The betting line for East Carolina’s season opening game at N.C. State on Thursday night at 7 p.m. (ACC Network) has gone from plus 12.5 points for the Pirates at the start of the month to 14 points at the beginning of the week.

There are factors to like for the Wolfpack, playing at home with the payback motivation from a 26-21 loss to ECU in the Military Bowl.

But in the words of Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend.”

The Pirates have some skill personnel that make the points appealing in this age of legalized wagering.

ECU quarterback Katin Houser started the last seven games for Michigan State in 2023, including a trip to Ohio State so he has some experience playing in front of big crowds on the road. His 36-yard touchdown pass with 1:19 to go was the deciding score in a 24-21 win at Indiana.

Depth at running back is a factor that can work for the Pirates. Coach Blake Harrell has indicated a rotation with Marlon Gunn Jr., London Montgomery and Houston transfer Parker Jenkins that will allow the ball carriers to be fresh throughout the game.

Former N.C. State wide receiver Anthony Smith gives ECU a deep threat who can clear for underneath routes and space defenses for the ground game.

The key for the Pirates may be the effectiveness of its retooled fronts.

Offensive coordinator John David Baker from Ole Miss is in his second year and Josh Aldridge has come from Auburn to take over for Harrell as defensive coordinator. Their backgrounds in the Southeastern Conference give ECU some relevant road experience.

Baker has said the offense has continued to progress in the offseason since averaging 32.0 points in his first season at ECU in 2024, up from 17.3 in 2023.

Happy anniversary

Harrell started his news conference Monday with some special announcements. [Replay press conference on YouTube in a separate window.]

“One is happy anniversary to my wife (Jessie),” Harrell said. “It’s our 13th year anniversary.  … Kind of like every other season, we spend it on the practice field or in preparation for game week and game day, all those things.

“She’s been an amazing head coach of the house and just really thank her for all her love and kindness to me. I certainly don’t deserve it most days.

“Also too, it’s the first day of class for our students on campus. Had a opportunity to speak to the freshmen yesterday. They are excited they are going to their first college classes with all the other students. … Thoughts with them and prayers with them as they attend class.

“Also, Pitt County Schools started class today, so nobody’s happier about that than my wife who got our three kids out of the house and our three daughters off to school this morning.

“As a former high school teacher, a middle school teacher and coach, just really appreciate all the educators out there. Thank you. What you do, and again, our thoughts and prayers are with you guys as the school year goes.”

Game week

All of the offseason work will be translating into the first game.

“Finally game week,” Harrell said. ” … We actually wrapped up preseason about 10 days ago and started preparation for our first opponent, N.C. State.  We’ve kind of been on that routine for a little while.

“Practice this morning, we’ll practice again tomorrow morning and then head up on Wednesday afternoon, to Raleigh in preparations for the game on Thursday. It’s always great to kick off the season, always exciting times, but when you’re kicking it off with an in-state opponent, it means just a little bit more.”

Historical perspective

Harrell talked about the historical significance of the pending matchup.

“It’s been going on since 1970, met 31 times,” he said. “The pride that our fan base has in it, what it means to East Carolina and what it means to our football team is pretty special.

“Games like this are just great, not only for in-state opponents going at it — East Carolina, N.C. State, but what it means to the state of North Carolina. I think it’s the highest selling ticket in college football on Thursday night.

“I think there’s about 15 games going on this Thursday, but I think I just looked at ESPN to see how many games were on and it said $167 is where the tickets start out.

“If you think of from a money standpoint or economic standpoint, all the money coming off this game, it stays in the state of North Carolina, and that’s awesome for revenue within our state.

“I think that means so much more maybe than Northern Illinois coming to Raleigh or a Louisiana Tech coming to Raleigh. I think definitely you’re packing that stadium out for a special time and a special place.

“So our opponent, Coach (Dave) Doeren has done a great job up there. He is going into his 13th season, I think anytime in college football in this day and age, you can be around for that long, you’re obviously doing something right and just the way he builds his culture.

“I think he does it the right way and really respect the heck out of that.”

Pack transitions

Harrell said the Wolfpack has undergone transitions.

“They’re a little bit different than what we saw in the bowl game,” said the ECU coach. “We’ll see some of the same players we saw there, but they have a new offensive coordinator. Kurt Roper. Coach Roper has been around. He was with Coach (David) Cutcliffe at Duke and then he was at Florida as the OC.

“He was at South Carolina as the OC. He’s been on staff there (at State) for the last several years. He’s taken over play calling duties on the offensive side.

“Defensively. D.J. Elliot is taking over the defensive coordinator role. He was at Temple back in ’22. He was with the Philadelphia Eagles in ’23. He was a Baylor last year. And so we’re preparing for both offensively and defensively — some things we think we’ll get, not knowing exactly what we’ll get, but you kind of prepare for everything in game one.

“But at the same time, you want your focus to kind of be about what we do and our preparation and focus on how we execute — how hard we play with effort and those things.”

Back for the Pack

Harrell addressed returning players for State.

“We’re certainly going to see some of the same players you saw from N.C. State in the bowl game. C.J. Bailey, I think, is a quarterback going into his second year. A lot of times a freshman quarterback, the growth he has going into his sophomore year is kind of his greatest growth.

“I thought he was a really talented young man last year and played pretty special at times. Hollywood Smothers is the tailback that they’ll start the game with.  Really good, exceptional speed back there. Does a really good job on the outside zone plays.

“Justin Jolly, Noah Rogers are the weapons at wide out, along with Wesley Grimes and the O-line is led by (left tackle, Jaccarius) Peak.  Those guys are similar guys we’ve seen in the bowl game. All are back and I think they had some really good weapons on that side of the ball.

“Defensively, we saw (linebacker) Sean Brown in the bowl game. (Defensive tackle) Brandon Cleveland kind of led their defense, but (linebacker) Caden Fordham is back. They’ve added some new pieces on that side transfer wise, a couple guys from our league, Jamel Johnson (Temple) and Brian Nelson (North Texas) in the secondary. J.J. Johnson from Georgia State will be playing the secondary as well.”

Focus within

While preparing for an opponent, the Pirates have to take care of their own approach.

“We focus on our opponent,” Harrell said. “We focus on what they might do and respect the heck out of them. At the same time, as we prepare for an opponent each and every week … we talk about our preparation — how hard we play, playing with great effort and great energy.

“A shout to those folks who made it up to Annapolis that day. I appreciate the folks going to make it up to Raleigh this week and make that a great atmosphere for our players and a great atmosphere for the game.

“The last piece of it is just making good decisions. You obviously want to make good decisions offensively, defensively, special teams. Do your job taking care of the football and playing the call that’s called.”

First game situations

New coordinators will heighten the aspect of the unknown in the season opener.

“Last year when we played Norfolk State, they actually had a game, so you kind of knew what to expect,” Harrell said. “That made it a little bit easier to prepare, but anytime you go into game one, you never know kind of what new wrinkles a team could have, even if it’s the same coordinator coming back.

“You’re always kind of prepared for those things. You’re chasing ghosts a little bit, we call it, and prepare for everything that could happen. At the same time, you’ve got to focus on how you play the game and how you’re going to stop their bread and butter plays. That’s got to be your main focus. “You will get some feeling out, but at the same time we’ve got to be aggressive with how we play the game and go attack on both sides of the football.”

Offensive evolution

Harrell expounded on the progress of the offense and the challenges it will face.

“You can go through all preseason camp and kind of think this is what you may have or may not have, and this is where your strengths may be and weaknesses may be, and I think Coach Baker and Katin and that whole offense is really clicking right now,” Harrell said. “Doing a great job of just moving forward, but we’ve got to go do it in a game setting.

“We’ve got to go do it for four quarters in a hostile environment up in Raleigh in an opponent’s stadium. We’ve got to go do it. That’s not just in a practice setting where it’s controlled or a scrimmage setting where it’s somewhat controlled.

“We’ve got to go do it on the road Thursday night up in Raleigh. Excited about it. Excited to see our guys go turn it loose. I’ve got all the confidence in the world in our players and our coaching staff that we’re going to go up there and play the game the right way.”

Third down

Harrell addressed the importance of execution on third downs.

“We practiced third downs last week,” he said. “We practiced ’em again this weekend and red zone as well in different situations that arise in the football game. One of the keys to victory at the bowl game was we were 14 of 16 on third down. Some of that was Katin making plays with his legs.

“Somebody asked me, are you going to ask Katin to run? I said, ‘If it’s open and he can run and get a first down, let’s go do it.’ So we’ve got to have that same mindset, move the sticks, move the chains, and get closer to the goal line with each and every single snap.

“Third down is a big piece of that, big part of that offensively, staying on the field. Defensively, getting off the field, getting the ball back to our offense and going from there. And then obviously when you’re in certain situations using that extra down the fourth down to move the chains as well. So, it was a big piece of it in the bowl game. I expect it’ll be a big piece on Thursday night.”

Proper mindset

Given State’s new coordinators, Harrell was asked how to keep players from overthinking situations.

“It starts with me,” he said. “I think anytime you’re a coach, you approach a game or you go into a game and you’re kind of uptight and you’re worried about this or worried about that, it kind of goes over to your coaches and it kind of goes over to your players.

“It just kind of falls in line there. But as a coach, you’ve got to walk around with total confidence in them, and I do have total confidence in them and the way they go practice each and every single day. They love practicing and that’s one thing I’ll say about our guys is they love coming to work each day.

“They love football and they love each other. And if they’ll continue to do those things, continue to have confidence in those guys, I think we’ll go play well on game day. So that’s where it starts and if we have that mindset, it kind of takes a little pressure off and ease things up a  little bit. Let’s go turn it loose, let it ride and make some plays.

Handling emotions

Rivalries heighten emotions.

“It’s an in-state game where there’s several guys who know each other from maybe in high school,” Harrell said. “We just played them in a bowl game, so we know each other from that.

“Every time you turn on social media, you see something about the game. So it’s hard to hide that from your players and make it a faceless opponent. But I think our focus is always, yeah, we’re going to prepare for our opponent. We’re going to prepare for what they do. We’re going to respect the heck out of them because they’ve done a great job throughout Coach Doeren’s time there.

“But we’ve got to make it more about us and our preparation, how we go about our business, how we go about our game, how we practice, how we do things, and if we’ll do those things, I think it’ll take some of the emotions out of it.  Just focus on what we do. And that certainly helps.”

Avoiding repeat of bowl scrap

Eight players were ejected in the late stages for a bench-clearing altercation in the bowl game after a State defender’s  towel was taken by an ECU receiver.

“A follow up to that,” Harrell said. “You go to some of your team leaders and say, ‘Look, if you hear some chatter going on or if you see something, you take care of it on the field because we don’t want that thing happening.

“The best piece, you can always educate your players about is, ‘Hey, there’s things that could come up in a game, whether it’s a certain situation that may arise, how the end of the games could go as far as the last two plays of the game.'” Harrell said.  “So you’re preparing for everything and that’s certainly preparing for controlling your emotions at the same time.

“We talked to our players like, ‘Hey, you guys are coaches on the field.’ All those things. We talked about officials, how the officials may call the game. Those certain things. So we’ve got to focus on what we’re doing to win a football game. That’s got to be our main goal and our main focus and where our eyes are set on. If we’ll do that, then I think the other things are just kind of to the side.”.

Explosive plays

ECU had a decisive explosive play in the bowl game, an 86-yard run by Rahjai Harris that put the Pirates ahead to stay.

“We want to make sure the explosives are for us and not them,” Harrell said. “We talk about playing to win. We talk about, there’s six things and for us, we’re playing to win. And it kind of covers all this.

“Number one is take care of the football and create turnovers. I think last year we were 130th in turnovers and I think about 80, 70 something in forcing turnovers. We’ve  got to balance that out. We got to make sure we take the ball away from them and we take care of the football.

“Win the position battle. Win the red zone battle. Win the explosive plays. That’s a huge one. And, defensively, you’ve got to keep the ball in front of you and, offensively, when you’ve got an opportunity to turn it into an explosive play, you’ve got to make that happen.

“We talked last week of just guys giving the extra effort to make those explosive plays happen down the field and the win red zone battle. And the last one for us is Pirates don’t beat Pirates. And those are just simple things of, hey, do what we’re supposed to do, stay on schedule, moving the football down the field and taking care of business just with the position battle and kicking.”

Kickers competing

Who will kick for the Pirates has yet to be determined.

“We’ve got some really good depth in that room,” Harrell said. “I think all three of those guys have different strengths for sure. I mean, Noah (Perez) has kicked in a big game for us before and has a really fast approach to the football. Really very accurate. Inside of 25, 30 yards there.

“Nick (Mazzio) has got a little bit longer leg. This is his first time kicking for us at East Carolina. So all those guys, Andrew Conrad, has shown some flashes. All have done a really good job. We’re going to keep focusing on those guys for the next several days and just see who we roll out there first.”

Head coaching only

Harrell continued to call the defense last season even after he was promoted to head coach. Now that is Aldridge’s responsibility.

“I think I’ve been wearing the defensive coaches out a little bit last year when I was going through the interim stuff and the head coaching,” Harrell said. “In the ball game,  obviously, I was still calling plays. I was still running that side of the football.

“Obviously I’m responsible for the whole thing now.  I’m over there on both sides of the football coaching it up and coaching defense up and just coaching the coaches up and they do a really good job of focusing on our defense and getting us ready to play.

And just really proud of Coach Aldridge and those guys of kind of taking this thing and going with it and running it. But for me, I think on game night may be a little bit different. Before when the offense was on the field, I was kind of thinking, Hey, obviously, what we got going on game management wise, but what’s the next series for defense looking like for us? How do we get stops defensively and get off the field and get the ball back to our offense?

“Now, I hope I don’t get bored during the game of not calling defense. I don’t think I will, but it certainly kind of crossed my mind a little bit.”