What They Said: East Carolina HC Mike Houston Discusses Michigan Football Week

Game week is finally here for Michigan football and its first opponent is ECU. The Pirates' coach Mike Houston talked about what he thinks about Michigan and what his team needs to do in order to compete with the Wolverines.

It's finally here: Michigan football game week. 

The Wolverines open up with East Carolina on Saturday and it will be the first meeting between the two programs on the gridiron. 

ECU coach Mike Houston is entering his fifth year coaching the Pirates and he has compiled a 22-24 record in four seasons, but his best year with ECU came in 2022 when it went 8-5. On Tuesday, Houston got a chance to talk about the challenge his team faces when they get to Ann Arbor. 

Houston believes this is a great challenge and opportunity for East Carolina. They have played against South Carolina, BYU, and other big schools, but since Michigan is one of the best teams entering the 2023 season, it's a whole new challenge. 

"Obviously, we're really excited about the opener with the opportunity to go and play in an iconic venue like The Big House in Ann Arbor," said Houston during his Tuesday press conference. "It's going to be a great opportunity for our program, players, and coaches. I think everyone knows what kind of team we're encountering. Most experts will tell you on paper that Michigan is the most talented team in the country this year. They return a lot of experience from a College Football Playoff team over the last two years. They've done a great job building a tremendous program."

This isn't the same 8-5 East Carolina team from a season ago. The Pirates are ranked 130th in the country in terms of returning production. Most of ECU's elite playmakers from last year aren't back, so it's important for Houston to keep his team calm, cool, and collected. Adrenaline will be pumping, but he needs his players to control it. The head coach noted he thinks Michigan was able to break away from games last year because the Wolverines would capitalize on their opposing team's mistakes. 

"That was the message I shared with the team on Sunday and it's one thing we have to be conscientious of is that everybody's going to be excited on Saturday, the players are already excited," explained Houston. "They're going to be highly motivated. We've got to focus on our individual roles and focus on playing our position, playing our part, playing within the scheme, and not trying to do too much."

"I've watched all their films from last year and you see games break open because someone gets outside of their wheelhouse of what they should be doing, or they forced something, and it turns into a big mistake. That's kind of how they made their living last year was taking advantage of their opponents' mistakes We have to focus on playing as clean of a game as we can and executing at a high level in all three phases. We've laid out the things that we really need to do in order to maximize our opportunity to go up there and come away with a win."

In 2022, ECU was tied for first in the country only turning the ball over seven times. But, the Pirates will have a new signal caller in 2023 -- most likely junior Mason Garcia -- so Houston made it a priority to tell his team to not make those big mistakes against this Michigan defense. 

"I think it's more about staying away from the big mistakes that give your opponent something that they didn't have to earn," Houston said. "I think that's the biggest thing from an offensive standpoint is just staying away from the big errors. It's okay to throw a ball away every once in a while, and it's okay to punt. It's not okay to lay the ball on the ground and the 10-yard line or throw a post route into post coverage and give up a cheap interception. I think that's the bigger thing especially early in the ballgame because you do have all those juices flowing. It's going to be about not making the big mistake that gives them momentum and staying in the game early because after that everybody will settle down and it comes down to playing the game."

As long as East Carolina can play a clean football game, the next big thing to Houston is controlling the field position game. He wants to pin Michigan deep in its own territory and he wants to create short field position for his own offense this Saturday. 

"It's going to be very important," Houston said on field position. "We talked about it this morning whether it's your kicker, punter, coverage units, protections that we have to do a great job of trying to create as long of a field as possible for them on each possession. The more we can give them a long field to drive in order to capitalize, the more successful we're going to be. Conversely, the better job we can do to give our offense great field position throughout the day will help our percentages as far as scoring on each drive. So, controlling the field position through special teams is going to be critical on Saturday."

You can watch the game on Saturday at noon where it's streaming exclusively on Peacock.