Head Coach: Mike Houston is entering his 6th year as the head coach of the Pirates with a 24-34 record. Houston has a history of success, most notably slaying the North Dakota State beast to win a FCS national title at James Madison. He took this program over when it was in need of a rebuild and found success starting in year 3 but things shockingly fell apart in a 2-10 collapse last season. He enters this year trying to turn it back around.
Program Outlook: East Carolina was such a program on the rise, and for good reason. They have a great stadium, large enrollment that will show up for games and for a long time the product on the field was good. A decade ago they were known for their thrilling offense and then after mostly consistent success Ruffin McNeil had one bad year and was immediately fired. They completely missed on the replacement for McNeil and the program really hasn’t been the same since. Still, there’s no reason the Pirates can’t battle their way back to the top of the conference.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: This is going to be an interesting roster to monitor, and it’s a good thing anything is interesting when you compare to last year’s team. It was actually impressive how eventless a lot of ECU games where, the offense went nowhere, the defense stopped opposing offenses from going anywhere but made no impact plays. In short, their games featured a lot of punts. The Pirates will attempt to bring life to the offense with a couple new QB options they brought in Jake Garcia from Missouri and Katin Houser from Michigan State. You can see where this passing game can get fun fast if one of those options at QB work out, receiver Chase Sowell was one of the few bright spots for this offense and they have some transfers to add to the mix. The Pirates are trying to re-rack the offensive line in hopes for improvement in both pass protection and run blocking, having a run game would really help the Pirates cause. East Carolina found a strange year to suddenly have their best defense in years, they were solid on all levels but not spectacular, they simply did a good job forcing the opposition to punt. They have enough returning starters to keep that momentum going but their goal will be to force more impact plays (sacks, picks, fumbles) to help out their offense a bit.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: First, I really love the regionality of this non-conference slate. They play an in-state foe in Appalachian State along with Liberty, Old Dominion and Norfolk State from neighboring Virginia. This non-conference slate isn’t easy the Sun Belt and CUSA favorites along with an Old Dominion team who could still be solid but there also isn’t a team like Michigan on here. This conference slate is extremely favorable though, UTSA is the only top contender they draw and they get the Roadrunners at home. Beyond that, Army on the road is the toughest conference game, and they play a lot of teams that are with the Pirates at the bottom of the preseason conference poll. There’s not a ton of improvement needed to get the Pirates back to a bowl.
Vegas Projection: East Carolina’s win total is set at 6.5 with the odds geared toward the under. It looks like the Pirates are expected to make a bowl but not much more.
2024 Best Case: East Carolina’s offense gets back to being fun again while the defense remains stout. The Pirates win easily in the opener but make a statement when they take down Old Dominion on the road. They’re not done yet, they take it a step further and take down Appalachian State the next week. They finish off the non-conference slate by taking down Liberty in a thrilling battle. Suddenly East Carolina isn’t just hoping for a bowl, their eyes are on the playoff. The Pirates show they’re for real in American play by beating UTSA and claim in-state superiority over Charlotte in a win that’s much more exciting than last year’s 10-7 affair. The Pirates close out the final conference stretch mostly dominant and only trip up once against Army. Still it’s enough for a conference title game birth where they face off with an undefeated Memphis team. The Pirates battle hard but succumb to the Tigers. Still their bowl game is a nice consolation prize when they get matched up with North Carolina, the Pirates save their best for last and blow out the Tar Heels just like they did in their prime years. Finally, the future is bright once again.
2024 Worst Case: The offense remains stuck in neutral but starts turning over the ball just for the fun of it and the defense collapses. The Pirates struggle their way past Norfolk State which is a bad sign already, those fears are realized when they’re blown out by Old Dominion. It gets even worse when the Pirates are blown out by Appalachian State who eventually makes the playoff, and Charlotte who wins 10 games. Oh yes, also NC State wins the ACC and North Carolina makes the playoff as an At-Large. It’s the best season ever for College Football in the state of North Carolina but ECU is stuck on the outside looking in with their 1-11 record and they’re just trying to find traction.
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