ECU Fires Mike Houston; 1st HC Fired During 2024-25 College Football Season

East Carolina announced Sunday it fired head football coach Mike Houston following a 45-28 loss to Army.

"After a comprehensive evaluation of our football program, I informed Mike Houston this morning that we are making a change in leadership," athletic director Jon Gilbert said. "This was a very difficult decision. Mike has led our program the last five plus seasons with tremendous class and has positively impacted so many student-athletes.

"After earning back-to-back bowl invitations, we looked poised for continued success. Unfortunately, we have not seen the results we all want, and a change is needed to move the program forward. We have high expectations and those are not changing."

Houston's ouster is the first firing of the 2024 college football season.

Army is ranked 23rd in the nation, so the loss itself wasn't all that embarrassing. ECU still has a pathway to bowl eligibility as well.

As with most midseason firings, though, the school's decision is based on much more than what transpired this year.

The Pirates followed up their Birmingham Bowl victory in 2022 by going 2-10 in 2023. It was only the second time in program history they suffered double-digit defeats and the third losing season through Houston's first five years.

A 7-5 record in 2021—East Carolina was denied the opportunity to compete in the Military Bowl—and the success from 2022 bought Houston some goodwill and job security. Both eroded last season as the losses started to pile up.

The Athletic's Bruce Feldman wrote on the heels of ECU's 55-24 loss to Charlotte that Houston's seat was getting "warm."

The arrival of the 12-team College Football Playoff has led a lot of Group of Five programs to raise their raise their expectations. For East Carolina, the goal is still probably to become a bowl mainstay again like it was under Skip Holtz and Ruffin McNeill.

For now, defensive coordinator Blake Harrell will serve as the interim head coach before Gilbert zeroes in on a full-time replacement.