The current landscape of college sports, with the fluidity of movement for coaches and players alike, breeds tumultuous offseasons.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for teams and their fan bases across the nation, the tumult is increasingly encroaching upon the calendar. Look no further than Lane Kiffin\u2019s pre-College Football Playoff departure from Ole Miss to LSU as an example.<\/p>\n
Few programs, including Pitt and East Carolina, who meet in the Military Bowl on Saturday, are exempt from roster and personnel shakeups.<\/p>\n
As the Panthers and Pirates gear up for kickoff at 11 a.m. from Annapolis, Md., here\u2019s a glance at how both teams have navigated the period since their regular seasons concluded.<\/p>\n
East Carolina<\/p>\n
Simply put, the Pirates (8-4, 6-2 American) have been organ donors over the last few weeks, losing key coaches and players.<\/p>\n
The offensive and defensive coordinators, John David Baker (Ole Miss) and Josh Aldridge (South Florida), were hired away from coach Blake Harrell\u2019s staff a day apart earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Shortly after Baker left, Pirates quarterback Katin Houser announced his intention to hit the transfer portal, followed by receiver Yannick Smith and tight end Jayvontay Conner.<\/p>\n
247Sports also reported Wednesday that leading rusher London Montgomery (742 yards, seven scores) was opting out of the Military Bowl, intending to transfer.<\/p>\n
Under Baker\u2019s leadership, ECU put up 464.7 yards per game, ranking 14th nationally in total offense. Aldridge\u2019s unit was also solid, finishing 48th nationally in total defense (348.9).<\/p>\n
Houser threw for 3,300 yards and 19 touchdowns, completing 269 of 408 passes (65.9%) with six picks.<\/p>\n
Related Yannick was East Carolina\u2019s No. 2 wideout in catches (44) and yards (583), scoring five touchdowns, and Conner hauled in 23 catches for 333 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n Now, all four standouts are gone, along with their play-caller, as the Pirates prepare to play Pitt.<\/p>\n Harrell since has hired Baker\u2019s replacement, Jordan Davis from North Texas, but the Mean Green play in the New Mexico Bowl the same day as the Military Bowl.<\/p>\n That, coupled with the logistics of joining his new team and immediately assuming play-calling duties, makes it unlikely Davis will run the offense against Pitt.<\/p>\n Harrell, a former defensive coordinator himself, probably will turn to his remaining offensive staff for a solution there.<\/p>\n At quarterback, the Pirates seem likely to start true freshman Chaston Ditta or Mike Wright Jr.<\/p>\n Ditta, recruited to ECU by Baker, had over a dozen Division I offers when he chose the Pirates.<\/p>\n His long-term future with the program can\u2019t be known, but he could be a big part of the Pirates\u2019 offensive approach against Pitt. That said, he has attempted only seven passes in college.<\/p>\n Wright didn\u2019t see much action behind center this season but made himself useful as a jack-of-all-trades player, taking reps at receiver and defensive back.<\/p>\n He brings five prior seasons of experience, having played at Vanderbilt (2020-22), Mississippi State (2023) and Northwestern (2024) before transferring to ECU.<\/p>\n Wright was used the most at Vanderbilt in 2021 and 2022, when he threw for a combined 2,016 yards, 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.<\/p>\n He, too, will be a face Pitt prepares to see at quarterback Saturday.<\/p>\n Minus Yannick at wideout, the Pirates still have Anthony Smith, who led the team with 60 catches for 897 yards.<\/p>\n Marlon Gunn Jr., a senior, is the Pirates\u2019 next leading rusher behind Montgomery, with 94 carries for 532 yards with six touchdowns this season.<\/p>\n As for defensive play-calling duties, the most logical option seems to be Harrell stepping back into that role.<\/p>\n Harrell served as coordinator from 2020 to midway through the 2024 season, when Mike Houston was fired and Harrell was elevated to interim head coach.<\/p>\n Pitt<\/p>\n The Panthers (8-4, 6-2 ACC) have had a quieter last few weeks than East Carolina.<\/p>\n Where ECU lost both its play-callers, Pitt lost tight ends coach\/special teams coordinator Jacob Bronowski, who departed for a job at Auburn.<\/p>\n Some transfer portal announcements \u2014 primarily tailback Juelz Goff, receiver Zion Fowler-El and offensive lineman Jackson Brown \u2014 have surfaced.<\/p>\n But all three players were backups and far from primary contributors at their positions. Their departures shouldn\u2019t hurt Pitt too badly in the Military Bowl.<\/p>\n All-Americans Kyle Louis and Desmond Reid declaring for the NFL Draft is another story.<\/p>\n With Louis gone, Pitt\u2019s depth chart showed Aliquippa\u2019s Cameron Lindsey as starting star linebacker. Lindsey, a sophomore, stepped up this year when injuries ravaged the linebacking corps and has enough experience to give coach Pat Narduzzi and coordinator Randy Bates confidence.<\/p>\n Furthermore, standout fellow linebacker Rasheem Biles made the trip to the Military Bowl and appears to be in line to start.<\/p>\n With Goff and Reid gone at tailback, true freshman Ja\u2019Kyrian Turner steps into the starter\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n Turner, after a breakout second half of the season, has left no question as to his abilities, yet depth behind him at running back could be a cause for concern.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, things appeared largely status quo on the Panthers\u2019 depth chart.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen what last-minute absences Pitt might need to navigate.<\/p>\n But the Panthers are the team in better overall shape as it pertains to having the nucleus of their team on hand ready to play in the Military Bowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The current landscape of college sports, with the fluidity of movement for coaches and players alike, breeds tumultuous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-372146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2022 Pitt lineman Jackson Brown to enter transfer portal<\/a>
\n\u2022 Following Kyle Louis, Pitt tailback Desmond Reid declares for NFL Draft<\/a>
\n\u2022 Pitt tailback Juelz Goff enters transfer portal<\/a><\/p>\n