A gift for music led Rick D'Abreu to the football field. But it was D'Abreu's hard work that turned him into a Football Bowl Subdivision football player. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound defensive lineman from Thomas Dale High in Chester, VA, became one of the final pieces to first-year East Carolina head coach Mike Houston's initial recruiting class on February 6. While still head … [Read more...]

Upgrading talent and bolstering depth on the front and back ends of the defense were priorities when East Carolina began pursuing the recruiting Class of 2019. The Pirates wound up exceeding those goals by signing 10 players of exceptional potential, five of whom are projected as defensive linemen and four pegged for the secondary. Headlining the group is one of the most … [Read more...]

An appropriate title for the story of East Carolina's football recruiting Class of 2019 would be “A Tale of Two Coaches & Their Staffs.'' The last three players in the class were signed to a national letter of intent February 6th, bringing the final total to 21. A core group of 17 signees were the result of a strong starting effort by the previous staff under coach … [Read more...]

One of the surprises emerging from the early signing period in December for East Carolina involved the labeling of local product Jeremy Lewis as a tight end. Sure, Lewis had been a prominent pass catcher at South Central High School just a few miles from the ECU campus in Winterville. But the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder had been recruited primarily as a defensive end by the … [Read more...]

Mike Houston had very little time to make up ground recruiting after becoming East Carolina's head coach just 16 days before college football's early signing period for the Class of 2019. But with an aggressive approach that had Houston and his staff traveling from Florida to Pennsylvania for face-to-face meetings with prospects, the Pirates didn't lose any ground … [Read more...]