There will be brighter days ahead for East Carolina football. Smarter people, specifically new athletics director Terry Holland, will make smarter decisions. Smarter decisions will led to more acceptable outcomes.

And after Saturday's punctuation to the ill-advised John Thompson experiment, there's only one way to go for the Pirates up.

The darkest era in the school's once-proud football history ended amid fitting conditions in Bank of America Stadium.

Cold, damp and defeated, the Pirates walked away from a 52-14 humiliation against N.C. State with almost nothing to show for Thompson's two seasons as head coach.

There were the three wins two against Army and another over Tulane. There was the reasonably close call against North Carolina midway through the 2003 season. There was an occasional highlight, but a multiple of lows. Most of the games, like those folks in purple Saturday, were long gone by the start of the third quarter.

Thompson's final game was a lot like his first a 40-3 loss at Cincinnati.

"Thank goodness it's finally over," one ECU fan said as he glanced back at the playing field on his way out.

Even Thompson, who was forced to resign with two games left, seemed relieved.

"I'm looking forward to seeing my wife and kids," Thompson said.

Thompson will be remembered as a good guy and an enthusiastic promoter for his program, but also as a career assistant who was overwhelmed by the demands of his first head coaching opportunity. His staff struggled for direction, as did his teams.

"We didn't get the job done," he said. "We didn't get enough time, but we didn't do the job."

But Holland and the Pirates couldn't afford more time. The pendulum had swung entirely too far in the losing direction.

Under Thompson, there were two outcomes that resembled Saturday's score.

This one game was deceptive in that the Pirates lost starting quarterback James Pinkney to an injury midway through the first quarter. With Pinkney sidelined, there was no Plan B with reliever Desmond Robinson.

More than one injury to one player, there was the undercurrent. For the first time since the two schools began the series in 1970, ECUs fans and the players, truth be known went into a game against State knowing there was no real hope of victory.

There has to be hope. Where there's no hope, there is nothing except pending death.

That's why Holland and the school's administration had to act as they did in Thompson's case.

Along with the bouncing of Thompson came a message, that message being that ECU has worked too hard at football to be swept asunder by one mistake.

By kickoff Saturday, the talk among Pirates folks had nothing to do with the game at hand. That outcome was known going in. It was all about the way out the way to that brighter day and to an outcome that might one day favor their team.

Would it be Ron Zook or Ron Prince? Bob Lamb or Mike O'Cain? There were as many names being tossed about as Wolfpack points scored.

"We want the best candidate, the coach with the best winning percentage who can get us the best players," ECU defender Zack Baker said.

On that point, there was unity among Pirate people Saturday. Another game was lost, but a door to the future was opened. At the end of a dark day, they all were looking for the doorway that led to daylight.

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