What East Carolina Head Coach Mike Houston had to say About NC State in His Presser

Earlier this week East Carolina Head Coach Mike Houston had a lot to say about the NC State football team his Pirates are facing in the season opener this Saturday in his weekly press conference. You can watch the press conference above, or check out a few of the noteworthy remarks related to his opinion on NC State below:

“Obviously, a challenging matchup in the opener with a highly ranked NC State team. I think it’s the highest ranked NC State team in school history for the preseason and there’s a reason for that. Coach Doeren has done a great job developing that roster and they had a great year last year. The bulk of their team is coming back, one of the top quarterbacks in the country and one of the top defenses in the country. It’s going to be a challenging matchup, but one that we’re excited about.”

Houston stated the obvious, that preparing for this team is vastly different than preparing for the matchup against the Wolfpack in 2019.

“There’s not really a good comparison. We were outmanned on that day in 2019 and we kind of knew that going into the season, you can only do so much in the six months, you’ve got to develop as much as you can with what you have. It was a spotlight on where our program was at that time in comparison to NC State’s. Now, I think that there’s been a lot of work done in recruiting, development, and growth. There’s a handful of guys that were on that field for that game in 2019 that are going to be on the field Saturday and seeing how they’ve grown and seeing how the program has grown, it’s a different program. Now, with that being said, I think NC State’s program is a different program that is arguably the best team in the ACC this year. I watched a lot of ACC games this summer, I’ve seen the bulk of the conference and what NC State had last year and what they’ve got coming back, as we prepared for them. They have to feel that they have a realistic chance of winning the conference championship. We’ve got a good football team; I have no doubt about that. We have a big challenge Saturday and one that we’re excited about.”

Houston is fully aware of NC State Quarterback Devin Leary’s abilities.

“I think that his decision making to go along with his arm talent, he’s got a very strong arm, he’s a good athlete and runs very well. He doesn’t make a lot of big mistakes, 35 touchdowns to five interceptions last year. He’s not only a talented athlete, but he’s a really good quarterback. You look at a couple of guys we faced last year, whether it was Grant Wells at Marshall, who I thought was one of the better quarterbacks we saw year, or Desmond Ridder at Cincinnati who was a high round draft pick. I think he’s kind of in that same level as far as the player he is, and then you put that with all the weapons that he has around him. They’ve done a great job with either developing players or getting transfers and giving him a lot of viable options to go to. It’s going to be a great challenge on Saturday to defend him.”