That old, familiar feeling for ECU fans

These are anxious, but familiar, times for East Carolina football fans.

As the Pirates prepare to visit Tulsa for Saturday's Conference USA championship game, Skip Holtz' coaching stock continues to rise just as the annual onset of postseason job jumping and job hunting moves into the frantic stage.

Syracuse is looking for Greg Robinson's replacement, and Holtz obviously is on the Orange's radar.

Tommy Tuberville is out at Auburn.

More firings are on the horizon.

Should Syracuse raid Big East rival Connecticut and take Randy Edsall, how does UConn counter? Holtz, perhaps? If Texas Tech's Mike Leach goes to Auburn, would the Red Raiders move on Holtz?

Remove Holtz's name and insert those of past ECU coaches Mike McGee, Sonny Randle, Pat Dye, Bill Lewis and Steve Logan, and you can get an idea of how many times ECU fans have been down this road in years past. Among that group, only Logan said "no" to offers from other schools, and he wound up getting fired in Greenville. McGee left for Duke then Randle for Virginia, Dye for Wyoming and Lewis for Georgia Tech.

With the exception of Dye, who quickly exited Wyoming for Auburn, those decisions worked out poorly across the board. But it doesn't change the fact that ECU has become a coaching incubator for bigger schools in more established conferences -- schools with what is generally considered a bigger career upside.

Some Pirates fans used to refer to it as "The Big Sweat" -- the few weeks following each successful season when ECU coaches were sized up and often picked off. Outside the primary Bowl Championship Series conference schools, few programs are more vibrant than ECU. The fan base is large and loyal, and there is a winning tradition dating back for decades.

Since the 1960s, ECU has been a football-first school surrounded by the ACC, Southeastern Conference and now, the Big East. It's an enviable coaching job but also still widely seen as a steppingstone position, which is why Pirates fans have good reason to be concerned about Holtz's intentions and particularly if his team upsets two-touchdown favorite Tulsa.

Such is the lure of the BCS schools. The Syracuse program, for now, isn't as strong as what Holtz has quickly built at ECU. But how far is Syracuse away from Big East champion Cincinnati, which is 10-2 entering Saturday's game at Hawaii and already certain of playing in the Orange Bowl? Holtz's team, early in the season, easily defeated West Virginia, another Big East team that challenged in the national polls last season.

It isn't fair, but the BCS pecking order has only accentuated the long-held perception that the old-line schools and leagues are innately superior to those in the less familiar conferences. It's a problem ECU can't completely avoid. As long as the Pirates continue to win with regularity in football, Greenville will remain a popular shopping mall for coaches.