“Before I talk about our team and our season and what’s ahead of us, I’d like to talk something about bigger than football, somebody that’s special to our program and special to the game of football,” Harrell said. “In our locker room, and I think probably locker rooms everywhere, we talk about being relentless.

“We talk about toughness, we talk about perseverance, and we talk about fighting through adversity. There’s no better example of that than Chris Johnson. Chris has been unbelievable in what he’s done and what he’s continued to fight through.

“For Pirate Nation, ALS isn’t somebody else’s fight, it’s our fight. Years ago, our former baseball coach, Keith LeClair, showed us what true courage is. Today, Chris Johnson continues to show us what courage is as well.”

“It’s something we want to honor Chris with, but we want to do more than that,” Harrell said. “We want to invite our locker room, our fan base, and football fans everywhere to fight against ALS.

“Chris, we’re with you. Our nation’s with you. Football fans everywhere are with you, and we’re going to fight alongside with you.”

East Carolina has worked to deal with the annual roster overhauls that have become common in college athletics.

“With each and every year comes a new team, a new season, and that change begins in January,” Harrell said. “We look back at January. You’ve got guys that graduate. You’ve got guys that move on, guys that join your program, coaches take other opportunities — whatever it may be.

“As coaches, you can fight that change, you can complain about it, or you can embrace it. We chose to embrace it. I think that’s your responsibility as a coach. You’ve got to honor what you’ve built and what you’ve done, but you’ve also got to look for what’s next.

“For us, what’s next is looking at 2026 — how can we build a football team to be competitive in the American?”

Leadership

Harrell elaborated on how the program has transitioned from a 9-4 season that included a 23-17 Military Bowl win over Pitt. ECU was 6-2 in league play last season.

“What have we done?” Harrell asked, rhetorically. “How can we build on it? How can we improve each and every single day?

“What excites me is the leadership in our football team, in our locker room.  In 2026, that’s also our coaching staff. As we were building the coaching staff this season, … I wanted somebody that’s familiar with the American Conference.

“I didn’t want a learning curve or somebody that didn’t know how to recruit to the American Conference. I wanted them to understand what winning football looked like in the American Conference.

“That starts on the offensive side of the ball with us. I hired offensive coordinator Jordan Davis. Coach Davis was at North Texas last year. Obviously, they played for the American Conference championship. They led the nation in several offensive categories, and he is doing an outstanding job.”

“On the defensive side of the ball, Jordan Hankins has joined us from Memphis,” Harrell said. “I think over the last three years, they won 30 games. He did an outstanding job there defensively. Him and Coach Roy Tesh will lead our defense. Really excited about the coaches we’ve hired.”

Players on hand

Harrell was accompanied to media day by slot receiver Brock Spalding and defensive lineman Jasiyah Robinson, who will wear No. 0 this season.

“Brock’s a fifth year,” Harrell said. “He’s already secured his degree. He’s from (Lorton) Virginia. Brock is one of my favorite players. He’s one of my favorites because of how he plays the game.

“I’ve been joking with Brock ever since he arrived on campus. ‘Hey Brock, you want to move over to defense, play a little slot, play a little nickel for us. You can blitz off the edge and play a little man coverage. Whatever you want to do, we’ll make it happen.’

“I truly think he could still do it, but he’s probably finally convinced me he’s playing the right position. Like others in this league, Brock had some other opportunities. If you’re successful in this league, you have those. And Brock had those, but Brock wanted to finish his career where he started.

“With our offense, Brock is the only returning starter we have, but I don’t think that tells the story about who we are offensively.

“I don’t think you can look at returning starters in college football. You have to look at returning experience. And we’ve got guys who’ve played, who’ve waited their turn and who’ve developed. We’ve brought transfers in, who have a lot of experience, and we’re excited about those guys.

“It’s been a group that’s grown tremendously since January.

“On the defensive side of the ball, we have Jasiyah Robinson. … He battled through some injuries early on in his career, and Jasiyah is going into his seventh year of football.

“With the new five for five (five years to play five seasons), I don’t know how many more times we’ll say that, but we’re grateful for Jasiyah and all our older guys. I think we have two guys who will be 25 this fall. Our average age will be 21 and a half years old.

“With those older guys come exactly what you would think, leadership in your locker room. Jasiyah is exactly what you think with an older guy. He’s dependable. He’s accountable. He’s a leader. The young guys watch how he works and leads. That’s really the story of our defense.”

Evolving defense

Harrell has a record for developing defenses, having come to ECU as defensive coordinator in 2020. He talked about the unit’s upside for the upcoming season.

“They’re a group,” Harrell said. “They’re tough, and they love to compete with each other. Obviously, we’ve got to go do that on game day, but I think that’s what gives us a chance to be good defensively.

“They practice with confidence, they practice together and they communicate. They do those things. Obviously, we can talk about the things we want to do and how we think we are, but we’ve got to line up and do those things.”

Start of practice

Players are tentatively scheduled to report on Aug. 4 with practice beginning the following day.

“If you’re a competitor, you’re excited about those challenges ahead,” Harrrell said. “We’re excited about it. August can’t get here soon enough. Looking forward to the season.”

Season opener

The Pirates open the season at Alabama on Sept. 5 at noon (ABC).

“Obviously, Alabama has done a tremendous job over the years and they have a lot of talented players,” Harrell said. “They’re a very good football team.

“Our focus has to be on East Carolina, our preparation, and just getting started here in August. It’s obviously the first game, so it’s the most important game is this next game, but we also have 11 other games after that.

“We’ve got to build our football team, make sure we’re taking care of business there. Looking forward to just getting started here in August.”

Unit leaders

The offensive line shapes up as a plus for the Pirates.

“As you go through the season, there’s one or two guys that always step up to elevate your play and elevate your team and kind of push other guys to play even better,” Harrell said. “Right now we’re doing that as a group. We’re really excited about our offensive line.

“We’ve returned zero starters on the offensive line, to be honest. Bryce Weaver played some last year, started a couple of games, but was in and out of the lineup, had some injuries there. Carson Jones would’ve been our starter last year, had an injury the previous spring. So excited to have those two guys back.

“We’ve added three guys that we feel really good about their experience. Brandon Best, Ethan Kramer, and Hayes Creel have all three played a lot of football. Excited about that group. They can elevate our offense to be a better football team and make us better on both sides of football.”

“We’re going into a bowl game last season and we’ve lost two coordinators,” Harrell said. “We’ve lost our quarterback, receiver, tight end, and running back. Our players and our staff did an awesome job of not focusing on things we couldn’t control and focusing on what was next, what was in front of us, and going to play in the bowl game against Pitt.

“They went and attacked that thing and came out with a victory. That’s just a message to all of us that, ‘hey, focus on what’s in front of you. Take care of what we can control.’ That’s each other. That’s our effort. That’s how we play the game. That’s how we go prepare.

“As you build a roster and you build a staff as a program, you keep those things in mind — the lessons that you’ve learned through those situations and move forward with them.

“Getting a group to play together and jell together is not just one person’s job, but a village’s job. I think our former players that are already on the roster, have done a great job of bringing those guys in, letting them know the expectations, the standards, the accountability.

“It’s been a group that’s really grown tight over the last six months or so.”

Staying loose

Harrell was asked about balancing intensity with playing loose.

“Public speaking is a whole lot different than if you are in the locker room,” Harrell said. “In the locker room, you get in there, it’s kind of natural, it’s loose and all those things.

“Your players are going to react to how the head coach reacts and your staff is going to kind of feed off that as well. For me, I want our players to play free. I want them to play loose. I want them to play with confidence.

“As the head football coach, you’ve got to portray that as well. It may not be exactly who you are at times. You may be a little uptight, a little nervous, but you can’t let anybody around the locker room see that. If that’s how your team plays and performs better, then you’ve got to play that part.

The ECU fit

Harrell feels at home at ECU.

“I arrived at East Carolina in 2020,” he said. “I’ve been a head coach for 19 games. I think the only head coach here that’s been in the league longer than me is Coach (Brian) Newberry (Navy). He got there in 2019.

“I think I’m the fourth (longest) tenured head coach in the American. Obviously the two academies and Coach (Jeff) Traylor (Texas San Antonio).

“I’ve enjoyed everything about East Carolina. It fits who I am. It’s what I believe. I think Greenville’s a place where football matters. Our nation, our fan base makes it a special place.

“Everybody there is on board with putting a product on the field that we can all be proud of, that we can all celebrate, go win some football games and be in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium together. … The constant there is the people.

“We have a lot of good people in Greenville and Pirate Nation. Just proud to be a part of that.”