Nothing that's said about KM's departure makes a difference, of course, and I appreciate its understated treatment here, but the word "catastrophic" comes to mind. That he'd have been on the 2023 Heisman Watch list is almost a certainty.

For all of the heart and soul that Hoton Ahlers invested into ECU football, his final performance is richly deserved. The next step for the program is for it to find its way into the rankings, and to be there at the end for the conference championship. (In terms of conference prestige, the American would've been better off sticking with the 8 remaining original members alone.) The critical factors for next year are Mason Garcia's ability to fill the void that HA's departure creates, Keaton Mitchell staying put in Greenville, and overhauling the secondary. (Last night would've been much closer had McCall not gone down, though I don't see a different final result.) With Mitchell, Harris back and Gunn's continued development, I would expect the Pirates backfield to be the best in the conference by far.

Holton is the man who dads want their kid to be one day! Great leader! Hope he decides to Coach, we need that kind of Man teaching our children! Thank you Mr.Ahlers!

There are those in Pirate Nation who will take the time to find faults in the Pirates victory over CC last night. From the venue, the “Birmingham Bowl”, to the apparent lack of discipline (11 penalties) of the Pirates, you can choose to find fault. I choose to celebrate! The Pirates put an exclamation point on their 7-5 season, which included its’ share of disappointment. There will be, and in deed, should be a thorough critique of, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, that was 2022 Pirate football. For now, I say thank you to HA for his toughness, resilience, and leadership. For all of the players who “bought in” to a culture and pushed on, thank you. I think there are plenty of reasons to look forward to 2023, but for now, I just say, “Thank You”!!!

Thanks, Sammy Great report, love your work.

Welcome home. I hope you have a good spring and get the chance to compete for a starting gig. The Pirates need A LOT of help upgrading their coverage capabilities. Remember, CBs require a very short memory and the ability to immediately step up again. Don’t just “get acquainted” this spring. Seize it. Make it yours. Best of luck!!!

Thanks, Sammy

Let’s hope he has some cover skills. ECU needs some people on the back end who can actually cover receivers one-on-one to allow options for five rushers to make an opposing qb get rid of the ball. Whether Coach H or the DC want to admit it, the Pirates are almost always overmatched in the secondary by any decent qb/receiver combo. As close as the Pirates were to a 10 or 11 win season, they were equally close to a 5 win season. The offense can’t always bail out a porous secondary.

...agreed that this should be taken as a "must win", but the opening line has ECU by 7.5, meaning that in some sense, the value of a Pirates win is not a whole lot more than just treading water.

So many positives here fellas. Regional matchup, I'm actually pretty excited about it. Coastal has been pretty solid in case you haven't noticed. Nat Championship in Baseball too. Should be a fun game and well attended. Warmer destination, and actually a pretty fun town to visit. We have come so far from where we were.... Has everyone forgotten the low point of Aggies' coming to G'vegas and winning? I never will. We compete now and the future looks bright with Houston at the helm. He is building a solid program and we are foolish to do anything other than recognize it and get behind him and our Pirates!!! Let's Go!!! Blessing to have the opportunity!!

This is a must win game, to be taken seriously. ECU was ahead of TCU at the point when we lost to TCU in Mobile in '99. We were ahead of Marshall when we lost to the Herd in 2001, S. Florida had no real bowl history when they beat us in 2006. We beat Boise St. in 2007 and they have not run really run far past us nor has UL-Lafayette though they beat us in 2012, plus we kept Ohio behind us by winning in 2014. W had our chances to prove it to the SEC in 2009, 2010, 2015. Interestingly we lost 2 bowl games in 2010. ECU is much better than that. We must take this game very seriously to keep Coastal in the rear view mirror.

ECU has no grounds to complain, of course, and I think that one more win would've made a pretty big difference, and no slight meant to CC, which is quite decent, but this is somewhat disappointing, given the projections being made that the opposition would be a Power 5 opponent. CC has little football tradition, not much cachet, and virtually any P5 opponent would've made for a higher stature contest. Other than this game giving ECU a chance to beat a recruiting competitor, there's considerably more downside to this game than upside.

Yes, but UNCC's football is poor, and it generally has no tradition, athletic (except maybe baseball) or academic, so there's just no upside for the American generally or ECU specifically. In other news, it was nice to see Tulane kick UCF's a$$ on its way out the door as a parting gift.

I agree, it’s hard to get excited about games against those new AAC teams, except Charlotte. Because I live near there.

In terms of its football stature, the AAC would be better off staying with its 8 remaining teams than admitting those Conf USA teams, and is only worsening the stature loss that it's suffering due to the 3 departures. At worst, I can keep see them maybe taking Rice, due to its very high academic pedigree and long tradition, and UTSA, which clearly has aggressive aspirations for success on the field.