Garrett Riley addresses having his name mentioned in ECU coaching search

East Carolina parted ways with head coach Mike Houston last week following the 3-4 start in the midst of his sixth season with the program. That move has naturally been followed with discourse about who the Pirates will hire as their next head coach ahead of the 2025 season.

Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley has been one of the names tabbed as a potential candidate for the ECU job. Riley was recently asked about that connection during a press conference on Wednesday.

“No … I was in a rabbit hole, that’s why I was a couple minutes late here doing some red zone and goal line. But no, I know chatter will happen at times, but I’m where my feet are,” Riley said.

Riley’s ties to the ECU program date back to the early days of his coaching career, serving as a graduate assistant for the Pirates in 2013 before being promoted to outside wide receivers coach in 2015. It was the first FBS assistant coaching job of Riley’s career.

Following stops at at Kansas and Appalachian State, Riley secured the first offensive coordinator job of his career in 2020 with SMU. It was a two-year stretch where the Mustangs had a Top 15-ranked offense in the country before becoming the offensive coordinator at TCU ahead of a magical 2022 season for the Horned Frogs.

Under Riley, TCU averaged 455 yards and 38.8 points per game on their way to a national championship appearance. A season where Horned Frogs quarterback Max Duggan also notably finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Current Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik now finds himself in the Heisman Trophy conversation in his second season under Riley. Klubnik leads one of the nation’s top offensive attacks in a season that will likely be followed with Riley’s name being in the mix for several vacant head coaching jobs along with ECU.