ECU football coach Mike Houston talks about Norfolk State win, shift to ODU

by | Sep 3, 2024

Sixth-year East Carolina Head Football Coach Mike Houston addressed members of the media Monday afternoon prior to Saturday’s non-conference contest at Old Dominion. The following are selected comments:

Opening statement
“Great to get a win to open the season. It was great to be at home also. Watching film and seeing Casey Kelly’s touchdown right down there in the Boneyard. Seeing a packed student section that was celebrating and screaming. The intensity on the field. It was great to be back playing ball again. Like I said after the game the other night, I really appreciate the students and our fan base for showing up. We had a great atmosphere and electricity in the stadium the other night.

“Great to get a win to open the season, but a lot to clean up. I think that there are a lot of things to be excited about, but a lot to clean up. I’m happy to get the win, but certainly not satisfied with the way we played and our players know that. They’re very motivated to get those things corrected this week and we have to because we’re playing a very good Old Dominion team. I promise you they’re kicking themselves right now because they had South Carolina beat and they really dominated the line of scrimmage defensively down in Columbia last Saturday. If it wasn’t for a couple of turnovers inside the five that basically gave South Carolina two touchdowns, they’re sitting here with a win over an SEC team coming into this game. Very good team we’re facing on the road at their place.

“It’ll be a hostile environment. I’m positive that we’re going to have plenty of Purple up there. We’ve got a lot of fans in that region and it’s a two-hour drive from here, so I know the Pirates will show up, and our players are very excited about this game. So got a great week of practice. We can’t make the mistakes we made last week. We’ve got to make sure that we go and play a clean ball game, but it’s going to be a good one on Saturday night. Excited about it.”

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