East Carolina's Mike Houston: Michigan a 'tremendous challenge' with 'not a whole lot of weaknesses'
Michigan Wolverines football will take on East Carolina at The Big House Sept. 2, with the season opener just 11 days away. The Pirates broke fall camp Aug. 19 and were back at practice Tuesday, this time preparing for the Maize and Blue in the hot and humid weather.
“It always gets more exciting, when now you have something to focus on like the first ball game. Good first day,” ECU head coach Mike Houston said at his post-practice press conference.
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Houston knows his team will have its hands full.
“It was good to get started on the opponent,” the head coach said. “Obviously, we have a tremendous challenge in the opener. When we watch them, not a whole lot of weaknesses with what they have returning. Very, very good football team and program, and [Michigan head] Coach [Jim] Harbaugh’s done a great job recruiting the past four years to build this roster.
“We’ve got a great challenge. But we’re excited about that challenge. The kids are very excited. You could feel their energy in the team room today, you could feel their energy when we took the field.”
Houston said it’s an adjustment assembling and training a scout team to run Michigan’s system and give his starters and backups a look.
“I reminded them, I said, ‘Listen, guys, you’re supposed to be Michigan,'” Houston said with a laugh. “Obviously, they’re not, but it’s, 1) they have to give us a great look. That’s important. And every school in the country went through the same thing today — all of them did. But the other thing, too, is just trying to get them to see that you don’t become a finished product overnight, and you’ve gotta push yourself to improve every single day, and you gotta stay on a positive trajectory in order to become that finished product one day. It’s a two-fold deal.
“But there are a lot of things to iron out the first day. We weren’t live tackling today; we were thud tackling, and we were a little sloppy after a couple days off. It’s very important that we shore up our thud tackles so we put our bodies in the right position to make those open-field tackles and make those good, proper, fundamental tackles. If you’re not a good thud tackling football team, you’re not going to be a very good tackling team on game day.”
Houston, in his fifth season with the Pirates, has led his team to winning records each of the last two years. They almost knocked off No. 13 NC State in the season opener a year ago, losing 21-20. They fell to South Carolina, 20-17, a year prior. Second-ranked Michigan is hoping next Saturday’s game matchup will have less drama. Vegas doesn’t believe there will be much at all, with the Wolverines a 36-point home favorite.
Harbaugh is set to serve a three-game school-imposed suspension stemming from an alleged NCAA violation, starting with Michigan’s game against ECU. Houston weighed in with his thoughts.
“I don’t know,” Houston exhaled. “It’s kinda gone back and forth, and I think it’s kinda silly, to be honest. If you want to punish him, punish him, figure it out in the offseason. Quit going back and forth like this. I hope he is on the sideline.
“He’s going to coach throughout the week. I don’t think it’s going to make a significant difference one way or the other on game day. He has a staff that’s been with him for a while. His offensive coordinator has been there, a couple guys on the offensive staff have been there. So they’ll have the game plan and, I’m sure, do a great job of running it. I just assumed he’d be across the field.”
Michigan and ECU will do battle Sept. 2 at noon ET on Peacock.
