GREENVILLE — Mike Houston, who was in his sixth season as head football coach at East Carolina, was relieved of his duties on Sunday after a 45-28 loss at Army on Saturday.
Athletic director Jon Gilbert made an announcement after an evaluation of the program.
Defensive coordinator Blake Harrell will serve as interim head coach.
Houston had successful stints at Lenoir-Rhyne, The Citadel and James Madison before coming to ECU in December 2018, after the Pirates had sustained three straight 3-9 seasons.
Houston guided ECU to an 8-5 record in 2022 and a 53-29 bowl win over Coastal Carolina, but the Pirates slumped to 2-10 in 2023.
The loss to the No. 23 Cadets, in which ECU trailed 31-0 early in the second half, put the Pirates at 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the American Athletic Conference.
Houston was 27-38 as Pirates coach with a 15-28 mark in the AAC.
His tenure included sweeping changes in college athletics with NIL revenue for players and less restrictive transfer regulations.
Irish Spectre says
I hate to see a man get fired, but it cannot be argued that there was anything unjust about this decision.
Honestly, even in Ahler’s last season, they kind of underperformed, leaving a couple of games on the table (NC State and Navy, via last minute and OT missed makeable kicks.) There was also the late season Senior Day debacle at home that year, a 42-3 drubbing against Houston. UH was a good team, but so was ECU, supposedly, and they flat-out didn’t show up for a game that gave them an opportunity for a materially better bowl game. The next week, they also damn near lost to a 3 – 9 Temple team, and would have, had the Temple coach not ludicrously gifted them with a punt on a 4th and very short at a point in the game when the ECU d had no answers, giving ECU a perfect two minute drill opportunity, which Ahlers converted (to his credit.) A lot of the players that season, Houston’s best, weren’t “his.”
There are likely some programs that would’ve pulled the trigger after last year’s horror show. I was OK with them giving Houston another shot, but it feels like this edition of the team is about the same as it was last year, so far, at least.
There might be a little irony here, given that it remains conceivable that they’ll win their next three, all vs. weak opposition, which would give them a third tier bowl that presumably they also could win. That’s a best case scenario, however, and the possibility of being able to beat subaverage teams as a “best case” sums up where the program is today.
I do think that Houston is a good dude and represented the university well. Also, he got royally screwed in the Tulsa game two years ago, a loss purely and clearly by bogus officiating, and he had several memorable wins, including UCF, BYU and Memphis twice. …but the ship needs a course correction now.
Hopeful says
Very well written and thought out response. I sure was pulling for him, he is a good man. I just can’t understand why the results were not there. Moving forward, lets get this right this time around. Hoping for a great set of minds to be involved and that we can find the solution for a long time going into the future. College football sure has changed. Must be a proven winner!
Jerry says
No real surprise here. You can’t argue that Coach wasn’t given a chance. His total rebuild on offense really hasn’t shown improvement through seven games, and the collapse of the defense was the final straw. It’s never pretty when a firing happens. I hope he lands on his feet, and I think he will. Wouldn’t be surprised if he goes back to the FCS as a HC.
Hope Coach Harrell can find a fix for our secondary, even if it means moving some personnel from offense over to the ‘D’. I’m not sure we can win another game with this secondary.
Agree on the irony of the timing of all this… as if Gilbert realized that sooner was better than later, when he might be trapped by a 6-6 season with bowl game invite.