East Carolina is set to promote interim coach Blake Harrell to be the school’s next coach, sources told ESPN on Monday.

Harrell is 4-0 since taking over on Oct. 20, and East Carolina is 7-4 overall on the season.

ECU’s board still needs to meet to formally approve a contract for Harrell, sources told ESPN. That meeting is expected to be called in the upcoming days and a decision is expected to be formalized this week, sources said.

East Carolina brass have been impressed with the “contagious energy” that Harrell has brought to the job, as there’s a belief at ECU that the job should be one of the best in the AAC in its current iteration. ECU has a 50,000-seat stadium and a passionate fan base, and the coaching search was centered around someone that could maximize the job.

Harrell has rallied the team with a hands-on style, as he’s scaled back practices to keep players fresh and put a focus on maximizing their experience since taking over.

The players have responded with wins over Temple, Florida Atlantic, at Tulsa and at North Texas.

ECU fell behind 21-0 to UNT on Saturday and stormed back for an emphatic 40-28 win. In the aftermath of that emotional victory, the players amplified their rallying cry to keep Harrell as the head coach.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Katin Houser, who has thrown 13 touchdown passes in Harrell’s four games as interim coach, posted “Wewantharrell” on social media to express his support for Harrell to get the full-time job. Others who went public with their support included veteran tailback Rahjai Harris and senior tackle Parker Moorer.

Harrell, 46, was promoted to interim from his job as East Carolina’s defensive coordinator. He’s got deep rooting in the Carolinas, as he graduated Western Carolina and has an MBA from Lenoir-Rhyne. He coached in high school in North Carolina and began his full-time college coaching career with jobs at Lenoir-Rhyne and The Citadel.

Harrell also had a stint outside the Carolinas at Kennesaw State as the defensive coordinator in 2019, where he had a top-five FCS defense.

Harrell is set to take over for Mike Houston, who was fired in his sixth season after going 27-38. ECU hasn’t won a league title since Skip Holtz led them to a Conference USA crown in 2009,

Harrell’s expected promotion marks the first of the six American Athletic Conference jobs to fill this year. The remaining open jobs are Tulsa, FAU, Rice, Charlotte and Temple.

ECU plays Navy on Saturday to close out the regular season. A win would mark just the second time since 2014 that ECU has won eight games.

Left-handed starter Yusei Kikuchi is in agreement with the Los Angeles Angels on a three-year, $63 million contract, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday.

Kikuchi, 33, had a great second half to his season last year after being traded from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Houston Astros, compiling a 2.70 ERA in 10 starts.

Overall, he had a 4.05 ERA in 2024, making 32 starts split between the two teams. He made 32 starts in 2023 as well while appearing in 32 games in 2022 and 29 games in 2021. That durability undoubtedly helped secure his current deal with the Angels.

The six-year veteran will be joining his fourth team after breaking into the big leagues with the Seattle Mariners in 2019. His best season came in 2023 when he went 11-6 with a 3.86 ERA for the Blue Jays, helping them make the postseason. His contributions to the Astros last season also helped them reach the postseason, something his new team hasn’t done since 2014.

Kikuchi’s signing adds to a busy offseason for the Angels who already inked another starter, Kyle Hendricks, to a free agent deal. The team also added catcher Travis d’Arnaud via free agency and traded for outfielder Jorge Soler. Los Angeles has been by far the most aggressive team in MLB so far this winter.

MLB Network was the first to report Kikuchi’s signing.

Drew Bannister is out as coach of the St. Louis Blues after less than a full calendar year on the job. Jim Montgomery is back behind the bench of an NHL team five days after he was fired by the Boston Bruins.

The Blues fired Bannister on Sunday and hired Montgomery as his replacement, a stunning move a quarter of the way through the NHL season that puts a seasoned coach in charge of shepherding St. Louis through a retooling period and into the potential re-opening of the organization’s Stanley Cup-contending window.

President and general manager Doug Armstrong said he did not anticipate making a change until Montgomery became a free agent.

“This was more of an opportunity to get someone of Jim’s caliber than anything else,” Armstrong said on a video call with reporters. “When I talked to Drew today, I told him this was more of a decision based on the availability of someone I think is a top NHL coach, someone that we have experience with, someone I really do believe can coach this team and also coach the team when it reaches its ultimate level of competitiveness.”

Armstrong showed no hesitation in cutting ties with Bannister, who had the interim tag removed from his title and became the full-time coach in May. Bannister was promoted from Springfield of the American Hockey League to replace 2019 Cup-winning coach Craig Berube last December, and the Blues missed the playoffs despite winning 30 of their final 54 games.

The Blues lost 13 of their first 22 games this season. Only two teams have scored fewer than their 2.36 goals a game, and they rank in the bottom third of the league on the power play and penalty kill while ravaged by injuries.

“It wasn’t an easy situation for him to walk into,” Armstrong said, adding he felt Bannister was learning on the fly as a first-time NHL head coach. “He was making mistakes. We were all making mistakes. … I was more than willing to go through the peaks and valleys with Drew until Monty became available.”

Montgomery, 55, is tasked with getting the most out of the talent available, something he has accomplished elsewhere. Every team he has coached for a full season has qualified for the playoffs, and his .659 points percentage ranks among the best in NHL history.

“He’s got a wealth of experience, and he’s at really the prime of his coaching career,” Armstrong said. “He’s the full package, or at least we hope he’s the full package.”

The Bruins opted to move on from Montgomery after their rough start, going 8-9-3, with the final defeat being a 5-1 home loss to Columbus. Boston won 120 of 184 regular-season games with Montgomery running the show, including setting the league records for victories and points in 2021-22 when he was the obvious choice for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

His second act as a head coach in the NHL came after Montgomery’s first ended abruptly. Hired by the Dallas Stars in 2018, he led them to the second round and then was fired in December 2019 for unprofessional conduct.

Montgomery called his dismissal appropriate, entered rehab and began putting his life back together.

“He’s obviously gone through things at the rink and away from the rink that defined who he is today,” Armstrong said.

Montgomery got his re-entry into hockey from the Blues, with Armstrong hiring Montgomery as an assistant on Berube’s staff in September 2020. That was the first sign of the longtime executive’s affinity for Montgomery, and the latest comes with job security. St. Louis signed him to a five-year contract.

Montgomery is the latest coach to be fired and re-hired midseason, a more common occurrence in the NHL than most professional sports leagues. Being out of a job for mere days is reminiscent of Bruce Boudreau’s experience in 2011, when he was fired by Washington on a Monday morning and replaced Randy Carlyle in Anaheim later that week.

This is the 23rd coaching change among the league’s 32 teams since January 2023, with the Blues among those making multiple moves in that time.

“A coach that I believe is a difference-maker became available, and we reacted to it,” Armstrong said. “We have a top-level NHL coach, and now it’s time for all of us to do our jobs and support him.”