The Harrell Huddle: ECU Turns the Page After UTSA Loss, Eyes Bounce-Back vs. FAU

East Carolina walked into the Alamodome on Saturday with momentum, confidence, and a shot to stay atop the American. They walked out with a harsh reminder that nothing in November comes easy, especially not against a UTSA program that refuses to lose at home.

After a 58–24 loss that never felt close, head coach Blake Harrell didn’t run from it. He didn’t sugarcoat it. He faced it head-on during his weekly press conference, and he made it clear ECU’s focus has already shifted toward finishing strong.

OPENING STATEMENT

"Just going back to Saturday, obviously a disappointing loss, especially after we'd set the standard pretty high. I talked to our players about this morning, just, we have a high expectation, high standard for ourself, and didn't meet that on Saturday. And (UTSA) played their best football this season, and we probably played our worst of the season. And I can't exactly put a finger on what it was, or what went wrong, or those things. Numerous things for sure, but just felt like we never got the momentum in the dome there. First third down, run a sail route and don't get free there. Probably got held on it. And we get a third down stop defensively, and we get called for targeting. Two plays later, we have a pick, and they knock it out of our hands. So that was kind of the story of the day. JC breaks a big run across the 50, then gets a little loose with the ball, trying to get extra yards, and all of our guys are just fighting for a little extra trying to make a play. And next thing you know, it goes the other way. Coming out of the half, we're trying to reset and refocus at the half, and come out of half, get a stop right away, and then try to make a play and add the punt block team, going to go block it, and we run into the kicker back there. But that was just kind of the story of a day. Just kind of every time we try to get a little bit of momentum, we had a setback.

"And obviously I got to do a better job as a football coach of making sure we don't have those. But that was the biggest thing and what I talked to our players about this morning is just, hey, they've done a really good job this all year, of resetting. Let's refocus on FAU. Go 1-0. And I think your job as a leader, whether it's head football coach, whether it's a husband at home, whether it's a head of your company, is never get too high or never get too low. When things are really good, you can't be on top of the world, and you got to keep everybody in check. And I think when things are too low, you got to be the positive guy and energy guy going around practice and make sure everybody's pushing forward and looking out the windshield and not the rear view.

"Think I heard Mike Elko say it last week, you got to be the opposite of what your team is. If your team's down low, you got to be the energy guy. If your team's up high, you got to be the bad guy going around practice. And I kind of agree with that.

"So we got a great opportunity this week in FAU, and this team has responded, like I said, all year long. We've had a loss, and then we come back and get some wins. We haven't had two losses in a row, but it's a great opportunity for win number eight, and that hasn't been done since 2014, and maybe only five times with eight wins or more in this decade, and win number six in the conference, which would be the best American record in conference since East Carolina has joined the American. So in our preparation, as we focus on getting ready for the week, we got to make sure we're not making it about the last game, or eight wins, or six wins. We still got to focus on us our preparation, winning every single day this week."

ON FLORIDA ATLANTIC

"FAU is a good football team doing some really good things right now. New head coach, Zach Kittley, who came from Texas Tech, kind of the Mike Leach tree, air raid style. Kliff Kingsbury guy. He's tempo. He's spread, gonna throw it around. Think they had over 600 yards of offense this past weekend. So he's doing a really good job there of creating some offense. His quarterback, Caden Veltkamp, is a transfer from Western Kentucky. I think he's first or second in the nation right now in passing yards. So he's a guy back there that is going to throw the RPO, but also drop back passing game, get the ball off his hands pretty quick, and he does really good job. His top receiver, Easton Messer is, I think, second in the nation with 90-plus catches, so he's doing a really good job as well.

"Defensively, their coordinator is Brett Dewhurst, he also has some Texas Tech connections. I think he's a native of Texas. He's been at Coastal Carolina, been at Mississippi State, been at Texas State. Mostly, they're a four-down front. They're going to close the middle of the field, play some post coverage, play a little bit of bracket. They will get into some odd front, three down. And then they'll also have the flavor of the week as well. With that, the linebacker Leon Hart is their leading tackler, number six, and then one up front, CJ Doggette, transfer from Ohio, leads them in sacks. So that's a little bit of a preview, just kind of about those guys and kind of where our focus is, where our mindset is, and I think it's, as always, it's out the windshield, not the rear view. As I heard one of our players say the other day, there's a reason the windshield is a lot bigger than the rear view, so we need to make sure that's what we're looking at and go finish this thing off the right way and get ready for the bowl game after that."

ON KEEPING PLAYERS FRESH

"You're in Week 14, Game 12, plus game five in a row. And you got to have a fine balance of taking care of their bodies. Obviously we got a little bit of sickness going on right now. Think we had about almost a dozen kids out with sickness today, and some injuries from the game. So you're kind of battling, balancing that, but also getting your work in. So it's a fine line between that, keeping your guys fresh so they can go play fast and do the things you want to do on Saturday, but getting the work in so they can go do those things. So you got to balance that up. And you're to that point in the year that you may not need as many full speed reps as you did earlier in the year, because they've been there, they've done that been through 12 games, but you still got to get your reps in on what FAU's looks are both offensively and defensively."

ON REDSHIRT DECISIONS

"I think we've done a really good job of just talking about redshirts and freshmen who, if they play and get five games during regular season, they burn a redshirt. So we've got a bunch at two or three games right now that we've saved to the last game that will travel this weekend. We had a young man use his fourth game this past weekend in Kendall (Walton), so we're going to try to hold him the best we can this week. So we do a pretty good job balancing that and just making sure we're also not protecting just this year and doing a great job of protecting the future of our roster. So excited about those guys. Once they get to postseason play and the bowl game, it's all fair game. So all those guys can play in that without it counting against their redshirt."

ON STARTING FAST

"Every single week, I think we're 7-0 when we score first. So that's a pretty good stat. And, we stress that every week. We just weren't able to make that happen and execute early in the game, to make that happen early in the game, and some breaks went their way. They didn't go our way, and we got to bounce back and make it happen this week. We got to find a way to make sure we come out of the gate with our foot on the gas and keep it going."

ON THE ALAMODOME

"Yeah, Memphis was in top 25 last year. Got beat there. Tulane, as you said, got beat there. South Florida got beat there last year. I mean, 25-0. It was something nobody in our conference has done yet. And, you always look back at little things, little details. I thought our preparation was pretty good last week. What could I've done differently to make a difference, you know? And, maybe I didn't focus on the process and the preparation enough. Maybe I talked a little bit too much about the dome. Or maybe, you know, and you go 1,000 different ways. If you win the game, none of that matters. But when you don't come out successfully with a game, and the outcome is not what you want, you always look at the little things. Kind of pick it apart, at least in the coach's mind. That's what we all do, right? But you can't point it at one thing or another. It's really kind of pull the thumb and say, Hey, how can we play better? You can't blame it on the dome or the lighting, the echo, the noise, or any of that crap. It's all about what we do, our preparation, how we make plays, and we just gotta do a better job at the end of the day."

ON UTSA’S OFFENSE

"I think McCown just got rid of the ball really quick with his quick game rolling out of the pocket, moving the pocket around. And I think the biggest thing is we didn't stop the run. And I think we talked about it last week. We need to win the rushing battle. And we didn't do that. We didn't put them in third and long, those situations. And credit to them, they did a really good job of staying out of third and long, getting in third and short, manageable downs, manageable distances, to keep the chains moving. And I think defensively, anytime you let an offense do that, they kind of have the upper hand, and they're kind of swinging.

"So we we got to make sure we do a better job of that, putting them in some long yardage situation. We have the first half we have, and in the third quarter, we played better, but it was also that situation of you're behind by four or five scores, you're trying to make plays and you're trying to make something happen, and you're trying to make a miracle comeback. Something I told the guys at halftime was if we make this happen, it'll be a storybook. We're onside kicking in the third quarter. And some coaches would say, Hey, we're gonna kick it deep. We're just gonna get out of here. We're gonna run the football. They're going to run the football. We're going to move on. Well, that's never my mindset, that's never our program's mindset, that's never our players mindset. We want to freaking play to the final whistle, and we all believe that, hey, at some point, somehow, some way, we're going to make some plays to kind of get back into this thing. And we just weren't able to do that."

ON FAU’S PASSING GAME

"The film I've watched, I go back to the UConn game, and some of those games, he's looked pretty good. And they're 3-2 at home. I think they're 1-5 on the road. Another team you wish you played in Dowdy, but he's, he looks like a kid who has been back there, a veteran guy. He's got his receiver out there that transferred with him, and they're really in sync. And he does some good things, and does really good job running the offense. It's the same system that he had at Western Kentucky. Their coach was at West Kentucky before Texas Tech. So there's some relationships there, and it's all kind of familiar to him. So you can see him in rhythm back there running the offense. I think they went for it on fourth and one at their own 10 yard line the other day, and the play went 90 yards. So they kind of take some chances all over the field. You'll see them in muddle huddle or polecat in different situations on fourth down. I see them running flea flicker on fourth and one, which you don't see much. So you got to expect anything and be prepared for it. End of the day, we got to make sure we do a great job with our eyes. And I think it's the ol' saying; See a lot, see little. See little, see a lot. So we got to make sure we're ready to go."

ON YANNICK SMITH

"Yeah, I think it took us a little out of sync this past game. Going into the Memphis game, the plan was to go a little bit more 12 personnel to calm their DC down a little bit. Going into this next game, you had to have that 12 personnel ready to go, and as well as some 11 personnel. Yannick is making strides, hoping to get him back this week and certainly miss him. And I think some other guys have stepped up. But, having Yannick back out there and just a comfort level for Katin would be huge."

ON JIMARION McCRIMON

"Yeah, Jimarion, got an ankle late in the game. We'll see if he can bounce back. Was out there today moving around a little bit. Just, big guy and a lot of body weight there on an ankle. You never know. And he's had a little bit of injuries this year with with the stingers and the shoulders and neck, but kind of been fighting through those, and we'll kind of see where it is and see who gives us the best chance to win a game on Saturday."

CLOSING REMARKS

"Before we wrap up, just wanted to say happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there. Happy Thanksgiving to Pirate Nation. I think, being here, we talk about all the time how special this place is, and got so much to be grateful for and thankful for, Thankful for our players, thankful for our staff, thankful for everybody that makes this thing happen. You're going on game 12 in week 14. There's a lot of people. It takes a village to make it all happen. So thankful to everybody out there, appreciate them, and also thankful to our fans. Thankful for your passion and your support, and we don't take that for granted. I really appreciate it, because it's not like that everywhere. Pirate Nation, enjoy your holidays. Enjoy some Thanksgiving turkey. Eat a lot for me. Enjoy your family and friends. Appreciate you. See you soon. Go Pirates."