Calm down folks. Lets remember when we made a poor decision to make a change and let Ruff go. Deep breath folks. I still believe we have a good coach. College football environment these days is as tuff as it has ever been. NIL, transfer portal, $$ deficiencies, conference shakeups, the long term foundational things still matter and perhaps now more than ever. Houston has those! It takes time. We lost a 5yr QB, two very talented receivers, a homerun back, ( wish he had stayed ) and those are not easy to replace. Seems now with two games to review, one played by each QB that we at least have some idea of who can give us the best chance at being competitive. I'd like to see more of Gunn and Bond at back. Just seem to have a little more speed and wiggle. We must block better, but a good back with a burst can find creases sometimes that others can't. Got to catch the ball!!!! Captain obvious I know, but. Look around, lot's of big time programs struggling. It's not easy even when you have unlimited resources. I believe we'll get there. These are 18-20 year old young men. Looking up. Go Pirates!

Penalties are a discipline problem. That’s coaching. line play on both sides of the ball will dictate how many wins the team will have. I love the spunk in our D-line butt 5 of them are 6’1” . No way they can pass rush against 6’5” guy. Good o line is like being married, it takes time to figure out, o line is a dance, there’s a rhythm to it. I doubt Nick saban could do much better with same budget and NIL we have. I love my Pirates, I’m going to support them no matter how bad it gets. The team with better players win 90% of the time. We’ve got to go after the best, it’s hard work , especially in Greenville. That is when the Coach is worth $2,000,000.00

Agree on the run game. The overall inexperience of the team is most telling on the O-line. This includes a lack of discipline - too many penalties - regardless of experience. By the third game, you shouldn’t be making all of the unforced errors we are seeing. Also agree on the defense, for the most part. The Pirates have some decent players sprinkled throughout the D. There is a flaw in our scheming, as App St used the same run play over and over, without much of an adjustment by the Pirates. When someone doesn’t make a tackle, that’s easy to see. More often than not, there wasn’t a Pirate near enough to contest the edge. I don’t know what nimrod decided to use the short kick at the 2 min mark in the 1st half. Your kicker has been doing a good job up to that point, so why get cute. We paid for it. Bad coverage, combined with poor defense after, gave momentum back to App. I was hoping for a 5 or 6 win season, even with all of the the new personnel… not now.

Once again, the defense is serviceable, the offense not so much; ECU has virtually no run attack. Unless and until that changes, the final result won’t change, no matter who’s under center.

Why would App State switch? Their operating costs would go through the roof in the AAC compared to the Sun Belt. App State gets decent exposure as is, because they have a winning tradition. The Mountaineers, for more than a few years, have outperformed the Pirates in football. The AAC would definitely benefit from having App State, but I don’t see it happening.

Appalachian or Costal should replace SMU.

NCAA has ruined yet another beautiful thing! As pirates we keep fighting and overcoming but the NIL isn’t winnable. Trying to raise $ for indoor facility, nil what next? App st will make us 0-3 then come home to Gardner Webb with 18,000 fans . Can’t recruit and keep kids under these conditions. No telling what conference will will land in, but folk aren’t coming to see the alphabet schools from Texas. It’s hard being a Pirate, but I love ‘em !!!

JJ says Agree-- under NIL and transfer portal systems current rules non-power five teams (ECU) should use the Coach Prime model. Otherwise you are using your recruiting budget as a NFL minor league or developing players for the Power Five programs. Sad to say this will hurt High School athletes, but now it is all about the money in my opinion.

Speaking of recruiting, just last week, this site featured a recent ECU commit, a young man named Sam Riddy, whom I of course hope excels at ECU, on the field and in the classroom, but the profile includes the statement that follows: Riddy chose ECU over offers from Benedict, Bryant, Charleston Southern, Colgate, Navy, Newberry, N.C. Central and The Citadel. Except for Navy, this featured young man is considered by recruiters to be at the FCS level. Let's hope that that's not where ECU recruiting finds itself these days.

I’ll fill you in as I missed the first half and watched the second. Garcia is not a good QB. When he doesn’t panic and run he locks on to a receiver, waits too long and doesn’t throw with much accuracy. I doubt he will improve any at this stage of his career. Flinn has good pocket awareness and accuracy. He should have been the starter after how much better he looked at Michigan. Throwing him out there with a 3 TD deficit where they know we can’t run was unfair. He still had as many passing yards (about 60) as Garcia had. The receivers as a group are some of the worst I’ve seen since Houston took over. Do we even have a tight end? So many dropped passes in both these games. The defense was doing great, but got worn out in the 4th. Hard to imagine next week at App State will be any better. As Deion Sanders is proving college coaching is mostly about recruiting, I’m not so sure that Houston is succeeding at this most important part of the job.

I cannot recall seeing any other game change so radically, so instantaneously. Starting the latter part of the 1st half, ECU had all the momentum, really thanks to the defense, until the Marshall 4th quarter trick play. The defense was absolutely lights out lockdown; it felt like any offensive series, the Pirates would finally seize the game and put it away. Then came the trick play, and ECU simply vanished, on both sides of the ball. The offense is a major concern, absolutely no traditional running game at all, dropped passes, and errant passes.

Being unable to see the last half of the game, I’m going to limit my comments to the first half. Great job by the Pirates pulling even at the half. It could have been, probably should have been, at least a touchdown worse. Marshall had some dropped passes which could have done a lot of damage. Bottom line, we have a ton of young players playing, which means a huge learning curve. Neither QB has shown he is “the one”. Garcia is a bit of a disappointment, having been in the system so long, and being tabbed as the heir-apparent two years ago. He seems completely lost at times. Once again, we have a secondary which can’t take care of its’ business at crunch time. Having the right scheme called, and calling out the very play that stabs you, tells me that maybe someone else should get a chance at playing. Let’s find out now who can stick to his responsibilities. This could be a long year. No chemistry on offense, and the secondary either can’t play the schemes, or doesn’t yet have the discipline for it.

This is a good, and sobering, reflection. That comeback victory vs. Marshall a couple of years ago may not be their best win in the post-McNeill era, but it's certainly a contender.

Of course the upcoming Marshall game is a far better measuring stick for the program. It's interesting that the Pirates are 3 point dogs at home, a good thing; it tends to make that game mean that much more.

Thanks, Sammy Another good report, keep them coming.