Mike Houston and Brent Thompson have a strong past together, and now they're again working together.
Wednesday, Houston announced that he has added Thompson to East Carolina's football staff as the program's recruiting operations coordinator.
Thompson comes to the Pirates and rejoins Houston after Thompson's seven-year run as head coach at The Citadel.
Previously, Houston and Thompson worked together first at NCAA Division II program Lenoir-Rhyne and then Houston brought Thompson with him to The Citadel as offensive coordinator when Houston took over the Bulldogs' program in 2014.
Houston has found strong success and postseason opportunities at each level of his head coaching career, first guiding Lenoir-Rhyne into the DII Playoffs, then taking the Bulldogs into the FCS Playoffs, replicating that success at James Madison and, most recently, leading East Carolina to back-to-back bowl appearances.
The Pirates open their 2023 season at Michigan, a back-to-back College Football Playoff participant and Big Ten champion, before hosting Marshall. ECU begins American Athletic Conference play at Rice Sept. 30.