Sometimes Blake Harrell departs from the Xs and Os and Jimmys and Joes at his weekly news conference. The East Carolina coach might inject some humor or share his thoughts on the business that college football has become.

The bottom line is he cares about his players. As former ECU coach Ruffin McNeill used to say, “It doesn’t matter how much you know, until your players know how much you care.”

Harrell was glad to hear that the transfer portal was going to be reduced to one period per year in 2026. There have been two windows annually.

“Thank God,” Harrell said. “Those are my thoughts on it. When I was at the AFCA (American Football Coaches Association convention) in January, the two windows have been miserable for head coaches. You can lose part of your team at two different points in the year.

“They haven’t said when it was going to be, but the first window was in the playing season. That was miserable. Instead of focusing on your last game, which was your bowl game, you’re worried about your roster and how that’s going. Then again, at the end of the semester in the spring. …

“If we can get that thing to one and if we can find the best time for it — to me it’s February, out of the playing season.”

And that would help what should be part of the mission of higher education, Harrell feels.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” he said. “At some point, we’ve got to make sure these young men graduate. We’re talking about rev share, transfer portal, all these other things, which I think is great for college athletics and great for our sport.

“But at some point, we’ve got to get the student part back into it. A transfer every semester, you look up and he’s out of eligibility but has no degree. How did we help him be successful in life? How did we help him grow as a man? How did we help him get a job?

“Every coach on our staff wouldn’t be here if they didn’t have a college degree. We’ve got to make sure we’re helping our young men be successful and graduate so they can have more choices in life.”

Road excursions

Harrell has worked a little sightseeing into road trips this season

“Sometimes we go on a flight and go to a stadium and then get right back on the flight and fly home,” he said. “Somebody would ask ‘Did you see this or did you see that?’

“Well, you don’t even have an opportunity to see that because you’re just thinking on the game. Our main focus, our main job is go win the football game. But I don’t think if you go to Myrtle Beach and you can take a walk on the beach and you enjoy the ocean and what God’s created, I think that’s pretty special.

“How many times will our guys get back to Myrtle Beach and get an opportunity to do that? If we go to Temple, we’re going to go run the Rocky steps.  We go to San Antonio, we’re going to go see the River Walk, maybe the Alamo.”

The Pirates stretched their legs last week at Jackson Square in New Orleans.

“It kind of relaxes them a little bit at the same time they’ll be focused and ready for the game.” Harrell said. “I don’t think it help us get a defensive stop or an offensive score, but I don’t think it hurts us either. It’s just a good opportunity to expose those young men to opportunities like that and relax ’em a little bit at the same time.”

Coach McNeill used to take his teams to a movie the night before a game.

Love, marriage, team

Harrell expressed an analogy between a marriage and a team.

“We’ve talked a little bit about love kind of makes a marriage and then marriage holds love together.” Harrell said. “Well, if you take out marriage and you put the word team in, love makes a team and team keeps the love.”

In the age of revenue sharing and NIL dollars, that’s priceless — and very appropriate in terms of Harrell’s coaching approach.

Another Thursday nighter

The Pirates (3-3, 1-1 American) have been a fixture in recent weeks on ESPN Thursday night games.  Tulsa is the opponent this week for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

“Excited about being back in Dowdy Ficklin,” Harrell said Monday morning. “Thursday night football again and seems like that’s the new norm for us.  … I know our players are excited to be back in front of our fans and in front of our student section.

“I know our students are on fall break right now. They’re resting up so they can pack the Boneyard on Thursday night.”

ECU is 1-2 on Thursday nights thus far with a 24-17 loss at N.C. State in the season opener and a 26-19 defeat last week at Tulane. The Pirates won their only Thursday night home date thus far, 28-6, over Army on Sept. 25.