ECU Begins New Chapter Defensively With Blake Harrell
This time last year Blake Harrell was introduced as the new defensive coordinator at Kennesaw State where last season Harrell helped the Owls to a year where they were ranked third in total defense,10th in scoring defense and 13th in turnovers gained.
The Owls finished the 2019 season at 11-3 and ranked eighth nationally.
On Thursday he was introduced as the new defensive coordinator at East Carolina by second year Pirate head coach Mike Houston who talked about the process of making the choice from a strong field of candidates.
“It’s an exciting morning for Pirate football in officially naming Blake Harrell our new defensive coordinator. The obvious thing is he and I know each other very well being from the same home town and Blake being on my staff at two previous institutions,” said Houston, “However those things had no bearing on why he’s here today. The process involved a lot of interest. I was really pleased with the candidate pool that we had. Each candidate had multiple interviews, many by phone.”
“Once the candidates came on campus, it was extremely extensive. It involved multiple members of our coaching staff and it was very thorough. Through that process Blake became our clear top candidate due to his own performance,” Houston stated, “Since I left the Citadel, I’ve followed Blake closely and I’m extremely excited about the evolution of the defensive package that he is running. He has obviously proven himself at the Citadel and at Kennesaw State to be fully capable of leading a defensive unit at a very high level.”
“The numbers at both institutions speak for themselves. Also it’s the things I know about Blake beyond that. I know what kind of energy and enthusiasm he’s going to bring to the practice field and the strong relationships he’s going to bring to the players, his work ethic and I know how organized and detailed he is. Nobody will be more prepared on game day and I also know what kind of man he is.”
Harrell's defensive units have done a solid job of forcing turnovers. Over the four years before arriving at Kennesaw State, his teams forced 83 turnovers including 31 during the 2015 season to rank No. 3 in the country. His units also forced at least 17 turnovers in each of the last four seasons at The Citadel, averaging 1.76 turnovers per game. He talked about the next chapter in his coaching career on Thursday.
He grew up in North Carolina and coached three different high schools in the state. That gives Harrell a familiarity with ECU football.
“I know the reputation and I know the tradition of this institution and the winning product and the great passion of the fanbase has for it. I’m committed to build this program to a consistent winner and put a product on the field defensively that we can be proud of,” said Harrell, “We’re going to be a multiple defense. Over the years you change your defensive scheme based on your personnel so you’ve got to find what is best for your players, best for your scheme and best for the American Conference and gives us the best chance to win. The players don’t care what you know until they know you care and that’s what we’ve got to establish first.”
Harrell described himself as high energy, high intensity, demanding and a bit of a perfectionist and he outlined what he feels are East Carolina’s biggest challenges defensively.
“Building those relationships and getting kids to play hard for us. Coach Houston has already established that and started that. That’s kind of going to be easy to continue to keep that going,” Harrell told PirateIllustrated.com on Thursday, “Getting to know kids so that way they’ll play hard for you every Saturday because if they’ll do that, the scheme and everything will pick up and we’ll go from there.”
Catch Blake Harrell’s comments in their entirety along with Coach Houston’s full introduction of his new defensive coordinator here on PirateIllustrated.com.
