday.
With one game left in the season, ECU carries a 2-9 record into Saturday’s finale with Tulsa at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The reason DK is being dismissed is not the bad record, per se. It’s the process which has played out this season for the offense, resulting in the dismal record to date. His inability, or intransigence – take your pick – to make major changes to the concepts he and his staff attempted to install, resulting in repeated inept performances, which proved to be the last straw. Mike Houston is a loyal guy, and perhaps to his own detriment, allowed this season to play out in order to give DK a chance to put a decent product on the field.
The Pirate offense has multiple problems. The first, and foremost i/m/o, is the failure in talent evaluation. The O-line’s failure to noticeably improve on their run game blocking through the season, regardless of shuffling the personnel, does not bode well for the future. No one expected 200 yards rushing per game this year, given the necessity of integrating so many new players into the system. However, last Saturday’s continued failure to provide even the semblance of a run game exhibits a chilling lack of progress. Yet, throughout the year, game after game, the same RPO fiasco returned to the field. Certainly, every opponent has a say in what plays out on game day, but at some point, you have to accept the fact you’re the biggest problem, not your competition.
Without a legitimate threat in the run game, the Pirate version of RPO consistently operated behind the chains, putting a lot of pressure on inexperienced quarterbacks and receivers to continuously move the sticks. When your opponents don’t have any respect for your ability to run the ball, they will live in the offensive backfield, putting constant pressure on the qb. Combine this with Garcia and Flinn being mostly inaccurate, and receivers dropping catchable passes, you get the inevitable poor results.
My big complaint, why keep doing the same thing over and over? I don’t care how good it looks in practice, if you can’t get your unit to bring “it” to the game. Dumb it down to basics, if that’s what it takes to give the team a chance to win. The Pirates have good running backs, why couldn’t you try a play-action, quick hitting run concept? Pirate Nation would have appreciated the efforts, even if the record didn’t change. At least you tried.
Another issue that has gotten little attention (probably because it must compete with many other issues) is observations that I’ve been hearing that the receivers, besides pass catching issues, are simply unable to get separation, so when a pocket forms, and it definitely does, now and then, there’s just nowhere reasonable for Flinn to put the ball. Would that be lessened if Flinn was better? Yes, but still…
…and yet another kind of scary question that keeps rattling around in my brain is why Jeter hasn’t taken the field, especially since his redshirt protection is no longer an issue (and is very arguably a much smaller issue these days anyway, given the Portal effect.) Is it a Mason Garcia II situation?
Yes, the future holds many questions and a boatload of work for DK’s heir, but as far as I’m concerned, this should be Mike Houston’s one and only do-over; he needs to remain on the hot seat.
This has been a tough year to say the least. I did not really expect us to have 8 or 9 wins, but I certainly expected 5 or 6. It appeared to me we have some talented players, but for some reason we just did not play well. A lack of experience? I do not know but thank God we had a decent defense.
Good Lord willing, things will get back on track next season.
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