The Rise, Fall, and POSSIBLE Revival of ECU Football

under skip Holtz and Ruffin mcneel the East Carolina Pirates football program was one of the best group of five programs consistently beating North Carolina andc state in Virginia Tech although they had a much smaller budget and came from a much smaller conference but incompetence by the administration would lead to the downfall of the once great football program and financial issues for the athletic department overall although they had a rough 2 and10 season last year under Mike Houston the PIR have returned to Bull games in two of the last 3 years and are projected to finish towards the top of the American this season this is the rise fall and Revival of East Carolina football but before we get into this if you enjoy college football content like this make sure to leave a like And subscribe also let me know who you want me to talk about next in the comment section below when John Thompson took over as head coach the program was coming off a decade of mediocrity Under head coach Steve Logan Logan had gone 69 and 58 at East Carolina leading them to five bowl games where they would go two and five this was coming off a lot of excitement where Bill Lewis had led the Pirates to an 11-1 record and a win in the peach bow in a top 10 ranking so the Logan era was extremely disappointing the Thompson era would not be successful in any sort of way as they would go 1 and 11 in his first season and 2 and9 in his second season leading to his departure from the program with a 30 and 20 record the Pirates had gone from being a top 10 team in 1991 as an independent to the bottom of the Conference USA at the conclusion of the 2004 season the program was in a bad place and need had to hit on their next tire and hit they would the man chosen to replace Thompson would be son of legendary Notre Dame head football coach Lou Holtz skip Holtz I've talked about holtz's backstory a few times on this channel in the past but Holtz was coming off a successful run at Yukon from 1994 to 1998 leading them to the division 1aa playoff quarterfinals in his last season finishing with a record of 34 and 23 he would then join his father at South Carolina serving as an assistant before taking the ECU job during his opening press conference he said I promise you you'll have every ounce of energy soul and life that I have in order to put into the program back where it belongs and that's a championship level HZ received a 5-year contract that paid him $150,000 a year and he expected the team to compete for a bowl game almost immediately Holtz was chosen over former Clemson Coach Danny Ford and Ford was basically given the job and had been in the preliminary stages of assembling a staff until the ECU board of directors rejected the hire due to his association with NCAA sanctions placed on Clemson back in the day in his first recruiting class he brought in Audrey Allison and won his first game as head coach when they beat Duke 24 to 21 it was the Pirates first non-conference division one win for the first time since 2000 they finished at 2005 season 5- six and just missed out on bull eligibility but there were more wins in year one under Holtz than the previous two years combined under Thompson in 2006 Holtz would lead the Pirates to wins over NC State in rout 7 and five regular season record and a spot in the papa john. com bow where they would lose to South Florida 24 to7 2006 Saw East Carolina improved for a thir year in a row beating North Carolina in route to a spot in the Hawaii Bowl where they would beat number 24 Boise State 4 to 38 to finish the season 85 it was the first time since 1999 and 2000 that ECU went to back-to-back Bull games things would continue to improve for ECU in 2008 as they open up the season with upset wins over number 17 Virginia Tech and number 8 West Virginia becoming the first team in Conference USA history to win three straight games over ranked they would win their first East Division title and won their first Conference USA title ever and their first conference title overall since 1976 it would eventually lose to Kentucky in the Liberty bll 25 to 19 to finish the year 9 and5 in 2009 EC would once again go 9 and5 winning their second straight conference title but once again lost to Arkansas on the Liberty Bowl 20 to7 it was the first time in school history that the Pirates were able to play in four straight Bull games Holz had successfully rebuilt the Pirates program and delivered on every promise he made in his opening press conference following the season Holtz would leave ECU to take the South for a job leaving a what if situation had he stayed for both himself and fans as he would struggle at USF HZ would finish his Pirates career with a 38 and 27 record who would go 16 and 21 in three seasons at USF Holtz would discuss his departure from PCU back in 2022 saying anytime any of us get a time to go back and look hindsight is 2020 when you get an opportunity to see it I made the decision I did at the time to have the opportunity to be around my Mom and Dad my mom passed away year and a half ago at this point and to have an opportunity to spend some time around her and my brother being in Daytona Beach and my wife being from Port Charlotte it was a big family decision at the time the thing I regret the most there as I look back is what we built there in Greenville and walking away from it people like Terry Holland and the relationships I had with Terry and Anne and to have the opportunity to work with a man with integrity and the class he had I think yeah I wouldn't have left from a career standpoint When You Look Backwards but I know why I left and I look at the time I got to spend with my parents the reason I left was not football related they were family related those are memories I can't take back Holz had made Pirates football exciting again and had turned dowy fckin Stadium into one of the toughest places to play in the Conference USA the man chosen to replace Holtz would be former defensive back and assistant coach Ruffin mcneel mcneel is a four-year Letterman in the late '70s and spent 10 years coaching at Texas Tech under Mike Leech serving as his defensive coordinator in 2008 and 2009 after moving up the rank he made it clear that this job was a dream job for him and not just some stepping stone for him he served as the interim head coach at Texas Tech for their bowl in over Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl seen as a father figure by those within the program mcne was credited with promoting a family type atmosphere while at the same time providing discipline instruction on the field the program would take a step back in 2010 going six and seven and making it to the Liberty bull to extend their bull streak to five Street bow game the struggles would continue in 2011 as they would miss their first bow game since skip poll it's his first season but rebounded winning the Conference USA East Division title in 2012 as they would finish the year in5 and lost in the New Orleans bow 2013 would end up being one of the best seasons in school history as they would finish the year 10 and three their first double- digit winning season since 1991 under Bill Lewis it was the second most wins in a season for the program throughout their history that dated back to 1932 it would beat North Carolina and NC State and went on to beat Ohio and the beo Brady Bowl the Pirates would start the 2014 season 6-1 with their lone loss at the time coming against South Carolina on the road 33 to 23 heading into the temple game they would be ranked 21st in the nation and seemed in line to play in a major bow game as the highest ranked group of five team who received an automatic bid to either the cotton bow Festa bow or Peach Bowl they' collapsed against Temple finding themselves down down 23 heading into the final 2 minutes of the game where they scored to make it 20 to 10 they followed that up with a loss to Cincinnati 54 to 46 basically eliminating them from major Bull game contention they proceeded to finish the rest of the season going 2 and two including a loss to Florida in the Birmingham bulll 28 to20 to finish the year 8 and5 a disappointing end to such a promising season in what would be the Pirates first year as a member of the American Athletic Conference after a disappointing 5- seven season McNeil would be relieved of his duties in a controversial move that left a lot of fans angry the decision was centered around the fact that mcneel refused to make changes to his coaching staff following a disappointing season according to Nation Ruff and mcneel finished with a 42 and 34 record in six years during the 2015 season ECU had lost their offense coordinator Lincoln Riley to Oklahoma expected starting quarterback Kurt bener to a season ending knee injury and wide receiver Justin Hardy to the NFL draft they also played an extremely tough non-conference schedule with their third string quarterback for most of the season with games against BYU who finished in season 9 and3 and Florida while beating Virginia Tech in Matt Brown's piece ECU fired Ruff and mcneel what the hell are you thinking pirates from 2015 he wrote so ECU let go of a coach who dunked on local power conference Rivals had ties to the University was loved by nearly everybody and won a lot of football games all because he had one Bad season and didn't win the conference yet what the hell are the Pirates thinking they dumped a head coach who probably turned down bigger jobs to stay at ECU because he loved the school because the school thought they could upgrade the program with the different head coach this destroyed the relationship between mcneel and ECU that took years to fix in 2019 the coaching staff under Mike Houston began to rebuild a relationship Houston won the school to honor mcneel McNeil would return to ECU as a member of the NC State coaching staff in 2022 both David Doran and Lincoln Riley credit McNeil as their mentor and both believe had it not been for ruffen they would not have found the success they have achieved McNeil spent 3 years at Oklahoma serving as Riley's defensive coordinator where they made three straight playoff appearances before he joined Doran staff at NC State because he needed to be closer to home to take care of his father linebacker Drake Thomas said his hire was probably one of the best decisions that coach Dorne made just having someone like that as good a person as he is it can do nothing but help and uplift others he was inducted into ecu's Hall of Fame in 2021 Jeff Comer someone I will talk about in a little more detail in a little bit was the incompetent ad who wanted to make his own hire for head coach and was the reason the relationship with mcneel was destroyed sneak peek to later in the video Comfort would run the athletic department as a hole into the ground the man chose a replacement Neil and was Comer's upgrade quote unquote upgrade would be Scotty Montgomery Duke's offense Co at the time the upgrade would be a disaster comparable to the John Thompson era at ECU after a decade of success where e went to eight bll games from 2006 to 2015 they would have three straight seasons of 3 and9 play where they would also see the financial crisis become a disaster at the University Montgomery would finish his ECU career going 9 and 26 and went 420 in AAC play Mike Houston would replace Scotty Montgomery after dis as Three Seasons Houston is originally from marsill North Carolina and spent over 30 years coaching in North and South Carolina he led Lenor Ry to a 29 and8 record into the division 2 national championship game in 2013 he then rebuilt The Citadel leading them to 9 and4 record in the second round of the FCS playoffs going 1411 in two seasons in 2016 he took the James Madison head coaching job LED them to the national title game that year and followed that up with an appearance in the national title game 2017 Houston led the Dukes to 37-6 record and two national title game appearances with one win in three years many hoped when Houston was hired that he would lead the Pirates to the same type of turnaround he had achieved in his previous three destinations things would start off slow for East Carolina going 4 and8 in the first season in 2019 the uphill battle back to relevancy would be even tougher when the world would shut down before the start of the 2020 season ecu's athletic department was a mastering during this period having to cut men's tennis women's tennis and men's swimming and Diving and women's swimming and Diving programs to save money at the time the men's swimming and Diving team was the first team ever in ECU history to win a National Championship in 1957 in total 68 student athletes and nine coaches saw their Pirates careers and just like that during one of the toughest periods the world has seen in a while e would drop down to the minimum amount of sporting programs to stay at the division one level at 16 the school announced it would limit the summer school for their student athletes to save money they also continued to cut other athletic resources like their professional development programs and conferences for at least a year in May of 2020 the Athletics fiscal sustainability working group released a report about ECU Athletics the report revealed a shocking conclusion ECU Athletics were not financially sustainable the group had released the report before the covid-19 pandemic affected the program so that was not to plane 44% of the revenue from ecoo Athletics came from student fees and enrollment was down in 2018 and at the time it was expected to drop in 2019 and 2020 the football team also struggled with attendance from 2016 to 2018 ECU football saw their attendance numbers drop in total by over 30,000 with a 12,000 people per game drop to only 32,9 18 people per game in a 50,000 seat Stadium if they chose to expand the stadium according to the Wall Street Journal those numbers may have not even been accurate the report said the school announced that 27,9 total people attended games for an average of 36,000 people per game but only 125,1 32 tickets were scanned at the gates for an average attendance of only 177,000 people per game from the 2017 season the time of the construction the expansion was projected to generate $42 million in new Revenue but updated projections at the time actually believed it would cost ECU $6 million instead of generating more money previous athletic director Jeff Comfort remember I said I was going to talk about him later resigned after the failed football expansion experiment and some of his decisions led to the financial hole the school is in during the short in 2020 season that saw the attendance be restricted ECU finished 3 and six and went 3 and five in AAC play which was a two- game improvement for 2019 during their home open against South Carolina they would have a sellout crowd it would take a 14 to nothing lead but a Holton allers pick six brought the Gamecocks back into the game and they would lose 20 to 17 they would proceed to go on a three-game win streak and later a 4-game win streak to finish the year 7 and five and qualify for their first bowl game since 2014 their bowl game the Military Bowl against Boston College would be cancelled due to co issues on the eag roster led by quarterback Colton allers EC would finish the 202 2 season with their best record since 2014 going 8 and5 with heartbreaking losses to NC State 21 to2 Navy 23 to 20 and Cincinnati 27 to 25 it would beat Coastal Carolina 53 to 29 and ticket smarter Birmingham bow 53 to 29 and Aller finished his career with 13,930 passing yards 97 touchdowns and 37 interceptions also rushing for 1,446 yards and 25 touchdowns on the ground re writing the Pirates record books the program seemed to be on an upward trajectory from the outside looking in and seemed to be finally back on track after back-to-back winning seasons though with the departure of allers and Keaton Mitchell the Pirates offense would go from one of the best offenses in the nation to one of the worse ECU failed to recruit and develop a quarterback to replace allers former four-star recruit Mason Garcia seemed like the future and they also brought in taji Hudson and Ryan stumble field Garcia would not qualify for school immediately but would eventually make it Hudson would moved to wide receiver and stumble field would transfer to Incarnate Word after spending three seasons as a backup Walter Simons III would sign in 2021 but transferred out after one year after it became clear he would not be used quarterback they would pass on Byron Brown in 2022 and chose not to sign a quarterback in the class and in 2023 they signed former West Virginia commit rahee Jeter Hoist the Colors wrote last year without allers and Flynn both of whom were Scotty Montgomery recruits it's fair to wonder how many wins Houston would have right now they also lost two 1,000 yard receivers in Isaiah Winstead and CJ Johnson a Pro Caliber tight end and Ryan Jones and four starting offensive linemen they did not have the nil funds to reload and also lost a handful of coaches as well between the lack of development and major losses in players leaving as well as coaches leaving it was a perfect storm for ECU to go from a program on the rise to going back to building with a 2 and10 record which was one of the worst seasons in program history they even snapped their 26e streak of avoiding a shut out when they lost to Navy 10 nothing heading into the 2024 season though ECU brings in former four-star Michigan State quarterback Kaden Hower who's competing against Garcia for the starting quarterback job whoever wins will lead a fast-paced offense this coming season Bill steel projects ECU to finish fifth in the American this coming season Houston spoke on the offensive Improvement saying offensively and pleased with the progress of meshing together ECU will look to return to a bowl game this coming season U is one of the most passionate fan bases and they deserve to find success in the American once again what do you think can EC return to being a great team let me know in the comment section below if you enjoyed this video make sure to check out one of my other videos YouTube thinks you will love right here thank you so much for watching and as always remember to embrace the grind [Music] know