“I think for our players, it’s those black uniforms,” Harrell said Monday. “They get to break those out. You know, you’re in Dowdy on a night game. The atmosphere of the student body and packing The Boneyard out and just the energy Pirate Nation brings is pretty special.
“I always say this, like, the passion that Pirate Nation brings at each and every game day and the way this fan base supports this football team has been awesome. Excited for those fans to see them show up again this Thursday night for this football team and for these seniors and see if we can get one more.”
ECU improved to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the AAC with a 55-34 Homecoming win over Temple on Oct. 26.
“Just excited about that and being back in Dowdy, “Harrell said. “This is always special on Thursday night.”
Former ECU coach Ruffin McNeill introduced the black uniforms.
Extra prep time
The Pirates have had some additional time to prepare for FAU (2-6, 0-4) and will play again next Thursday night, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m., at Tulsa (ESPN).
Adjustment period
Harrell became interim coach after Mike Houston was dismissed following a 45-28 loss at unbeaten Army on Oct. 19.
“Certainly that first week was drinking through a fire hose, but you try to do everything you can to put our players and seniors in the best possible position to win a football game,” Harrell said. “Our players have been awesome. The young men in our locker room have been awesome in the way they’ve attacked this thing, sticking together, and with everything you ask them to do.
“Hey, go play with energy. They play with energy. Hey, go play for each other. Go play your tail off. They’ve done that. The older guys have taken a lot of pride and a lot of leadership in making sure that happens. The younger guys have done a good job of filling in where they need to, and moving forward.
“Certainly last week, with the bye week, it slowed down a little it. You took a little breath. You had to look at the next four weeks, how you want to structure things, and make sure you’re ready for everything.
“Obviously FAU is the biggest game on the schedule, biggest game of the year, because it’s a game this week. You’ve got to go 1-0 this week. But you also got to look ahead of how we’re going to structure things for the Tulsa game, for the North Texas game, for the Navy game, all of it being different weeks.
“Two Thursday night games, and then you got nine days for going back to Texas, back out to the west there for another road game, and then a Friday game with Navy. So you got to start planning ahead of how you want to do those things, how you want to get your football team prepared, and what gives us the best chance to win each week .
“You’ve got to make sure everybody in the building is only focused on the day. Our mission, our goals, our values haven’t changed from what it was 10 days ago. Whatever it was, you gotta win today. You gotta keep looking forward. You can’t worry about what’s down the road. You gotta focus on the day, each and every day. And we’ll do that leading up to FAU.”
Shortened practices
The Pirates have tweaked the practice schedule.
“The big thing we focus on in practice is no waste of time,” Harrell said. “Have urgency in between transition from period to period. Yeah, there might be one less period in there now every now and then, but that’s really about the time of year we’re in.
“We’re not running a whole lot of installing new defenses or installing new offenses, something like that. It’s really repeating. But just make sure we’re clean. Making sure we’re ready to go. And then make sure our guys are fresh mentally and physically for Thursday night.
“So that’s kind of been the big focus. Even though there might be a period less a practice here and there, it’s still, hey, we gotta do what we do. It’s not what we do, but how we do it, and keep going forward there about our mission, about our goals.”
Back-to-back Thursdays
The Pirates will be back in a game week routine for the next Thursday night contest.
“We had 12 days to get ready for this one and we’re obviously still preparing,” Harrell said. “But once you get on one Thursday night, you got seven days for the next one. Kind of helps you get in a little routine at least for a week. It may not be for very long, but you get in a game week routine for a week.
“After that, it will be nine days for North Texas, then it will be six days for Navy. It is what it is. Our guys are just excited to go play and get back out there together and play for each other and go try to get a win for the seniors and try to get ourselves to a bowl game eventually. Obviously, it’s one game at a time, one day at a time, but that’s the focus.”
Location change
Harrell, who continues to serve as defensive coordinator, has moved from the press box to the sideline in terms of his in-game location.
“There’s a lot of exciting things down there,” Harrell said, “Like you’re out of the box, you’re on the sideline for the first time in a while. My main goal was make sure I didn’t get ran over, that I didn’t want to take on anybody down there.
“But I caught myself celebrating a few times when I should have been down there, holding up one for extra point, whatever it may be. But hey, I told the team we have to keep making plays to go celebrate, and everything will work out.
“But it was good. And, you know, it took everybody. It took our players doing what they did, took our coaches, our staff kind of pitching in and getting this thing done together,
“That makes my job easy for that what I have to do on game day, or what I have the privilege to do for our football team and for Pirate Nation. Just really enjoyed it, and we’re going to continue to do that every single day.”
Self scouting
The Pirates continued to self evaluate.
“Not only do you do that during a bye week, you do that each and every week,” Harrell said. “You know, hey, what’s our tendencies? Or, hey, how can we put ourselves in better positions? Whether it’s self scout or just evaluating your personnel, so you’re always in constant evaluation.
“I think the minute you sit still is the minute you’re not getting better. We always have the saying, you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. Well, we gotta find ways to self scout, evaluate ourselves to make sure we’re getting better and giving ourselves a chance to win a football game.”
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