CHARLOTTE — With over 70 first-year additions to the roster, maybe it was just a matter of time before things meshed for Charlotte.
The 49ers put together a breakout performance for a 55-24 American Athletic Conference win over East Carolina at Jerry Richardson Stadium on Saturday.
“You can put it on me,” said ECU coach Mike Houston on the Pirate radio network. “You can put it on the coaching staff, but obviously we have to get it fixed. … We talked about it all week, the strength of their team was their offensive and defensive fronts.”
It was a stunning defeat considering the hosts were managing just 17.8 points in their first five games. ECU was favored by 8.5 points. The biggest aberration for the 49ers was in the run game, which had been producing at a rate of 79.4 yards per contest.
Charlotte (3-3, 2-0 churned out 307 yards on the ground against the Pirates (3-3, 1-1). Hahsaun Wilson ran 15 times for 164 yards with three touchdowns. Iowa State transfer Cartevious Norton had 10 carries for 88 yards with two TDs.
“We missed a lot of tackles,” Houston said.
The 49ers started true freshman Deshawn Purdie at quarterback. Purdie came in for the second half last week at Rice and helped rally Charlotte from a 10-0 deficit to a 21-20 win. He completed 13 of 22 for 206 yards against ECU.
The Pirates sought a similar solution on Saturday with the 49ers holding a 31-10 lead at the break, going to Michigan State transfer Houser at quarterback in place of Jake Garcia for the second half.
The quarterback situation will be among the matters to be resolved during a bye week for ECU before a game at Army (5-0), on Oct. 19 at noon, which is scheduled to be shown on an ESPN platform.
Norton had an 11-yard scoring run and Purdie had a 1-yard touchdown on a keeper as Charlotte took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
“We had too many mistakes there early,” Houston said. “We got behind and just could never get back.”
The Pirates closed within 14-10 on a 38-ymard field goal by Noah Perez and a 13-yard TD pass from Garcia to Tyler Savage before the 49ers reeled off the last 17 points of the half.
Garcia completed 6 of 8 for 111 yards with one TD and one interception. Houser connected on 11 of 28 for 84 yards with no scores and a pick that was returned 53 yards for a score.
“Jake was just pressing on some stuff,” Houston said. “We decided to make a switch. Katin had a great week of practice. He did some good things and he did some things we’re going to have to get cleaned up. We have to play better at that position.”
ECU provided its fans among a crowd of 17,102 some excitement in the second half with a 48-yard touchdown run by freshman London Montgomery and a 94-yard kickoff return for a score by Florida State transfer Winston Wright Jr.
Montgomery’s sprint along the ECU sideline closed the gap to 31-17 with 12:26 left in the third quarter.
Th ECU defense got a three and out and the offense got possession at the Charlotte 47. The Pirates went for a 4th-and-5 at the Charlotte 31, but Houser threw incomplete.
“We weren’t able to get the first down there,” Houston said. “That was the shot we had.”
Charlotte scored the next 24 points before Wright’s kick six.
The 40ers took a 2-0 lead in the series that began with a 10-7 Charlotte win in Greenville in 2023.
I’ve always heard it said, if you can’t say anything good, say nothing. That’s how I feel about the Pirates at present. It doesn’t look like the Pirates will be able to take off the training wheels any time soon. Hope I’m wrong.
I’ve not looked at the most popular Pirates message board, but it is a guarantee that Pirates Nation is calling for Coach’s head, which it seems inarguable the circumstances at this point warrant, particularly in the wake of today’s complete embarrassment at the hands of a “lesser” in-state rival. Coach is lucky that midseason removals are difficult (and therefore rare), not least because they telegraph to the world the university’s abandonment of all confidence in the coach and his team. Hence, he still has some runway to somehow turn this foundering ship around (and 6 – 6 should not be considered to be good enough given their weak schedule.)
Out of a lot of bad today, the worst of it to me is the fact that whereas going into it, their offense was known to be unreliable, but now their defense seems to have “caught up” with their colleagues. It’s feeling an awful lot like 2023.
Houston can’t find or can’t recognize when he does see a QB. I was not a huge Holton fan, but he also grew up wanting to be a Pirate so no credit for recruiting with that one. Every game I have watched since Ahlers graduated, it seems the opposing QB is significantly better than either of the two we swap in and out. 2 years in a row now with 2 different ineffective QB’s each of those years.
Same old response from Coach Houston- we have to clean things up. I have heard this for the last several years. Why are things not getting Up and showing in the play? ECU should not be losing to Charlotte. All other programs around us are getting better and ECU is not. So I guess Houston is right – there are things that need to be cleaned up- maybe it should start with the head coach! Yesterday was embarrassing!
I think we would be better off with a cardboard cutout resembling Houston standing on the sideline. Maybe get a better emotional response.
Remember when Houston backed out of the Charlotte job because he thought East Carolina was a better job with the potential to be more successful? They’re on coach #2 since then and have beaten us twice. Counting those 2 losses and the fact we have Houston and not them makes 0-3 against them.
Need to make a coaching change as quickly as possible. This program is a total disaster at this point and is not likely to be competitive against anyone the rest of the year.
Where this once proud program is at this time in NC (of course college football in NC in general is abysmal)
Duke
Wake
UNC
NCSU
ASU
Charlotte
ECU
The whole state is an embarrassment and we are at the bottom. Only a coaching change can address this it would seam at this point.