With Clemson football’s offense ranked among the nation’s best this season, offensive coordinator Garrett Riley is being floated in discussions for head coaching jobs. One such opportunity opened up at East Carolina University (ECU) after the Pirates fired Mike Houston, who was in his fifth season at ECU. CBS Sports named Riley as a possible candidate for the job, along with LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan and Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson.
Riley’s connection to ECU runs deep. He began his FBS coaching career there as a graduate assistant, working alongside his brother, Lincoln Riley, and later served as ECU’s wide receivers coach through 2015 before moving on to Kansas.
Dawson, one of Riley’s fellow candidates, has a background at North Carolina’s Wingate University, while Sloan is an ECU alum who also coached at Louisiana Tech.
ECU’s coaching salary budget may be limited, as CBS Sports notes that the school might focus on adjusting its budget to balance coaching salaries with athlete compensation. Riley, who made $2.05 million last year at Clemson, may need to weigh the financial landscape and the opportunities that ECU can offer. Houston, who had a strong run at James Madison, struggled to find similar success with the Pirates, concluding his ECU tenure with a 27-38 overall record and a 3-4 start to the 2024 season.
As ECU’s athletic director Jon Gilbert put it, “We are confident we will identify the right leader for our football program…My hope is Pirate Nation will rally around our student-athletes.”