A new era of East Carolina football is here.

Mike Houston will become the 22nd head coach in program history, multiple sources confirm. The current James Madison coach has accepted the vacant position at ECU after a successful three-year run as the leading man of the Dukes' program, including an FCS national championship victory in 2016.

A formal announcement of Houston to ECU, along with new athletics director Jon Gilbert, is expected to be made in the next 24 hours, with an introductory press conference to follow later in the week.

Houston replaces Scottie Montgomery just days after his firing. Montgomery went 9-26 in his three years at the helm of the program before getting canned this past Thursday, just two days before the team's season finale 58-3 loss at NC State. The Pirates have suffered through four consecutive losing seasons.

A native of Franklin, N.C., Houston has multiple natural ties to ECU. Not only has he coached at the high school and collegiate level in the state of North Carolina before, but he's also got multiple former ECU staffers as part of the current regime at James Madison, including offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick and offensive line coach Steve Shankweiler. Former ECU assistant and Pirate alum Tripp Weaver, who's currently the pass defense coordinator at Western Carolina, was also a part of Houston's staff's previously at The Citadel and JMU.

Houston, 47, was the head coach at TC Roberson High School in Asheville from 2001-05 before getting his first college job as the defensive coordinator at Division III Brevard in 2006. Houston eventually made the move to Division II Lenoir-Rhyne (Hickory, N.C.) as a coordinator and was named the head coach in 2011. He went compiled a 29-8 mark in three years, leading the Bears to the Division II championship in 2013.

The Citadel, a member of the Football Championship Subdivision, hired Houston in 2014. After going 5-7 his first year with the Bulldogs, Houston led the team to its first conference championship since 1992. The Citadel went 9-4, made the playoffs for the first time in 23 years and beat South Carolina on the road.

James Madison was Houston's next stop. In his first season with the Dukes, Houston led them to an FCS national championship and 14-1 overall record. JMU went 14-1 again the following season, falling in the national championship game. The Dukes finished this year 9-4 overall, falling in the second round of the playoffs.

Houston went 37-6 his three years at JMU, including his team's dominant 34-14 win at ECU to open the 2017 campaign. Houston has compiled an impressive 80-25 record as a head coach in college, winning six conference championships, one national championship and being named the conference or national coach of the year six different seasons.

While Houston has shown the ability to adapt his schemes to his talents throughout his different coaching stops, running the triple option at Lenoir-Rhyne and The Citadel, he's expected to run the spread at ECU, just like he did at James Madison. A defensive-minded coach, Houston's Dukes ran a 4-2-5 scheme under the direction of veteran defensive coordinator Bob Trott the last three seasons.