RALEIGH, N.C. - East Carolina football coach John Thompson resigned Wednesday but will finish the season, ending his first stint as a head coach after only two seasons.
Since replacing Steve Logan in December 2002, Thompson is 3-18. The Pirates (2-7, 2-5 Conference USA) play Memphis on Saturday, then finish their season Nov. 27 against North Carolina State.
The school scheduled an afternoon news conference, where Thompson was to discuss his resignation. His decision comes about two months after Terry Holland was hired as athletic director at East Carolina.
"The last three-plus years have been ones of turmoil for ECU athletics," Holland said in a statement. "Coach Thompson and his staff literally inherited a house divided. Although they have done everything humanly possible to heal those wounds, the lack of success on the field has made an overwhelmingly difficult healing process virtually impossible."
Holland's search for a new coach will begin after the season, according to the statement.
Thompson thanked the school and community for their support.
"The bottom line is, we didn't win enough games and we didn't have enough time, but we planted a lot of seeds," he said in a statement.
"I realize how frustrated and how hurtful this is for the Pirate family and the Pirate nation," he said. "I would like nothing more than to be successful for the loyalty and the tradition and the people that have supported this program for so long."
Thompson was the defensive coordinator at Florida when he was hired to take over for Logan. He has spent 20 years as an assistant at eight schools.
East Carolina lost its first six games under Thompson and finished 1-11 in 2003, then dropped its first four this season. Since then, the Pirates have won two of their past five games, league wins over Army and Tulane.
UCF PROBES MINORITY HIRING: Just six of the 117 head football coaches at the nation's top-division colleges are black or Hispanic, according to a study released Wednesday.
Researchers at the University of Central Florida reported that the coaching ranks included five blacks and one Hispanic at Division I-A football schools as of Oct. 31.
Richard Lapchick, director of the university's Institute for Diversity and Ethics, which conducted the study, said the figures reflect the small number of minorities among university presidents (5 percent), athletic directors (8 percent) and other major posts.
"History shows that in the "old boys' network, white men are likely to hire people who look like them," Lapchick said.
