Pre-existing relationships have become even more important in the pandemic world of college football recruiting in which virtual campus tours and Zoom interviews have become the norm. The ability of Mike Houston’s East Carolina staff to establish a solid pre-pandemic relationship at Lakewood High School in Sumter, SC, wound up earning the Pirates their second verbal … [Read more...]

From a negative came a positive for Jason Shuford and East Carolina’s football program. Shuford, a defensive lineman from Statesville (NC) High School, had settled on continuing his football career at national junior college powerhouse Independence Community College in Kansas after falling just shy of NCAA academic requirements that would have earned him a scholarship to a … [Read more...]

Tim Shramek still considers it one of the best high school football games he’s witnessed. And that’s saying a lot for a guy who’s been a prep coach in Mississippi for almost 30 years, including the past nine as the head man at Germantown High in Madison. Shramek’s Germantown squad was facing off against Oxford in the state 5-A semifinals on November 20, 2015, in Oxford. The … [Read more...]

Tom Crowell has been a high school football coach in Montgomery County, Maryland, for most of the past five decades. During that span, Crowell has helped develop some special football talents, including current National Football League players such as receiver Stefon Diggs of the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins’ cornerback Kendall Fuller. Now the head coach at Sherwood … [Read more...]

East Carolina and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium made an indelible impression on Justin Chase on a late September afternoon back in 2015. Then a highly regarded offensive line recruit from Chesapeake, VA, who had already made a verbal commitment to play for the Pirates, Chase had driven to Greenville with his father to watch ECU face Atlantic Coast Conference power Virginia Tech. It … [Read more...]