(Sports Network) - When I was a kid, and was asked what I
wanted to be when I grew up, I would always answer a pirate. East Carolina's
fan base, old and young alike, are probably giving the same answer these days.

It's funny how one big victory takes a program from being under the radar to
front and center. That is certainly the case with East Carolina following the
Pirates' upset of what was supposed to be a good Virginia Tech team in week
one. The question is, does fourth-year head coach Skip Holtz like his new-
found popularity, and can he get his team to move past the Hokies and keep
their eyes on a bigger prize?

Holtz has his Pirates believing in themselves, and that process actually
started two years ago, when the team won seven games. Last season, the Pirates
improved to eight victories, marking back-to-back winning seasons for the
first time since 1999-2000. The 2007 campaign was punctuated with a huge win
over Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl (41-38).

The reclamation process is in full swing in Greenville and the powers that be
are not ignorant to that fact, locking up Holtz with a new six-year extension
prior to the season's start. It was really hard to ignore, what with East
Carolina winning a total of just three games in a 25-game span in the two-plus
seasons prior to Holtz taking over.

That faith in the coach and his plan for the program has already paid
immediate dividends.

Despite losing some key players from last year's squad, including standout
tailback Chris Johnson, ECU came out and beat Virginia Tech in Charlotte in
this year's opener and became the first team in Conference USA history to
defeat consecutive Top-25 foes (dating back to last year's bowl game).

It took a late blocked punt and subsequent return for a touchdown to earn the
hard-fought 27-22 win over Virginia Tech, but the Pirates put themselves in a
position to win the game by keeping within striking distance with stellar play
on both sides of the football. Then, when the opportunity presented itself,
they executed and delivered.

For their part in the win, ECU quarterback Patrick Pinkney and backup receiver
T.J. Lee picked up All-Conference honors. Pinkney was named Conference USA
Offensive Player of the Week, after completing an ultra-efficient (and school-
record) 82.6 percent of his passes for 211 yards and one TD, while rushing for
another score.

Lee, of course, had the play of the game, blocking a punt with under two
minutes to play and returning it for the deciding score. He was named the
conference Special Teams Player of the Week.

There is every reason to believe this is just the start of things to come.

It is clear that the atmosphere in Greenville these days has changed, and
Holtz has his team playing with a bit of a swagger. It will be up to Holtz to
keep his team focused each and every week, something he is fully aware of.

"On the outside it has huge implications for the image and how we're viewed.
But on the inside it's one game. And how we view this one game and where we go
from here is a lot more important than what happened in the game itself.

"If we would have lost this football game I would have said, 'It's one loss
and we'll have to go back to the drawing board and go from here.' Winning that
football game is no different. It's going to count one win at the end of the
season in the win column, and if we go out and lose the rest of our games then
everybody is going to say that it was just a fluke and we got lucky.

"I think the challenge that we have ahead of us is to turn and make sure that
we can draw the line between the public image of what just happened Saturday
and the internal image of what happened. The internal image is that we got one
win."

What's up next for the Pirates is a home date with yet another powerhouse in
eighth-ranked West Virginia. The Mountaineers are loaded offensively with All-
American Pat White at the helm, and it will be up to an ECU defense that held
Virginia Tech to a mere 12 first downs and 243 yards of total offense to
provide a similar effort this week.

Attendance has been on a steady rise at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium during Holtz's
tenure in Greenville, and you can expect a frenzied atmosphere from a sold-out
crowd this weekend.

Can ECU feed off that energy and deliver again? The Holtz-led Pirates are
starting to prove that anything is possible.


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