CARY, N.C. — The five head coaches representing North Carolina’s schools in the National Football Foundation’s Bill Dooley chapter were seated on the dais for the annual Pigskin Preview at the Embassy Suites in suburban Raleigh.
The first prompt from the moderator, WRAL’s Jeff Gravely, was for N.C. State’s Dave Doeren, North Carolina’s Mack Brown, Duke’s David Cutcliffe, East Carolina’s Mike Houston and N.C. Central’s Trei Oliver to raise their hand if they had named their starting quarterback.
Only Cutcliffe responded, signaling fifth-year senior Quentin Harris.
What about ECU’s Holton Ahlers? He’s the Pirates’ highly recruited hometown hero from Greenville’s D.C. Conley High. He seemed on a path as the face of the program last year as a true freshman. Didn’t he establish himself?
Yes and no.
The “yes” is assumed by many because he led the Pirates in rushing and passing. The “no” is the Pirates have a new head coach.
ouston, who has an 80-25 career record a Lenoir-Rhyne, The Citadel and James Madison, explained his approach to establishing new direction has been the same whether he was faced a rebuilding project at The Citadel or a winning program at James Madison.
“This is more like the team I took over at The Citadel,” he said after the luncheon. “At James Madison I took over an 8-win team, so there was talent coming back on the roster. But I like to give everybody a clean slate.”
Houston faces a major rebuilding task. ECU has suffered more dark clouds than four straight losing seasons. The last three were 3-9 records with a 5-22 mark in AAC play, prompting dwindling attendance at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The regular-season finale was a 58-3 embarrassment at N.C. State. The long day included N.C. State center Garrett Bradbury scoring a touchdown out of the backfield on a handoff. Then, He gave the ball to Terronne Prescod, who punted the ball into the stands at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“We need to learn how to compete,” Houston said. “I did not see that on film (last year). If we can get that accomplished that will be a big stride.”
Thus, Ahlers, like everyone else, has to compete for his starting job.
Ahlers started five games last year and played in 10. He led the team in both passing, 1,785.5 yards (178.5 per game) and rushing 592 (59.2) to equal 237.7 yards total offense per game.
In the Pirates’ lone AAC win over Connecticut, he compiled 372 yards total offense – 130 rushing with one touchdown, 242 passing with four TDs.
Against UCF, the AAC champion that finished the year ranked No. 11nationally, Ahlers accounted for 475 total yards, 69 rushing and 406 passing. He had the Pirates at the 1-yard, in position to close the deficit with a touchdown to 23-17, but his fumble was returned 94 yards for a TD. The final score was a 37-10 loss.
His season highs were 449 yards passing and 506 total offense in a 59-41 loss to Memphis, the AAC West champion.
Impressive numbers, but Houston still wants him to win the job over redshirt junior Reid Herring, who earned the job to start last season’s opener and seven games overall. He finished 154-of-228 passing for 1,607 yards and six touchdowns and 10 interceptions. His net rushing yards, due to sacks, was minus-67 yards.
“Everybody assumes Holton Ahlers will be our quarterback, but I tell you this, Reid Herring had a great summer,” Houston said. “He’ll have a say in that. There will be a great competition in summer camp.”
Actually, Herring, with two seasons of remaining eligibility, impressed Houston simply by returning to the Pirates in this age of quarterbacks quickly transferring when they lose a starting job.
“Reid and I had some very honest conversations,” Houston said. “He wants to be at East Carolina and he wants to play. I told him he has that opportunity. We need him, I know that.
“We needed him last year and we’ll need him this year. What happens this season, we’ll see. I feel good about Reid’s character — the way he has handled himself. He has competed. He has not shied away from competition. I’m glad he’ on the roster.”
No, Houston won’t be raising any hands until later this summer.
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
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