At a certain point when nothing is working, like giving up 600+ yards a game. Creativity is required. Like blitzing on every down, or switching positions and moving players from offense to defense. Going for it on 4th downs and using trick plays. I think Montgomery lacks imagination and is too old school to turn this around this year or even in the next few.

This year's losses are tied directly the failed recruiting of ECU in the last few years of the prior coaches tenure. Not that he didn't recruit some good athletes, but the fact that too few were college students and ultimately failed school work or simply dropped out because they could not keep up. One only needs to review the recruited classes and how many of them have left for reasons beyond any coaching staffs ability to retain. When Smith said "everyone knew this was coming" he was talking about our current coaching staff itself who also knew. It will take ECU three to five years to rebuild D1 players across the board no matter who is coaching. Sad, but true. Go Pirates!

Yep. With JT, I heard before the first kickoff that he was in over his head. With this team I don't hear anything. I did hear that Rick Smith made a comment after the first game that everyone knew this was coming. That the guys didn't want to get hit or something. Anyone else hear this? What do you think about the tech receiver saying he was surprised to see he was given a 10 yard cushion?

The Kidd You right about title but you have to have winning seasons. Skip Holtz first season, he went 5-7 (one game from bowl eligible). That team lost 3 games with a margin of less then 10 points. That's a building team or season. Now what we doing now with Coach Mo is nothing.

With Skip, I think it was about 4 seasons after JT that we won the first title. With Bill Lewis (and Steve Logan), I believe it was about the same amount of time after Art Baker that we won the Peach Bowl.

It looks like the hiring of the Athletic Director and the Football Coach are going to set the athletic department to levels not seen since the John Thompson era. That is very depressing to even think about how long before ECU football becomes competitive again

Looking at the schedule and the way the team is playing, I do not see a single win. You have to go back to 1948 to find the last season the pirates did not win a game. Montgomery appears to be a capable guy but something is missing somewhere. Tough year to be a pirate fan.

Listened to the coaches comments...the talking point that was woven throughout - coaches are not the issue "schematically put players in position they did not make the plays" - "coaches can't go on the field and make the plays" ...when leadership of organizations whether they are business, military or in this case a football coaching staff begin to project responsibility for shortfalls on players ...I would say everyone needs to grab a bucket this ship is taking on water fast.

Point taken. Thank you for your sacrifice during that era!

If you go back and look you will be surprised how many of Ruffs recruits were walk on, NO stars, 1 and 2 stars, with a rare 3 star. Mo recruits are fairly consistent 2 or 3 star with a rare 4 star. It looks like we can recruit, just can't play!

When the AD cut Ruff loose he was holding a 3 year extension that Ruff wouldn't sign all season long. I don't want to go into it here but the answer to the "why coach Mo question" is on the day Ruff was cut loose the AD had no idea he was going to do it therefore had no prospects at the time for the job.

SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY IS ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE!!! WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT THIS SEASON, HE SHOULD BE RELIEVEDE OF HIS DUTIES. WE HAD A PROVEN, WELL-LIKED STAFF AND SYSTEM IN PLACE WITH RUFFIN MCNIEL. THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR EXPERIMENTATION. I, LIKE EVERY OTHER PIRATE CLUB MEMBER AND PIRATE FAN, HAVE COME TO EXPECT, AND DEMAND, MORE!!!

You might be right KIDD. Did you know Coach Greg Hudson was a base defense with three blitz package. The secondary was based on ZONE AUTO which was cover 2 or 4. It was simple defense and kid responded greatly. No thinking just playing around and playing football. I wonder who Coach Mo going fired Monday on Offense side of the Ball. Our offense vs BUD FOSTER Defense. ECU might score 14 points and its going be towards the end of the game. 48 to 14

I agree. Nonexistent defensive line and low scoring offense. Painful to watch. The first game was winnable. The next two; no chance! Take the spread again this week.

Defensive line. What defensive line? We've been living and dying by our offense being able to score 50 points per game for years. We haven't had a defensive line since Linval Joseph and Greg Hudson the defensive coordinator! I could be wrong here but wasn't that also when Jeff Connors was at UNC? I just remember our entire team being a lot more "fit" at that time, whoever the strength and conditioning coach was.