Blake Harrell revitalized East Carolina football last season. He’s doing well in his NCAA Tournament picks, too.

When he can, he’s been following the March madness, which turned into April sadness for favored Duke with a 70-67 loss to Houston on Saturday as the Cougars closed on a 25-8 run.

“I just get pulled in so many other directions with my daughters,” said the Pirates coach on Wednesday. “This weekend we’ve got travel volleyball and travel softball going on. So that’s where most of my attention is.

“But Brian Bailey (WNCT) called me the other day and had me to do some picks. … I think I got all four Final Four teams correct. And I’ve got Houston winning it. So, we’ll see what happens.”

Houston meets Florida on Monday at 8:50 p.m for the national championship (CBS).

It’s logical that Harrell, a former defensive coordinator, would like the Cougars and their stifling defense, which leads the nation at 58.5 points allowed per game.

One of the great wins in ECU history was an 82-73 win over No. 5 Houston in Greenville on Feb. 3, 2021, as Jayden Gardner had 21 points and 15 rebounds.

Momentum

Houston seized the momentum against Duke down the stretch on Saturday. The Pirates took momentum into the offseason in football winning five of their last six with a 26-21 triumph over N.C. State in the Military Bowl in Annapolis.

“The best 6-game stretch since 2014, I believe,” Harrell said. “We beat a Power Four opponent in a bowl game. I think that’s the first time since 2000 when we beat Texas Tech.

“First P4 win since 2018 when we beat North Carolina. All those things give you momentum going into the offseason. Momentum for season ticket sales, momentum, for raising funds for special projects … collective funds or NIL funds or what will soon be the Purple and Gold Fund that will go through the Pirate Club.

“All of those help with recruiting and retention. Right now, I feel really, really good about our roster. Obviously, we’ve got to keep coaching them and keep developing them, but if we can keep our roster together until next fall, I feel good about where we’re at.”

Portal opening approaching

The next transfer portal period is April 16-25.

“If we were to lose three or four players, that could be a disaster,” Harrell said. “We probably wouldn’t lose three or four  back-ups. You’re going to lose three or four starters at this level. That’s just how it is.

“Somebody’s going to come in and take those guys, but if you have funds in place and the collective and a plan and a contract in front of them, then I think you could have a really good chance to retain those players.”

House settlement

Compensation of athletes is expected to be defined Monday with a hearing on the House settlement.

“We’ve been very proactive about our approach to that,” Harrell said. “The House settlement gets finalized Monday and we hope to have contracts and everything in place in front of our guys well before the portal opens.”

Player contracts imminent

Harrell used an NFL model in explaining how contracts will be structured at ECU.

“It will vary from university to university … and position to position,” he said. “You’ve got to look at it as in the NFL. They have salary cap. I’m just going to throw out crazy numbers, but let’s say an NFL team has a $100 million a year they can spend.  Well, the quarterback may get 10 percent of that. The running back only may get 2 percent of that.

“The back-up running back only may get 1 percent, and so on and so forth.  … You don’t want to call it a pecking order, but there’s a certain order to it. It’s hard to go win a lot of games if you don’t have a quarterback. It’s hard to win a lot of games if you don’t have a tackle. Hard to win a lot of games if you don’t have a corner. So you’ve just got to put the priorities on position of needs.

“It also will vary from year to year. If we feel really good about where we’re at in certain areas, then it may allow us to move some money around to other areas. That’s why I have a general manager (Noah Joseph) and he takes care of all those things.

“He helps organize that and relay it to the players — what their value may be and how we can be successful within our program, within our limitations of what they may be.

“At the same time, we’re very blessed to be where we’re at here at East Carolina in the American Conference.”

Broadcast experience

Harrell’s unique resume includes some experience in sports broadcasting.

“When I was a high school coach, I was coaching football, basketball and baseball, all three.

“If I coached JV baseball, I might be doing the varsity broadcast for baseball or basketball. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun.”

That was at Franklin High School, about an hour southwest of Asheville.

At Fuquay-Varina

Harrell was on the coaching staff at Fuquay-Varina in the central portion of the state.

“My good friend (Jeb Hall), and I went up there and worked together,” Harrell said. “I was the defensive coordinator. He was defensive line coach. He met his wife there and he’s now the head coach there. Fuquay was good to me.

“The head coach was David Riggs. He had been at Broughton and Sanderson, won a state championship (Broughton, 4-A, 1970). I was with him at McDowell High School.”

Riggs was a running back at UNC for Coach Bill Dooley. Riggs left coaching at one point to go into ministry.

“David Riggs and Marie, his wife, are awesome people,” Harrell said. “He’s been a great mentor for me.”