(STATS) – James Madison athletic director Jeff Bourne is scheduled to address the Dukes’ head coaching opening Monday afternoon, just hours after Mike Houston was named the new coach at East Carolina.
James Madison has one of the top programs in the FCS. Houston went 37-6 with the Dukes over the last three years, leading them to two CAA Football championships, the 2016 FCS national title in his first season, a national runner-up finish last year and into the second round of this year’s playoffs, where they lost at Colgate on Saturday.
With Houston considered a rising coaching candidate for the FBS level, James Madison went into prevent defense last December by signing him to a 10-year contract extension through the 2027 season. There were buyout clauses for an early departure to another school, including a reported $750,000 prior to Jan. 31, 2020.
East Carolina’s head coaching position opened last week when it fired Scottie Montgomery, who was 9-26 in three seasons. Houston led the Dukes to a win over the American Athletic Conference program to open the 2017 season. He signed a five-year contract with his new school.
In announcing Houston’s departure from the school Sunday night, Bourne called him “the right coach at the right time for our program. He injected energy, he went about his job the right way, he cared about our student-athletes and he won.”
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