Jacoby Simpson was looking for a second chance to play major college football last July when East Carolina defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Blake Harrell came calling. Simpson, a linebacker, had just enrolled at a Texas junior college in Cisco after playing two seasons at Texas Christian University. The 6-foot, 225-pounder had seen action in 11 games over … [Read more...]

East Carolina's football record book is littered with the names of quarterbacks from the state of Florida. There's the great Jeff Blake (1988-91), from Daytona Beach, who orchestrated the historic Peach Bowl comeback against N.C. State. Delray Beach native James Pinkney (2003-06) and Lakeland's Dominique Davis (2010-11) both rank among the top five in ECU quarterbacks in … [Read more...]

Tommy John surgery ended a promising baseball career for Toler Keigley, but started him down the path to becoming a major college football player. Keigley was a prominent fixture on the travel baseball scene in Florida growing up and played shortstop and pitcher all the way up to his freshman season at Gulf Breeze High School in Florida. But while pitching as a freshman he … [Read more...]

To say that East Carolina has established a recruiting base in the Tri-City area of Virginia would be an understatement. The stretch along the Interstate 95 corridor that runs from Richmond to Petersburg has produced current Pirates such as redshirt freshman defensive back Jonathan Coleman II, sophomore defensive lineman Rick D'Abreu, redshirt freshman defensive lineman … [Read more...]

Football has been a family affair for Cruz Temple. Temple started playing the game at age seven, following in the footsteps of his father and older brother. His dad, Tony, was a walk-on player at the University of South Carolina and is now an assistant coach at Cruz’s high school in Abbeville, South Carolina. Brother Nate was a Shrine Bowl All-Star game participant at … [Read more...]