2023 Ultimate College Football Preview East Carolina

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

The 2022 football season should be considered a good one for the Pirates of East Carolina. They went 7-5 in the regular season and ended the year on a good note winning the the Birmingham Bowl. Besides the loss to a bad Navy team and a blowout vs. Houston, the other losses were close games. The close game loses were vs. top 25 opponents. The Pirates defense was right in the middle of the pack in points per game allowed, while the offense was ranked 36th in points per game. They were lead by record breaking QB Holton Ahlers, he will be hard to replace.

Head Coach:

Coach Mike Houston lead the Pirates to their best record in his 4 year tenure in 2022. You can tell the success of a coach by year 4 in a program. Houston is right on track in making the Pirates an annually good team in the American Athletic Conference. If he keeps this trajectory and the bigger teams in conference moving into the Big 12, the Pirates could be at the top. They could get to the top and stay up there or close each and every year. ECU has great facilities and a history of always improving that Houston can work with to build a great program.

Key Players:

As stated above the loss of Ahlers, the lefty gun slinger, will be a tough one to replace. The man stepping into those very big shoes is Red Shirt Sophomore Mason Garcia. Let me tell you one thing, Garcia is a big, big boy. The former 3-star recruit is 6’5″, 225, and has a cannon of a right arm. The WR position is also losing big time play makers CJ Johnson and Isiah Winstead. Both had over 1,000 yards receiving last year. Jaylen Johnson is the most productive WR coming back and will be the number 1 option for young Garica. They are losing almost 1,500 rushing yards with Keaton Mitchell leaving. Marlon Gunn Jr will be the man in the backfield; last year as a back up he had 344 yards. Lots of new faces on the offense, but the scheme should help that side of the ball. The defense is loaded with players who contributed a lot last year coming back. The one start to keep your eyes out for is Free Safety Julius Wood. Wood lead the team with 87 tackles, 1.5 TFL’s and 2 interceptions. He is always around the ball.

2023 Prediction:

Looking at the schedule, they have a tough first game @ Michigan and then @ App State 2 weeks later. I think 2-2 in non conference would be a win for the Pirates. I really think they can go 6-2 or 5-3 in conference. That is a 8-4, 7-5 year. That is very good with all the changes on offense. The defense will be key this year for the Pirates. If they step up and give the young offense time to gel they can surprise some teams this year in the AAC. Next year the college football preview might even be better at ECU.