ECU football: Pirates open competition-filled preseason camp

The East Carolina football team opened preseason camp on Wednesday, one month out from its season opener at Michigan on Sept. 2.
The Pirates are coming off an 8-5 record last season, finishing with a 53-29 thumping of Coastal Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl. ECU has been bowl eligible for consecutive seasons, and last year’s bowl win was the program’s first since 2013.
Looking to build off the team’s recent success, fifth-year coach Mike Houston guides a relatively inexperienced group in 2023 after the Pirates lost a group of veterans from last year’s squad to graduation and the NFL draft. The Pirates return 10 starters — four on offense and six on defense.
Houston on Wednesday touted the team’s depth and spoke about the number of positional battles across the roster. The remainder of the preseason camp will be crucial as the coaching staff will evaluate those positions to fill out a depth chart.
“Exciting day,” Houston said. “You know, every year is a new year, every team’s a new team. And that certainly applies to this group.”
The team practiced in helmets and shorts on Day 1 and will add shoulder pads on Friday before advancing to the first fully-padded practice on Tuesday. ECU will close camp on Aug. 19.
The next month will be filled with competition for starting roles across the roster with plenty of opportunities for players to step up into larger roles. The receiving hierarchy is wide open, there’s a battle for the starting quarterback job, the secondary is wide open and the offensive line is loaded with eight or nine players for five spots.
“Well, there’s gonna be a lot of competition,” Houston said. “That’s one thing you see is, it’s not like there’s three receivers and then a huge drop-off. You got to figure out who the ‘guy guys’ are, but you got a lot of guys. You got a lot of guys that can play. Same thing in the secondary; you have a tremendous amount of competition at all four secondary spots and a tremendous amount of competition on the offensive line. It will help us and make us better.”
Here are a few storylines to follow as camp progresses:
QB competition
The Pirates will have a competition for the starting quarterback role between Mason Garcia and Alex Flinn. Garcia, a sophomore, is entering his fourth season with the program, while the junior Flinn has been with the team since 2019.
Listed at 6-foot-5, 242 pounds, Garcia comes with a big arm, mobility and all the tools to be a standout at the position. He spent his time at ECU learning from Holton Ahlers, who left the program as the school’s record holder in just about every passing category.
Flinn forced his way into the starting conversation with a huge jump in performance in the spring, and the coaching staff highlighted his improved commitment as a reason why the junior has taken such a leap.
“I think his commitment is the biggest change,” Houston said of Flinn. “I think he’s become a lot more confident, a lot more assertive. And so he has really improved dramatically, probably from last spring a year ago to right now and that’s the reason he’s made himself a guy that’s in the competition.
“Mason has looked as good (Wednesday) as he’s looked since he’s been here. He looked like a veteran guy.”
Return of Rahjai
Running back Rahjai Harris has been cleared for football activity after he suffered a season-ending torn ACL last year. Harris was on the field on Wednesday with a brace on his knee but otherwise looked strong in workouts.
“He’s fully clear. He has no restrictions,” Houston said. “The athletic training staff, they will work with him to see if there’s ever a day where we need to take a little bit off him or whatever. But I’ve told him that I’m not going to be hesitant with him in preseason camp. He is an experienced back and by the time we make that trip on September 2, I want him fully confident and fully ready to go so that he can be Rahjai Harris.”
Houston added that he has had conversations with Harris about conquering the mental side of his rehab as well as the physical. Returning from a serious injury that required surgery and months of building back up comes with mental hurdles, even if the body is responding well.
“I think from the neck down he’s full-go,” Houston said. “It’s been eight months and the first first day of contact I told him ‘You’re gonna need to run somebody over and pop up and you’re gonna need to juke somebody. You’re gonna get tackled and pop up and go play the next play.’ But that’s anybody that’s had that injury, they’ve gotta go through that, but he will handle it just fine. He looked very, very good today.”
Offensive line
Houston said that center Hampton Ergle and Parker Moorer are leaders on an offensive line that has a lot of new pieces. Ergle, a redshirt junior, made his first career start in last year’s bowl game, while Moorer appeared in all 12 games and made one start against BYU.
The two are expected to anchor a deep positional group that will use the preseason camp to jell as a unit.
“You’re gonna see a lot of shuffling in that group,” Houston said. “I think that we do have the ability this year where we don’t have to just sit here and just play five. I think we’re going to be able to play eight or nine guys up front on offense, so it’s just figuring out who goes where and getting those guys reps because you’re going to have guys that are gonna play a couple of different positions.”