How does ECU’s Football coach feel about the Appalachian State matchup this year??

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Go to lifelock.com slash aware. Joining us now here on the Adam Gold Show, Coach Houston of the ECU Pirates. Thank you so much for giving us your time. I know you're getting excited for the college football season to get underway. I know camp is getting underway. Now coach, let's go right into week one. You're on the road, you're at Michigan, you go to the big house. Are you all in focused on Michigan right now for week one as you start camp this week? Or does that focus not really shift until maybe a week before the actual game arrives? Well, I think, uh, you know, the focus on Michigan is it's here, but it's a little bit in the distance for us right now. Um, we will, uh, focus mainly on ourselves for the next couple of weeks. Uh, and usually, you know, two weeks out is our traditional time to, you know, really dial in and, and, and focus on the opponent wholly. Uh, but you know, we spent a lot of time this summer on them, so we know them pretty well already. Mike Houston, head football coach ECU, joining us on the Adam Gold Show.

Dennis Cox sitting in for Adam this afternoon. How big is it for your program to, to go play another power five school, but this time on the road at Michigan, how big is that for your program? You guys had NC state at home this past season. So it's not like you're not used to playing against power fives, but this is a big thing going on the road at Michigan. Well, I think there's a little bit of a difference between playing someone that you play regularly and a rival rival game and, uh, and playing, you know, in a venue like, uh, like the big house and playing a team that's, you know, going to be ranked probably second in the country preseason. And they're, you know, they're saying probably the best, best roster they've ever had at Michigan, which is saying a lot. Um, so I think it's a great high visibility game, uh, for our program to start the season. Now, coach, let's go to another game that you have.

I know Victoria, our producer and I were, we're highlighting college football games that we're looking forward to most of this upcoming season. When you all visit app state, I'm excited for that game. And I was thinking when I saw that match up, when the schedules came out, I just thought to myself, why doesn't this game happen more often?

Why doesn't, why don't we see East versus West in the state of North Carolina? In my opinion, coach, this is a game that I would like to see happen year in and year out where one year app comes to you all next year, you're back at app. What can we make this game happen more often, please? Well, I think, you know, Sean and I've talked about it and we're both, uh, you know, we're, we're both for it. So, you know, we, we do have a couple of games scheduled. This was a home and home, uh, deal that we scheduled with Appalachians. So we've got a couple of games where they're coming here, um, you know, still in the future. So, uh, I think you'll, you'll get used to seeing us play pretty regularly here from here on out. Coach, that excites me.

I'm not going to lie. That really does get me excited. I think as well, you got to look at it from a recruiting standpoint, especially recruiting kids from the state of North Carolina. I know there's the other ACC schools. There's a lot of competition for recruits in the state and that doesn't even factor in other programs like Clemson or South Carolina that try and pull kids from our state. Why is it important that these matchups keep recruits inside the state of North Carolina? Well, I mean, both of us, you know, both our programs are trying to do the best we can to keep, uh, players in the state of North Carolina. I just think the matchup is good from a standpoint of, you know, it's, it's two really good programs with two passionate fan bases. Um, arguably it's the only two football schools in the state of North Carolina.

Um, you know, there's some other sports that may be a little bit more important at other schools in the state, but, you know, certainly at East Carolina and I think at Appalachian state, you know, you, everybody would agree it's a football school. Um, so I think it, uh, you know, it's, it's good for our fan bases. Um, you know, and I, I respect Sean, the job he's done there. I think we both have maybe a similar, uh, you know, mindset to how you, uh, how you play and how you run your program and stuff like that. So, uh, I think it's, I think it will become a good, healthy robbery.

I a hundred percent agree with you on that. Mike Houston ECU head football coach joining us here on the Adam gold show. We look back at last season, finished the year eight and five, got a big win over coastal Carolina in the Birmingham bowl. Look at some of the losses.

I was there against the game against NC state, just a one point loss and a double overtime loss against Navy, another close loss in there against Cincinnati. When you look at those games and you talk to your team about the, you know, the difference between like that margin of errors, so thin, what is that next step for you guys to, to close out some of those tight games? What, what's the biggest thing that you saw from last year that you can take into this year to, to make a, an eight win season, an 11 win season, right? You know, I think anytime you get in those games and I told the team before last year started, and it's gonna be very similar to what I tell them for this year starts, um, that we were going to be in a lot of tight ball games. There will be a lot of games that come down to the final kick or the final play and things like that. And sure enough, we had a bunch that did, um, you know, you have, you have those games like the opener last year, and it's not, it's not one thing. I mean, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to point, uh, you know, just to the two missed kicks in the last minute and a half of the game where, you know, you should have been walking out of there with a huge win. Um, it's, it's other things too throughout the game.

So I think it's, I think it's a lot of stuff. Uh, I think that we have to be better in the kicking game this year than we were last year. Obviously that did hurt us in every one of those losses you mentioned. Um, I think that we have improved our personnel. Uh, certainly we've put in a, put a lot of effort and resources into doing that.

Uh, but I think we gotta, we gotta do the, do the little things, you know, take care of the football, you know, be a little bit better, uh, on the other special teams, you know, all those things are so, so important when you get in those tight ball games. So let's go into the personnel. You had a couple of guys that were really special players that, that have moved on from your program. Holt Nailers was a big time member of your program for a long, long time. Uh, he's moved on from, from graduating Keaton Mitchell at running back, went to the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens in training camp right now.

How do you, I mean, it's, it's hard to replace special players year in and year out like that, but how do you go about in terms of replacing the production of those two guys? Well, you know, we've got guys that have a been waiting their turn or B then, you know, playing along with them. You know, Mason Garcia has been, uh, playing behind Holton, uh, for three years and he's, he's waited his time.

And now is his time. Uh, and the one thing I tell people is he is probably more prepared, uh, you know, for this opener than Holton was my first year, you know, Holton made a lot of mistakes, uh, you know, for a year or so, uh, and then played really, really well the last two years. Now you didn't notice those mistakes as much because, you know, we, we just weren't a very good football team when I got here. Uh, so, you know, it was not, uh, as glaring, uh, but Mason is prepared. Um, you know, the running back room, you know, Roger Harris was first team all conference in 2020, and he is coming off an injury, but he's worked very hard to, to, uh, rehab himself from that. And Marlin Gunn and Gerald green are both experienced proven backs. So you, you got guys in those positions, the wide receiver room, you know, the O line, you got guys in those positions that have been, you know, working and waiting their turn or waiting to be the focal point.

And so they're excited. Uh, you know, it's, they gotta, they gotta, you know, mesh together. That'll be the biggest thing we got to do in preseason camp is get all of them playing together on the same page.

Cause that's, that's the one thing that have not done in a game. Final question for you, uh, Mike Houston ECU football coach about that in preseason, would you like to see maybe one game removed from the regular season to add in like a, like a scrimmage date before the regular season kicks in, uh, whether, you know, that's a game, like for example, against the Campbell, you know, make that FCS game, a scrimmage game. So you guys can work out some of the kinks and mesh before you got to go on the road to Michigan. Would that, do you think that would actually benefit college football? Not with the current rules that we have in place. I think there, I think there would be a lot of people that would be hesitant, uh, to do something like that with the current landscape of college athletics. Um, you know, and, and with the college football playoff, you know, I just, you know, they're trying as much as they can to take, you know, a little bit off, uh, you know, of the season. And, uh, I just, I don't see we're adding another contest of any kind, whether it's a scrimmage or whatever, uh, would be something that would be highly beneficial.

Yeah. I've always been curious on that cause I played football division three and we were able to actually have a scrimmage game before week one. Now we had a 10 game regular season. Then we, we made it to the postseason. So I didn't know, cause that's gotta be hard not having played against anyone else.

It's like, all right, week one, you're in the big house. That's, that's not an easy thing to do. It is.

It's tough. Mike Houston, head football coach ECU. Thank you so much for your time. Really do appreciate it. Best of luck this season. I know again, I have it circled the ECU app game, but I know we're going to be rooting for your program because you're in the state of North Carolina.

That's why I root for coach. Thanks for your time. Best of luck this season. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you having me on go pirates. Thanks so much. That's Mike Houston, ECU head football coach again, ECU app. You don't have to be a fan of either of those programs, but if you like college football in the state of North Carolina, you better tune in for that one. Oh yeah.

I'm here for it. There are more identity threats than you realize. Even if you monitor your credit, only a little personal info needs to leak out like your social security number or password. LifeLock alerts you to threats you could miss. If your identity is stolen, a dedicated US-based restoration specialist will work to fix it. No one can prevent all identity theft or monitor all transactions, but everyone can save up to 25% off their first year. Go to lifelock.com aware.