East Carolina Mourns Its Loss, but Will Prosper

Pirate Nation is in mourning today.

I can feel its pain down here in Tampa.

This Pirate is a veteran Pirate. Let's just say my college days at ECU were back when the women had a midnight curfew, gas was ¢32 a gallon, beer was ¢50 a pitcher, and the only place open late at night was the greasy gas station called Darwin Waters on the other side of the Tar River.

Purple and Gold are my favorite colors.

It's been a joy to watch what Skip Holtz accomplished with the East Carolina football program. It was a mess when he took over; it's an institution of pride these days.

Skip's gone now. He's down here taking the helm at the University of South Florida. Trust me, USF needs him badly. It just dumped a bully of a head coach named Jim Leavitt, who betrayed his team, players, assistants, administration and alumni.

Skip is here to decontaminate what should be a Big East power. Skip's now in a BCS conference. As much as it pains us to lose him at ECU, he had no hope of getting to one of those BCS bowl games from Conference USA.

Deep down inside, I had hoped that if the Big East were to lose any more teams, it would look at East Carolina. How about Big East Carolina?

Sure it's a dream. So was the ACC for many years, but those teams looked down at us. It was that way then and that way today.

But things will be fine for Pirate Nation. Terry Holland is not a good athletic director. He's a great athletic director, and he'll find the right fit for us.

My Saturdays have revolved around televised ECU games. The crowd and spirit at Dowdy-Ficklen[Stadium is most impressive. It was simply Ficklen back in my day.

It's been a joy to watch Skip on the ECU sidelines. I'm sure you're all still mad at the place kicker who missed those three shots at beating Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl.

But don't be mad at Skip.

He appears to be a really good fit  down here in Tampa.

USF needs him.

It needs a guy who can patch up the mess that Leavitt created.

And if anyone were up to the task, it would be Skip Holtz.

Thanks Skip, for all your great work at ECU.

You did us all proud.