ECU added another grad transfer when cornerback Nigel Knott made his decision on Thursday to reload with the Pirates.

Knott played a little early in his career, but has experienced an abundance of injuries over the course of his career and was not medically cleared to play last season. He reportedly is cleared to participate now.

He was ranked 4-star out of high school out of Madison, Miss. where he played for Germantown High.

Knott had 25 offers in high school, mostly from P5 schools including Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Oregon that topped his finalist list along with offers from Georgia, Oklahoma, Michigan, LSU, UCLA, Tennessee, UNC, USC and others.

In 2014 and 2015 he was a 1st Team All-State defensive pick and ranked #2 in Mississippi. Knott ranked #5 at his position and was the 51st overall player in the 2016 class as seen by Rivals.com.

As a redshirt freshman at Alabama in 2017 he played in two games against Ole Miss and Texas A&M and appeared in 10 games as a sophomore making his only tackle against Arkansas on special teams.

An injury kept Knott out of action for the duration of 2019.

His father David Knott played safety at Ole Miss and his sister ran track at Mississippi State.

As ECU retools its secondary after the departures of Daniel Charles who entered the transfer portal earlier this week and Colby Gore who graduated, Knott joins incoming JUCO’s Shawn Dourseau and Robert Kennedy. Jaquan McMillan who was a freshman All-American last season also returns along with Damel Hickman and Malik Fleming.

The Pirates also get a bit of an infusion of additional future secondary talent in the form of Nasir Clerk, Sean Tucker and C.J. Crump.

Knott is expected to have two years of eligibility remaining.