Holland sets media session
Bonesville.net staff
report
Bonesville
Power Hour |
Replay
Wednesday night's show, as Patrick Johnson, Denny
O'Brien and Al Myatt discuss potential candidates for
ECU's pending opening for a football coach:
Select clip... |
|
|
TALK OF THE TOWN |
Replay
Wednesday's show, as Henry Hinton and Denny
O'Brien discuss breaking news about ECU's search
for a football coach:
Select clip |
|
|
As speculation mounts
about potential candidates for East Carolina's soon-to-be-vacant
football coaching position, the school took steps Wednesday to defer
questions about the pending hire until next week and redirect
attention to the Pirates' looming game with N.C. State.
ECU athletic director
Terry Holland issued a statement announcing that he will meet with media members
at the Murphy Center next Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to field queries about the
coaching search.
Until then, Holland
indicated in the release, he would prefer that attention be focused on
the Saturday football game.
"We made a commitment to our football program to be in an unintrusive
position during the last two games of the season," Holland stated. "I will
certainly honor that."
The season-ending clash in
Charlotte, the first meeting between the teams since ECU defeated the
Wolfpack 23-6 in Greenville in 1999, will be John Thompson's final game
as head coach of the Pirates.
Thompson, 3-19 in his
22-game tenure as coach, agreed to a request by Holland earlier this
week to
step down at the end of the season,
accepting the terms of a
financial settlement presented
by Holland.
Holland acknowledged in
the statement that the hunt for a coach had begun but indicated the
efforts so far have been focused on collecting information.
"Right now, we are in the initial stages of a search process," Holland
stated. "It is a gathering procedure, trying to get as many names
together as we can.
"However, there certainly have not been any (head coaching) candidates
who have visited our campus."
Familiar names
popping up
Bonesville.net
reported Wednesday that outgoing Florida coach Ron Zook
had been contacted about the pending ECU opening and had expressed
interest in the position.
Other candidates whose names have arisen in
connection with the job include Clemson assistant and former N.C. State
coach Mike O'Cain, Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris and Virginia assistant
Ron Prince.
O'Cain, who coached the
Wolfpack from 1993-99 — a time when the school's facilities were not up
to par — has stated that he will not pursue the job but would be
interested if approached. O'Cain was responsible for recruiting much of
the key talent involved in State's success under his successor, Chuck
Amato, including quarterback Philip Rivers, one of last season's top NFL
draft picks.
Harris, who has
resurrected a storied Pitt program that had fallen on hard times, is
said to have strained relations with his superiors and to potentially be
open to other job opportunities.
The 34-year-old Prince, on
the staff put together at UVa by former NFL coach Al Groh, is regarded
by some observers as a rising star in the coaching profession. The
Cavaliers have become a national-caliber program since Groh was lured back to his alma
mater by Holland in 2000, when Holland was still that school's AD.
UAB coach Watson Brown and
and Atlanta Falcons assistant Jeff Jagodzinski, both of whom served
stints as assistants at East Carolina during some of the school's best
football seasons, have also been speculated upon as candidates for the
job.
Bonesville.net has also
been informed that a number of supporters of the ECU program have urged
Holland to consider contacting former Pirate coach Steve Logan about
reassuming the helm of the program from which he was dismissed by a
previous administration after the
2002 season. During 11 years as head coach, Logan led the team to five
of the seven bowl berths it has earned since joining Division I-A in
1978, including three consecutive postseason bids immediately prior to
his final season at ECU.
02/23/07 11:30 AM
Compiled from Bonesville.net
staff and
ECU Athletics reports. Copyright 2004. All
rights rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|