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| | Streeter Lecka/Getty Images |
| | Skip Holtz is trying to keep his team's early success in perspective. |
Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson
As the crowd at the Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium started to rush the field in waves, East Carolina coach Skip Holtz unabashedly told his team to celebrate Saturday's upset win over then-No. 8 West Virginia. After all, the program was 2-17 against the Mountaineers in its history and last year the Pirates were blown out, 48-7. Not to mention East Carolina became the first team in the FBS to defeat two ranked opponents this season.
But what happens when the lights fade? When the TV cameras focus their attention on the USCs and Floridas of the world and the opponents no longer have a number next to their name? It's easy for a team to get up for a ranked opponent, but the Pirates begin conference play this weekend against a Tulane team that hasn't been to a bowl game since 2002 and just 10 bowls since 1932.
"I think Tulane is going to get everybody's attention when you look at what they did this last weekend," Holtz said during a teleconference on Sunday. "They held Alabama to 172 yards on offense and seven points. They are one of the top three or four defenses in our league a year ago."
Tulane also is a team East Carolina defeated, 35-12, last season.
But as Holtz points out, this Green Wave team might be tougher than the previous two times the Pirates have faced them. Tulane had a valiant season-opening effort against Alabama, holding the Crimson Tide to 172 total yards, including 73 yards passing and just 3 of 11 third-down conversions.
Holtz said he asked his team to look at Saturday's game as a new season. The season of ranked opponents is over and the Conference USA season, which has not be kind to the Pirates the last two years, begins. In each of those seasons, ECU has been a game away from nabbing its first East Division title and each year the Pirates have fallen to a team that wasn't as good as they were.
But even Holtz knows that incentive might not be enough to make up for the emotion spent during the first two games.
"At some point, you can't play four, five, six, seven, eight emotional games right in a row," Holtz said. "I think that's what all the good football teams do, they find a way to win those games when they don't have that real emotional high."
But is ECU a good football team? The last two games would suggest it is, but good is fleeting. One misstep against a team such as Tulane and East Carolina becomes nothing more than a flash in the pan, a two-hit wonder, a Hawaii.
Holtz said Sunday, after letting his team celebrate, that he would wrangle it in Sunday evening. He'd remind them that college football, especially for a non-BCS team, is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business and that it could all be gone in an instant. Holtz said he'd keep reminding his team of that fact on Tuesday when it started preparing for Tulane and on through the week.
This game is not just about winning, Holtz said, but how his team handles winning.
"It's an honor to be where we are, but the only way we can control that is by focusing on what have to do," Holtz said. "I think we've kind of learned from the last two years, and as I go back to that point about learning how to handle winning... We've just got to leave everything at the gate that doesn't have anything to do with winning and losing and focus on what we've got to get done."
