(Sports Network) - East Carolina and head coach Skip Holtz
have agreed to tentative terms that would keep him with the team through 2013.

Specific details of the contract cannot be released until final approval by
the university's board of trustees.

Holtz, 44, was named head coach in December 2004 and has led the team to back-
to-back winning seasons and bowl appearances for the first time since
1999-2000. The Pirates went 7-6 in 2006 and 8-5 last season, when the team
beat Boise State 41-38 in the Hawai'i Bowl.

Since taking over the team, Holtz has compiled a 20-17 record with a 15-9
record in Conference USA play, including two consecutive second place
finishes.

Holtz coached the quarterbacks under his father, Lou Holtz, at South Carolina
in 2004. It was his sixth campaign on the South Carolina staff, serving as the
offensive coordinator from 1999-2003.

His time in Columbia appeared to be over after the elder Holtz retired,
paving the way for former Florida coach Steve Spurrier to return to the
college ranks at the helm of the Gamecocks.

Before going to South Carolina in 1999, Skip was the head coach at the
University of Connecticut for five seasons and held a 34-23 overall record. In
his last season in Storrs, he led the Huskies to a 10-3 campaign and a berth
in the second round of the Division I-AA playoffs. UConn had not yet made its
move to Division I-A or the Big East at that time.

Holtz' coaching career began as an assistant at both Florida State and
Colorado State in the late 1980s. He then joined his father at Notre Dame,
where he guided the offense as coordinator in 1992 and 1993.








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