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Charlotte withdraws offer to JMU football coach Mike Houston

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jmuCharlotte has withdrawn its offer to JMU head football coach Mike Houston, who told the school last night that he intends to pursue other options.

Charlotte athletics director Mike Hill confirmed that news Friday afternoon.

“This morning, we withdrew a contract offer that had been negotiated in good faith with Coach Houston and his representatives. This was based on the fact that last evening, Coach Houston informed us that he had interest in exploring other head coaching opportunities, while remaining under consideration here” Hill said in the statement.

“We feel great about our coaching pool, and believe that this institution, our students, fans and team deserve a head coach that is 100 percent committed to the Charlotte 49ers,” Hill said.

Houston, whose Dukes (9-3) have a second-round FCS playoff game on Saturday at #8 national seed Colgate (9-1), had confirmed on Wednesday that he had been in contact with Charlotte about its open coaching position.

But then, East Carolina, which also has a game on Saturday, finishing out its 2018 schedule at N.C. State, decided to fire its coach of three years, Scottie Montgomery, who apparently was going to get the axe on Sunday or Monday anyway, after a three-year run that saw ECU go just 9-26 overall.

It was reported that ECU made that move because of its interest in Houston, who is 80-24 overall at stops including JMU, The Citadel and Lenoir-Rhyne.

Story by Chris Graham

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