By james art GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – After Mike Houston was fired Sunday, East Carolina athletic director John Gilbert named defensive coordinator Blake Harrell to interim duties.
After the first FBS coaching firing of the season, Gilbert says he has high expectations for the next long-term coach.
“I want to play and I feel like we should be able to play, a consistent winning program at East Carolina, we should be in a bowl game every year and we should be competing for conference championships, which I fully believe is where it’s at.” my expectations are. Blake Harrell is our interim coach, we’re not going to put any stipulations on Blake being the next candidate. said Gilbert.
Harrell, of course, is included in this consideration.
“I certainly hope we win 5 games and then we can talk about Blake Harrell as a candidate,” Gilbert said.
The ability to navigate “NIL space” will also play a factor.
“I want to find the best fit for this institution and for this program, but I also want someone who can navigate the NIL space as well. If you go through each league and who’s in first place in the conference, usually the teams with the most NILs are at the top of the league standings, so I think the NIL will play a big role in what the future of our football program looks like.” said Gilbert.
The Pirates have five regular season games remaining, including Temple at home this Saturday (2 p.m.) for the homecoming game.
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