Former ECU football coach Mike Houston says he’s happy again.
He’s serving as a Clemson “volunteer defensive assistant.” He took that role in February after he was fired during last season with the Pirates. He was there for six seasons and had a 27-38 record, 15-28 in the now American Conference. He had been a head coach since he began at Lenoir-Rhyne in 2011.
“I’ve enjoyed coaching football again — being in the weeds with schemes and really spending a lot of time day to day with a specific group of players,” Houston told The State’s Chapel Fowler. “As a head coach, you’re responsible for everybody, and you’re responsible for everybody’s problems, everybody’s issues, whether it be players, coaches, staff.
“And a lot of times, it doesn’t allow you to have quite as much in-depth involvement with a lot of the things that go on daily. So I’ve very much enjoyed that.”
The story explains Houston’s role on the team, how he got the job and in particular, why he was fired at ECU. Before he was fired, the program had back-to-back winning seasons in 2021 and 2022. He went 2-10 in 2023 and was 3-4 last season before being let go.
“It was a rebuild when I took it,” Houston said. “And we were able to rebuild it and had a lot of success there. Just the timing of everything with some of the changes in the landscape of college football, we struggled to adapt.”
Houston told The State issues such as the transfer portal and NIL could still impact ECU.
“I think that where I left it, they’ve got a chance,” Houston said. “But we’ll see. I just think that the landscape of college football has changed so much that, especially for schools at that level, there’s still a lot that they’ve got to kind of learn how to navigate with the current climate.”
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