Alabama Football 2026: East Carolina Preview

This one is going to be one of the more impossible opponent previews you’ll see, as the ECU Pirates have nearly turned over their entire team after a nice 9-4 record last year under coach Blake Harrell. Guys like running back London Montgomery and safety Ja’Marley Riddle (two of their top players last year) have made the jump up to join the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs, and even starting QB Katin Houser transferred to Illinois. Ultimately, the Pirates lost 24 players to the transfer portal, and the best I can tell, wide receiver Brock Spalding and linebacker DJ Johnson Jr. are the only returning starters on the team.

Not only was there major roster turnover for the Pirates, but they also lost both of their coordinators. Offensive coordinator John David Baker, who’s taken a promotion up to be the OC for Ole Miss, was replaced with North Texas OC Jordan Davis. Davis was the OC behind the Mean Green’s nation-leading 44.8 points per game offense in 2026. It was an up tempo, air raid-like offense and there’s a lot of reason for ECU fans to be excited – however, Davis comes with a big caveat: he was the OC in name only, as UNT’s head coach Eric Morris was actually the playcaller.

Eric Morris runs many of the same concepts he learned from being a player. He has expanded the run game using a lot more gap runs. WSU and MSST under Leach used mostly inside and outside zones with some DART (backside tackle pulls and leads) to change things up.

Eric Morris runs many of the same concepts he learned from being a player. He has expanded the run game using a lot more gap runs. WSU and MSST under Leach used mostly inside and outside zones with some DART (backside tackle pulls and leads) to change things up.

How much will Davis’s iteration of this offense at ECU look like the Morris offense at UNT? We’ll just have to see, so this will be an experience for everyone.

Defensively, the Pirates lost DC Josh Aldredge to USF, and replaced him with Memphis’s DC, Jordon Hankins. Memphis was decent on defense under Hankins the last couple of years, and generally ran a 3-high safety look

“It’s a pain,” said Simpson, who spent plenty of time scheming against Hankins’ 3-3-5 defense at UT-Martin practices. “It’s very difficult to account for that middle safety in the blocking schemes.”

“It’s a pain,” said Simpson, who spent plenty of time scheming against Hankins’ 3-3-5 defense at UT-Martin practices. “It’s very difficult to account for that middle safety in the blocking schemes.”

That said, head coach Blake Harrell is a former defensive coordinator who has a long history of being a malleable schemer who changes based on his players year to year, so I’m not sure how much leeway Hankins is going to get to run the scheme he ran at Memphis.

Despite all of that, Harrell is one of the up and coming hotter names in the G6 coaching ranks after some impressive years as the ECU defensive coordinator and at Lenoir-Rhyne, then turning in a 9-4 record at ECU in his first season. Whether he can sustain that trajectory or not remains to be seen, but he’s still a coach to keep an eye on.

As far as their actual team, we do now at least know who the QB is. Mitch Griffis is a 6th year senior who started 10 games for Wake Forest and has also spent time at Texas Tech. While Griffis does bring a wealth of experience to the position, you do have to note that the reason he left Wake in the first place was that he was ultimately benched before the season ended in 2023. In those ten game, he threw for a shade over 1,500 yards, 9 TDs, and 7 interceptions while taking 34 sacks. Essentially, he just didn’t move the ball.

Now, the Pirates also brought in a transfer from Miami, Emory Williams, who brings upper-tier size and arm talent, but struggled in a couple of games for the Hurricanes when he had to step up when the starter was injured. While Griffis was announced as the starter, it does sound like Harrell plans to give Williams some snaps too.

Brock Spalding was the teams receiver a year ago and had a pretty nice year, and is now a preseason first team All-AAC player, but it remains to be seen how the slot man can handle making the jump up to WR1. The Pirates also brought in Brandon Best on the offensive line as a guy who was a standout player at Kennesaw State – but again, the jump from FCS to G6 ball is a big jump. At running back, Ashton Gray followed his OC from North Texas where he averaged an impressive 6.5 yards per carry in a limited role.

Defensively, the Pirates are totally rebuilt as well, with safety Zyeir Gamble coming over from Appalachian State after multiple years as a starter and is also a preseason All-AAC selection. past that, much of this defensive roster is pretty unknown by college football standards.

I personally feel that the Pirates have a very strong defensive coach, and I think that may give the Alabama offense a few more fits than we’d like to see early on, especially with as difficult as it will be to gameplan for any tendencies from the Pirates. Ultimately, talent will win out and Alabama will score plenty, but don’t be surprised if ECU’s defense makes it competitive for a little while.

On the other hand, I don’t particularly trust an offense run by a first time playcaller at OC trying to copy the North Texas air raid, especially not with the options they have at QB. Again, while really nobody knows a whole lot about what to expect, I just think that’s a bad combination for a successful offense, and a veteran Alabama secondary will eat them alive.

I think something like 25-6 or 42-7 seems like a reasonable score prediction in this one. I just can’t see the Pirates getting into double digits. But I also don’t think this is going to be a 50-point shellacking for the Tide offense. For their part, the Fanduel sports book has the Tide favored by 27.5 points with a 52.5 over/under, so they’re predicting something like 40-12. I think it’s close, but I’d likely take the under on total points. Again, I probably have a little too much respect here, but I really like Harrell as a defensive mind in the sport.