East Carolina scores another big upset

GREENVILLE, N.C.

Skip Holtz could no longer contain himself.

Walking off the field following East Carolina's 24-3 win against No. 8 West Virginia on Saturday evening, the Pirates' coach momentarily broke away from the state trooper who was escorting him, leaped as high as his 44-year-old legs would allow and pumped his fist in the air.

A short time later, at his press conference, the never-at-a-loss-for-words Holtz declared himself "about speechless."

That would be a first. Then again, these are unprecedented times for the Pirates, who knocked off their second straight ranked BCS conference foe - and beat their highest-ranked team ever - in surprisingly routine fashion. Throw in last year's Hawaii Bowl win against Boise State, and ECU has won three straight over ranked opponents.

"We've come a long way," Holtz said. "There was a time when we couldn't win three games in a year."

That was as recently as 2004. Holtz arrived the following year, and he's had the Pirates tracking steadily upward since. This year, if the first two games are an indication, he's put his program on the national map.

A week after beating Virginia Tech in Charlotte, ECU dismantled a team that took the Pirates apart 48-7 in Morgantown a year ago.

It was no fluke. East Carolina marched 80 yards on its opening possession to take a 7-0 lead and controlled the line of scrimmage and the clock all evening. West Virginia's high-powered offense was held to its lowest point output since a 45-3 loss to Miami in 2001.

The Mountaineers had won seven straight over ECU dating back to 2000. The regional match-up had been a mismatch, but with the Pirates' win over Virginia Tech last week, the game suddenly attracted national attention.

The big question seemed to be whether ECU's buttoned-down offense could keep pace with West Virginia's potent spread attack.

The Pirates' swarming defense took that question off the table, bottling up West Virginia's dynamic duo of quarterback Pat White and tailback Noel Devine.

Each player had his moments. Devine ripped off a 34-yard run and White rushed for 97 yards on 20 carries. But West Virginia converted just 3 of 12 third-down chances and lost two fumbles.

East Carolina, meanwhile, was a model of efficiency under quarterback Patrick Pinkney, who completed 22 of 28 passes for 236 yards. The Pirates picked up 143 yards on the ground and held the ball for nearly 36 minutes.

"The people outside of Pirate Nation were thinking that we wouldn't be able to do it two times in a row," center Sean Allen said. "But we fooled 'em all."

The buildup to the game included the threat of bad weather, with Tropical Storm Hanna moving through the Carolinas. But the storm blew through the region by early afternoon, leaving the sky partly cloudy and the field dry for a fleet-footed Mountaineer offense that rolled up 599 yards on East Carolina a year ago.

It was the worst loss of the Holtz era, as players were reminded all week.

"We just put on the film and let the film speak for itself," Holtz said. "The players knew the buzzsaw we were walking into."

The buzzsaw never arrived. Instead, the 15 minutes of college football fame the Pirates earned last week were extended. Indefinitely.

"It's like I told our players: welcome to big-time college football," Holtz said. "This is what we want."