Pirates remain focused

The most dangerous aspect of East Carolina's aggressive nonconference football scheduling always has been the potential for a letdown.

Win or lose against the ACC, Big East and various other Bowl Championship Series insiders that usually dot the Pirates' early schedules, there's always the chance the players - and fans - either will be too up or too down to respond to a steady diet of Conference USA opponents.

"It's like trying to juggle hand grenades," former ECU coach Steve Logan once said.

Thus far, no one has dealt with that challenge better than Skip Holtz, whose team had lost games to the ACC and Big East before his coaching staff could so much as discuss a game plan against a conference foe.

"Staying focused is going to be a big key, probably our biggest key to the rest of the year," Holtz said after his team's 31-17 loss at North Carolina on Sept. 19.

With the offensive and defensive units seldom clicking at the same time, the juggling has been tricky for Holtz. But after coming up empty against Virginia Tech on Nov. 5 in another hunt for big game, the Pirates had their most impressive game when they needed it most - a 44-17 win at Tulsa on Sunday that sets the table for a chance to defend their league title.

At 5-1, the Pirates are atop the C-USA East and will win the division if they can sweep successive home games against surging Alabama-Birmingham on Saturday and longtime nemesis Southern Miss on Nov. 28.

ECU could win both, finish 8-4 overall and still have to travel for the second straight year for the Dec. 5 league title game, which could be the possible impact of a 28-21 loss at Southern Methodist on Oct. 10.

The divisional winner with the better league record gets to host the championship game. But in the event of a tie, the first tiebreaker is regular-season meetings.

The Mustangs, 1-11 overall and 0-8 in the conference last season, are the C-USA surprise of '09 at 5-1 in the West and 6-4 overall. Such has been the quick impact of June Jones' coaching on the program. SMU goes to Marshall this week, then hosts Tulane on Nov. 28 in its final regular-season game. If the Ponies win both, they host.

At 6-2, ECU won the East last season, traveled to Tulsa (7-1) for the title game, won 27-24 and represented the league in the Liberty Bowl - losing 25-19 to Kentucky of the SEC.

Several Pirates have talked about returning to Memphis since. Among the potential SEC opponents on Jan. 2 are Tennessee, Georgia, Ole Miss and South Carolina.

Given their ups and downs this season, there's no reason for the Pirates to get smug, but the performances at Tulsa by quarterback Patrick Pinkney, running back Dominique Lindsay, receiver Darryl Freeney and the offensive line were timely and uplifting. Pinkney, a sixth-year senior, had not played up to expectations until erupting for 275 yards passing and two touchdown passes Sunday.

In a 16-3 loss to Virginia Tech 10 days earlier, the offense was stagnant.

The defense had problems at the start of the season, particularly against deep-passing attacks, but then jelled during the loss at SMU and has played effectively since.

It's possible that the deflating Thursday Night ESPN loss to the Hokies served to simplify things for ECU. With the last big names gone, the Pirates had nothing left to focus on except a conference race that sometimes gets more lip service than genuine attention.

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