On September 8, 2004, East Carolina University officially announced Terry Holland as the new Athletics Director. The job officially began on October 1. He agreed to a five-year contract worth $276,000 the first year. On November 17, 2004, East Carolina announced that football coach John Thompson would not return for the 2005 season. To beef up the football program, Holland hired Skip Holtz as the new football coach on December 3, 2004. Continuing with the turnaround, on Feb 22, 2005, it was announced that Bill Herrion would not remain as head men's basketball coach after the season. At the time, Herrion was 69–96 in six seasons at ECU. On March 16, 2005, Holland hired South Carolina assistant Ricky Stokes, a former head coach at Virginia Tech, to be the men's basketball coach. Stokes played for Holland at Virginia. Also in 2005, Head Baseball Coach, Randy Mazey, resigned and was later replaced by Louisburg Coach Billy Godwin.
