In Search of Forbidden Treasure: Season 1 at ECU
The new Coach Luke saga starts with Coach Lukey Touchdown stepping onto the sidelines for the first time at East Carolina
Welcome back to the wonderful world of Coach Lukey Touchdown as we enter the first season of his tenure at East Carolina University in our NCAA Football 14 universe.
I shall start with some administrative stuff first as I received some emails about this since my last Substack post…
There were questions about the time between posts and it dawned on me that I hadn’t properly set expectations of what the flow of this series will be. This is intended to be more of a slow burn than the previous series that I did. I’m not intending to stream every week, for instance. I am expecting to go through a season every few weeks, though this first season took a little longer than I’d hoped as I was still building a lot of this stuff out. I know the previous series moved at a fast pace but that was a different life and time was in excess back then. To be transparent, in my current personal life, there are times when I’ll need to prioritize some legal or medical issues that I’m dealing with as they arise. As much as I’d like this series to be my full-time job, it’s more something that I do for kicks in the midst of other stuff.
So, all of that is to say: just expect a post every week or so and a slow trip through this fictional coach’s career. The previous series was supposed to be consumed like a daily meal. This new series is like a tasty occasional treat.
Speaking of expectations, the journey of East Carolina University has uncertain expectations in Coach Luke’s first year. The school is currently in rough seas as they are fighting for relevancy in the lowest tier of conferences. The good news about being in the dreaded American Conference in this relegation universe is that the entire conference is filled with crappy teams as well. Winning a decent number of games wouldn’t be out of the question.
Our true goal at this point is to win the American Conference so that we can leave the conference and enter the relegation universe. While it would be unlikely for that sort of thing to happen in Coach Touchdown’s first year, let’s see just how lucky this kid is…
Season 1 of Coach Lukey Touchdown
Coach Lukey Touchdown’s early practices with the team went as smoothly as one may expect for such an untraditional coach. Getting the team to trust him was proving difficult but there’s a saying that Coach Luke preaches about the job of a head coach. He says the job is half being a good administrator and half being a motivational speaker. To him, it’s the players that win games and they just need to be part of a healthy system that rewards their best skills. So his focus more than anything was building a solid system as quickly as possible. As far as the team, Coach Luke’s main goal was to get them to believe in themselves even if they remained unsure about him.
On paper, this is a team with some flaws but also some strengths (read the season preview here). By keeping the ball out of their quarterback’s hands as much as possible, there’s a chance that the team may dominate some games on the ground and win via strategy instead of talent. While the hope is to win at least a few games to give Coach Luke some job security, winning four games isn’t out of the question in the American Conference.
Week 1 at Air Force
Coach Luke and his Pirates would start their journey on the road. With two road games to start the season against a 74 overall Air Force and 72 overall Wyoming, there’s some hope that the Pirates might be able to steal a win somewhere early on.
For the first game of the season, it would be time to see whether Coach Luke’s ground-and-pound offensive philosophy would work. He planned to lean on HB Joseph Mobley (SO, RS) to hopefully set the tone and control the clock out of the gates against Air Force. And, well…
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The running game was a disaster but the Pirates win in Coach Luke’s debut! Joseph Mobley accounted for 39 total yards on 17 carries, leaving some major worry about his ability to lead a run-first offense. QB Brandon Provillon (SO) didn’t provide much hope either as he spent too much time being indecisive in the pocket (Highlight).
No, it wasn’t the offense that stole the show: it was Blake Harrell’s defense. You may have read the story of Blake Harrell’s unusual rise to become ECU’s defensive coordinator. Apparently, teams are equally confused by him as well. Air Force could not get anything going as they only rushed for 8 yards while turning the ball over twice and being sacked four times. MLB Graham Appelby (JR) accounted for 13 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks in his opening game while CB Everett Turner (JR) got the other two sacks.
Week 2 at Wyoming
The defense was feeling good and there was hope that the offense could turn things around as the team headed out to Laramie for their second game of the season.
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Oof. Well… The running back duo of Marrazzo and Mobley combined for some nice yardage but, with an inefficient quarterback, this is a team that is going to struggle in shootouts like this. The success of Blake Harrell’s defense couldn’t continue apparently now that opponents had some game film of his strategy.
Week 3 vs Akron
The third game of the season meant more to East Carolina administrators than you may first think. When they hired this weird Twitch streamer head coach, the hope was that it would get their young fans to actually show up to the games.
And that they did! Coach Luke’s first game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium was packed with rowdy students wanting to see the spectacle of this young coach.
They also wanted to see a win though. Could Coach Luke cook up a game plan to beat an 0-2 Akron Zips team?
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It’s a Pirate party!
After going down 16-3 midway through the third, the team dialed it in and executed a comeback perfectly in the final quarter and a half. With three field goals by Bryce Eppes (SR) and a late TD pass to WR Trey Adams (SR), the Pirates were able to steal an ugly win for Coach Luke’s first home win!
Week 4 vs Army
Due to a weird scheduling quirk, Coach Luke would get one more home game before he and the boys would depart on a multi-month road trip that would put them on the road in five straight games. With a rowdy crowd behind them, Coach Luke tried to keep the good vibes going against a 75 overall Army team…
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The comeback kid strikes again! Despite falling down 14-3 early, Coach Luke once again kept his team focused on the job at hand as they rolled off 18 straight points to complete a comeback bid here.
This scrappy team has somehow amassed three wins already! Coach Luke’s job looks safe for another season and this may end up being a special year right out of the gates!
Week 6 at UTSA
With a long road trip ahead, the team would be spanning the country together and hopefully forming a close bond as they continue to rise up the rankings. Their first test would be against a 72 overall UTSA Roadrunners team.
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Coach Luke’s boys could not convert this one into a win. The run game was solid and the defense didn’t disappoint but it is seemingly hard to win games with a complete lack of a passing attack.
Week 7 at Navy
The road trip continued as the team would travel to face Navy next. The last loss stung a bit but a 3-2 record is still something to be proud of at this point. If the team can get back on track, they may even be headed to their first bowl game under Coach Luke.
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Or maybe not.
The team seems to follow a pattern of having low-scoring games in which the defense keeps them in the game and the run game does fine but the passing attack… well, it exists. This is the fourth game of the season in which the team passed for 105 yards or less in the game.
We fall to 3-3 with three more games remaining on this road trip.
Week 9-11 at NC State, Ohio & ULM
Needless to say, this pattern would continue over the course of the rest of their road trip. They’d compete in their next games but fall short in all three:
Week 9 @ #20 NC State - L 23-42
Week 10 @ Ohio - L 13-20
Week 11 @ ULM - L 20-24
After starting the season with a 3-1 record and receiving some glowing press about this new regime, this team was suddenly 3-6 and looking lost. They’d finally be returning home after losing all five games of their road trip but the excitement from the local fans… well, it was gone.
Week 12-14 vs Charlotte, Buffalo & Utah State
On their first trip back home after months away, the crowd wasn’t as rowdy and the players weren’t as hyped. Coach Luke was facing his alma mater but, really, he just wanted the team to believe in themselves at this point. He gave a rousing speech in hopes that it may spark something…
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And it did!
The Pirates were able to pull off a 30-27 OT win against Charlotte in their Week 12 matchup that moved them to 4-6. If there was hope about Coach Luke’s ability to lead, those questions were starting to disappear. He had taken a ragtag group and willed them to four victories in his first season.
They’d host Utah State in their next game and Coach Luke was just hoping to keep the team competitive in these last two home games.
But, much like the Army game earlier this season, the Pirates went down 14-3 before rattling off 18 straight points in a comeback win! This big win vaulted them to 5-6.
The vibes? Suddenly, they were good again.
Now, they had one final game of the season and, shockingly, if they could beat the Buffalo Bulls then they’d have six wins on the season and would be bowl eligible. The home crowd was suddenly there again. The administration was happy. The team was chillin’. Everything felt good…
But, could they actually deliver a win?
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Yes, they win and they win big!
Coach Luke pulls off his first blowout of the season and the team would now be headed to a bowl game! Playing against the lesser American Conference does apparently have some benefits to it!
When the bowl games would be announced, East Carolina knew they wouldn’t get one of the biggest bowls around but they had hoped that they’d get a decent opponent that they could compete well against though.
And, good news! They were matched against a familiar foe in Air Force! And! They’d be playing in…
The Gasparilla Bowl!
Yes, the team headed down to Florida for their first bowl game under Coach Luke. This is a nice vacation for the team and a nice feather in the cap of Coach Luke’s early coaching career. With him building his own legacy, the question now was whether he could become an unstoppable bowl game force. He’d beaten Air Force already once in his career. Could he do it again?
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You’re gosh darn right he could! Air Force could not get a ground game going as Blake Harrell’s defense continued to throw tricks at them and the East Carolina Pirates would pull off the victory to end their first season as a 7-6 team! Not too shabby for a first-year coach!
Up Next: Recruiting Recap & Season 2 Preview!
I shall leave us there for now as Substack will explode if this newsletter goes any longer.
In the next post, I’ll recap the end-of-season antics, and what recruits we were able to get, and we’ll preview the second season that will stream after Thanksgiving. Read all about it in your inboxes soon-ish!
Has anyone heard when the next Season will be streamed? Hope everything is ok with Coach Luke.
Air Force getting zero rushing yards in the bowl game is hilarious. Hope we don't lose Blake Harrell to another coaching job in the next few years. One question, are you primarily going to be posting here or on the Sim to End site? I just need to know which site I need to refresh daily so I can read the next story as soon as you release it :)