Mike Houston sounds off on what went wrong at ECU, new role at Clemson
For the last 14 years, Mike Houston was running his own program.
This season, he’s going back to the basics — and he’s loving it.
In February, news broke that Clemson football and Dabo Swinney had added Houston to their staff in an analyst role ahead of spring practice. Houston was out of a job after East Carolina fired him midway through his sixth season in October.
Before coaching ECU for six years, Houston was head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne (2011-13), The Citadel (2014-15) and James Madison (2016-18). Heading into the 2025 season, Houston is formally listed as a Clemson “volunteer defensive assistant.”
That’s quite the change in title and day-to-day responsibilities for someone who spent over a decade leading programs in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. But Houston, 53, said working at Clemson has been refreshing.
“I’ve enjoyed coaching football again — being in the weeds with schemes and really spending a lot of time day to day with a specific group of players,” Houston told The State. “As a head coach, you’re responsible for everybody, and you’re responsible for everybody’s problems, everybody’s issues, whether it be players, coaches, staff.”
“And a lot of times, it doesn’t allow you to have quite as much in-depth involvement with a lot of the things that go on daily. So I’ve very much enjoyed that.”
How Mike Houston is helping Clemson football in 2025
Houston reached out to Swinney in the offseason about a potential role. Adding him to the staff was an easy decision, Swinney said. Houston, a North Carolina native, has deep ties to the Southeast. They’d known each other since Houston was coaching at Lenoir-Rhyne. Swinney also had Houston speak at Clemson’s coaches clinic when he was at JMU.
And, although Houston’s ECU tenure ended poorly, he still boasted a career winning percentage of .630 across 14 seasons and was an FCS national champion.
“He brings a lot to the table,” Swinney said. “This is a winner.”
Houston, who also had a prior relationship with new Clemson defensive coordinator Tom Allen, said he’ll work “very closely” with Allen through the week and on gamedays. He’ll also help coach the secondary and special teams.
All that work is coming at a discount. When East Carolina fired Houston last year, he still had two years left on his contract. The university is now paying Houston roughly $3 million through Dec. 1, 2026 in monthly installments, per Hoist the Colours.
Because of that contract buyout, Houston is working for Clemson football for free. An athletic department spokesman confirmed the university pays Houston no salary.
What went wrong at ECU for Mike Houston?
In five-plus years as ECU, Houston was 27-38 (.415) overall and 15-28 (.348) in American Athletic conference games. East Carolina had back-to-back winning seasons in 2021-22 (including eight wins and a Birmingham Bowl win in 2022) but dipped to 2-10 in 2023 and 3-4 last year before his firing.
“It was a rebuild when I took it,” Houston said of East Carolina. “And we were able to rebuild it and had a lot of success there. Just the timing of everything with some of the changes in the landscape of college football, we struggled to adapt.”
After ECU fired Houston, some national observers thought the school might zero in on current Clemson offensive coordinator and former Pirates staffer Garrett Riley (who was never formally linked to the job). ECU wound up promoting defensive coordinator/interim coach Blake Harrell to head coach in November.
Houston said issues such as the transfer portal and NIL could still impact ECU.
“I think that where I left it, they’ve got a chance,” Houston said. “But we’ll see. I just think that the landscape of college football has changed so much that, especially for schools at that level, there’s still a lot that they’ve got to kind of learn how to navigate with the current climate.”
Houston is one of four former FBS head coaches on Swinney’s Clemson staff in some capacity, joining defensive coordinator Allen (Indiana), offensive line coach Matt Luke (Ole Miss) and senior offensive assistant John Grass (Jacksonville State).
Houston is “a good resource that’s available you didn’t anticipate,” Swinney said. “It’s all positive. Great opportunity, great family, glad to have him on board.”
Houston said his wife, Amanda, and his two sons Owen and Reid (both of whom play football) have also enjoyed the family’s transition to Upstate South Carolina. After 14 years as a head coach at four different programs, he’s not in a rush to leave.
Would he like to be a head coach again some day?
“I think if the right opportunity presented itself, yes,” Houston said. “But I’m enjoying this place and this time in my career right now. I’m a firm believer that God’s gonna open the doors that he wants me to walk through and that’s the reason I’m here [at Clemson]. And so if I’m supposed to be somewhere else one day, then I will be. And if not, then I’m going to enjoy my time right here.”
