Tag: Mike Houston

ECU head coach Mike Houston says Michigan football is as advertised

Straightforward, dominant win for #Michigan. #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — While it may not have been quite as lopsided a blowout as one would expect from the No. 2 team in the country facing a Group of Five program, Michigan football came out and efficiently dominated East Carolina team, 30-3.

The Pirates did everything in their power to shut down the Wolverines’ run game and managed to hold Michigan to 122 yards on the ground. However, quarterback J.J. McCarthy managed 280 yards passing with three touchdowns while completing 26 of his 30 pass attempts.

After the game, ECU head coach Mike Houston said that even without Jim Harbaugh on the sideline for the maize and blue, Michigan was as expected.

“Congratulations to Michigan on a solid win today,” Houston said. “Very good football program, very good football team. Very talented, old, experienced. They look like what their preseason ranking is. I thought Jesse (Minter) did a good job in the interim today. I thought they had a really good plan defensively. Obviously, they were the better team today.”

As mentioned, McCarthy had a dominant performance, completing 87% of his passes on Saturday. While Houston was complimentary of the Michigan quarterback, he noted there were a few times he felt that his pass defense wasn’t doing what it was supposed to be doing.

Chalking it up to a mix of execution errors and youth, Houston says this is a learning experience for his secondary.

“I think he’s really good,” Houston said. “They have some really good receivers. We had some mistakes in secondary — had a couple of times we’d have a coverage called that should have allowed us to be a highly contested throw or possibly a turnover and we did not execute.

“So we got some things we could execute better within the secondary and I’m thinking of it’s young guys in their first college starts. So, there are gonna be some growing pains here early in the season.”

The surprise for the Wolverines was they struggled to run the ball on Saturday. Blake Corum had 73 yards rushing and a touchdown while Donovan Edwards had 37 yards. Corum, with 10 carries, managed an average of 7.1 yards per carry, but as a team, the maize and blue managed just 3.9 yards per carry — after being third in the country with 5.58 yards per attempt in 2022.

However, Houston isn’t exactly pleased with his numbers there, noting that just because ECU got one thing right, didn’t mean it got the game right.

“We got beat 30-3. I don’t know how much solace I can take, you know?”

As for Michigan, it will move on to UNLV, which it will host next Saturday at The Big House for Week 2.

What he said: ECU head coach Mike Houston talks Michigan football matchup

Interesting stuff from the opposition. #GoBlue

For the first time ever, Michigan football and East Carolina will match up across the line of scrimmage from each other on a football field.

On Saturday, the 2023 season will begin in earnest for both the Wolverines and Pirates, and while much of the attention in Ann Arbor is captivated by the news of Jim Harbaugh’s three-game suspension and feud with the NCAA, there are fewer distractions for ECU.

But there’s still one really big issue: the maize and blue are expected to be really, really good.

Meanwhile, the Pirates lost a lot of their talent from their 8-5 team a year ago. Still, head coach Mike Houston is enthusiastic about the challenge his program faces.

“Obviously, we’re really excited about the opener with the opportunity to go and play in an iconic venue like The Big House in Ann Arbor,” Houston said. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for our program, players and coaches. I think everyone knows what kind of team we’re encountering. Most experts will tell you on paper that Michigan is the most talented team in the country this year. They return a lot of experience from a College Football Playoff team over the last two years. They’ve done a great job building a tremendous program.”

The odd thing for Houston is that he has likely spent much of his time this offseason expecting to face off against Harbaugh, not defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. However, when it comes to preparing for the Wolverines, he doesn’t really care about who’s on the sideline, knowing the talent of the team that will actually be on the football field.

So the preparation hasn’t changed, because, much like Michigan players have said, there likely won’t be a very big difference in the game plan, nor the execution.

“I’d rather them sit some of their players out,” Houston said. “You know what they have coming back? I don’t think it will impact their scheme at all. They have an experienced play caller that will call the game on Saturday. We know him a little bit and I’m sure that they’re coaching the team throughout the week. They’re going to put the game plan together. They just have to get a couple of guys implemented on game day, so I think it’ll have a minimal impact.”

Saturday’s season opener is set for a noon EDT kick. The game will be nationally streamed on Peacock.