(11-29-2019 10:07 AM)olddawg Wrote: The feeling of the fans I encounter in Raleigh are night and day different from this point last year. I engage a fair amount of ECU supporters due to my knowledge of Houston's tenure at JMU. They have actually had chances to win against a couple of ranked teams in the last month. That was not the case last year.
The recruiting has upgraded in comparison to other AAC schools as well. Houston has spoken of the challenge of fending off big name P5 schools before signing day. Trust me, in the last few years, the P5s were not interested in poaching ECU recruits.
The fans are realistic and realize the cupboard was extremely bare for a incoming coach. The recruiting was very poor and their attrition rate was abysmal- thus they have little experienced depth. They are playing young guys (even true freshman) to cycle out the older, complacent players. I would categorize the Pirate fanbase to be much closer to Bleeding Purple's description than the people expecting an immediate turnaround and a bowl.. They are seeing the progress. Comparing their victory margins against crap teams is a far less important indicator of potential than their performance against quality teams.
Thats interesting given quite a few ECU fans previously felt Montgomery was a very good recruiter, and were scared of losing his recruits even though they knew he couldn't coach and wasn't getting it done on the field. Hmmm ... sounds familiar.
Haha I was thinking the same thing before finishing your post. Making decisions based on fear is not going to lead to success.
(This post was last modified: 11-29-2019 11:29 AM by JMad03.)
(11-29-2019 10:07 AM)olddawg Wrote: The feeling of the fans I encounter in Raleigh are night and day different from this point last year. I engage a fair amount of ECU supporters due to my knowledge of Houston's tenure at JMU. They have actually had chances to win against a couple of ranked teams in the last month. That was not the case last year.
The recruiting has upgraded in comparison to other AAC schools as well. Houston has spoken of the challenge of fending off big name P5 schools before signing day. Trust me, in the last few years, the P5s were not interested in poaching ECU recruits.
The fans are realistic and realize the cupboard was extremely bare for a incoming coach. The recruiting was very poor and their attrition rate was abysmal- thus they have little experienced depth. They are playing young guys (even true freshman) to cycle out the older, complacent players. I would categorize the Pirate fanbase to be much closer to Bleeding Purple's description than the people expecting an immediate turnaround and a bowl.. They are seeing the progress. Comparing their victory margins against crap teams is a far less important indicator of potential than their performance against quality teams.
Thats interesting given quite a few ECU fans previously felt Montgomery was a very good recruiter, and were scared of losing his recruits even though they knew he couldn't coach and wasn't getting it done on the field. Hmmm ... sounds familiar.
Don't know why ECU fans would be happy with Montgomery's recruiting. Perhaps he had a good reputation from his time at Duke?
His 3 recruiting classes at ECU
2016- ranked 79th (hired well into the recruiting cycle, so it's a split class w/ previous staff)
2017-ranked 79th
2018- ranked 89th
Houston takes over in Dec. of 2018, so he had limited time to recruit.
2019- split class w/ previous staff was ranked 78th
2020- currently ranked 52nd
(This post was last modified: 11-30-2019 12:30 AM by olddawg.)
Don’t know why ECU fans felt this way, but some that argued for keeping him thought Mo was a good recruiter and that things would “turn the corner” due to new recruits coming on board.
I know quite a few ECU fans from living in Wilmington for several years (and my wife has some family that lives in Greenville). Even in their blowouts to start the season, they were still excited because they 'looked better'. Are they to the point of picking up big wins yet? No...but...it's still big for them that they nearly had two wins over ranked teams two weeks in a row. Not only that, but most of the players that had them that close were freshmen and sophomores. Their QB and a couple of their WRs are legit. Once their D comes around and those guys get some more experience, they'll see a big boost. I'd be surprised if they weren't at 7-8 wins next year. They had 3 straight seasons of 3 wins, so the benchmark isn't very high right now...
I liked Houston but not how his coaching career ended with the drama around our loss to Colgate but he can't be happy getting beat by 25 going into the 4th Quarter at home against Tulsa.
Holy cow! 3 and 8 Tulsa smoked Houston and ECU 49-24 (gave ECU a couple garbage time TDs). Tulsa had nearly 700 yards of offense. ECU is much worse than they have ever been. Houston is a magician if he can bring this disaster back to any semblance of prominence.
I suspect Mikey is going to be like every other coach who left JMU for greener pastures.... "Best job I ever had. Wish I had never left."
Looks like Houston would have been better off taking the Charlotte job or here's one- waiting instead of being so antsy to leave a "very special place" at JMU.
**OPINION ALERT** I think Houston will get ECU straightened out after a couple of good years of recruiting. That is my opinion only, it's not based on fact. I feel a need to make that clear so I don't get jumped on by overzealous posters bent on only presenting well researched facts that have long standing precedent. I have neither, please forgive me, but accept my humble opinion on what I think Houston can do for ECU.
(12-01-2019 10:36 AM)Bill Wrote: **OPINION ALERT** I think Houston will get ECU straightened out after a couple of good years of recruiting. That is my opinion only, it's not based on fact. I feel a need to make that clear so I don't get jumped on by overzealous posters bent on only presenting well researched facts that have long standing precedent. I have neither, please forgive me, but accept my humble opinion on what I think Houston can do for ECU.
Bill, I really don't have a feeling one way or another if MH is the Man who'll right the Pirate ship, what I have the opinion of is there's no way for me to formulate a thought after one season and I may not be able to after two. I'll know at the conclusion of three if MH is the right hire. To be the right hire he doesn't have to move mountains just get them to where they were four seasons ago, competitive against the regional P5's and in the top half of the AAC.
Each coach since Matthews has taken the program to new heights. The progression has been amazing. Houston has had the most success but with Cig, we are winning games by a large margin and our offense appears to be better. Winning a N.C. in his first year would put him slightly ahead of Houston.
The disappointing part about Houston is he turned out to not be the man we all thought he was. All his talk was just rhetoric. The way he left was a circus. I have no grudge with him improving his lot in life just the way he did it.
The guy at NDSU did it the right way. There were no distractions with his leaving.
As I said before, I think a new coach who is truly a good hire will take someone else's players and at least change the culture to one of a winning attitude. That, alone, should show in the team's demeanor and should show in at least some kind of improvement. ECU under Houston is the same old ECU. I hope Houston can change things at ECU. I just don't see it. I don't think it will be the dumpster Withers inherited and continued at Texas State, but I just don't see him getting it done. That is going to be a steep hill to climb, and when the finish after Year One looks like the same old losing team, it gets even steeper.
(12-01-2019 10:36 AM)Bill Wrote: **OPINION ALERT** I think Houston will get ECU straightened out after a couple of good years of recruiting. That is my opinion only, it's not based on fact. I feel a need to make that clear so I don't get jumped on by overzealous posters bent on only presenting well researched facts that have long standing precedent. I have neither, please forgive me, but accept my humble opinion on what I think Houston can do for ECU.
(12-01-2019 11:23 AM)Purple Wrote: As I said before, I think a new coach who is truly a good hire will take someone else's players and at least change the culture to one of a winning attitude. That, alone, should show in the team's demeanor and should show in at least some kind of improvement. ECU under Houston is the same old ECU. I hope Houston can change things at ECU. I just don't see it. I don't think it will be the dumpster Withers inherited and continued at Texas State, but I just don't see him getting it done. That is going to be a steep hill to climb, and when the finish after Year One looks like the same old losing team, it gets even steeper.
Purple we all know you don’t like MH, despite your disclaimers to the contrary. Whether he’s the guy that turns around ECU is still a work In progress, and your and my and all the other JMU fan opinions about MH won’t change that truth one bit. MH will succeed at ECU or he won’t, it’s as simple as that. One fact is MH’s tenure at ECU won’t end after one season so stay tuned.
(This post was last modified: 12-01-2019 04:58 PM by Longhorn.)
(12-01-2019 11:04 AM)JMUNation Wrote: Each coach since Matthews has taken the program to new heights. The progression has been amazing. Houston has had the most success but with Cig, we are winning games by a large margin and our offense appears to be better. Winning a N.C. in his first year would put him slightly ahead of Houston.
The disappointing part about Houston is he turned out to not be the man we all thought he was. All his talk was just rhetoric. The way he left was a circus. I have no grudge with him improving his lot in life just the way he did it.
The guy at NDSU did it the right way. There were no distractions with his leaving.
The way he left and that other thing that everyone has heard about but no one is talking about.
(12-01-2019 11:23 AM)Purple Wrote: As I said before, I think a new coach who is truly a good hire will take someone else's players and at least change the culture to one of a winning attitude. That, alone, should show in the team's demeanor and should show in at least some kind of improvement. ECU under Houston is the same old ECU. I hope Houston can change things at ECU. I just don't see it. I don't think it will be the dumpster Withers inherited and continued at Texas State, but I just don't see him getting it done. That is going to be a steep hill to climb, and when the finish after Year One looks like the same old losing team, it gets even steeper.
Purple we all know you don’t like MH, despite your disclaimers to the contrary. Whether he’s the guy that turns around ECU is still a work In progress, and your and my and all the other JMU fan opinions about MH won’t change that truth one bit. MH will succeed at ECU or he won’t, it’s as simple as that. One fact is MH’s tenure at ECU won’t end after one season so stay tuned.
I don't dislike Houston at all, even though I think he played us all for chumps with signing a ten-year contract then playing Charlotte against ECU while we were beginning a one-game playoff run and it turned the whole team into a chaotic mess. I don't like that AT ALL!
So, is it the new rule that no one is allowed to predict a coach's success until Horny says so? Is that about right?
(12-01-2019 11:23 AM)Purple Wrote: As I said before, I think a new coach who is truly a good hire will take someone else's players and at least change the culture to one of a winning attitude. That, alone, should show in the team's demeanor and should show in at least some kind of improvement. ECU under Houston is the same old ECU. I hope Houston can change things at ECU. I just don't see it. I don't think it will be the dumpster Withers inherited and continued at Texas State, but I just don't see him getting it done. That is going to be a steep hill to climb, and when the finish after Year One looks like the same old losing team, it gets even steeper.
Purple we all know you don’t like MH, despite your disclaimers to the contrary. Whether he’s the guy that turns around ECU is still a work In progress, and your and my and all the other JMU fan opinions about MH won’t change that truth one bit. MH will succeed at ECU or he won’t, it’s as simple as that. One fact is MH’s tenure at ECU won’t end after one season so stay tuned.
I don't dislike Houston at all, even though I think he played us all for chumps with signing a ten-year contract then playing Charlotte against ECU while we were beginning a one-game playoff run and it turned the whole team into a chaotic mess. I don't like that AT ALL!
So, is it the new rule that no one is allowed to predict a coach's success until Horny says so? Is that about right?
No, I think the rule you’re thinking about is nobody is allowed to counter an opinion posted by Purple.
