GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Once again, Skip Holtz has guided East Carolina to another first.
The Pirates have played their way to homefield advantage against No. 18 Houston in Saturday's Conference USA championship game, the first time the game has been played at Greenville's Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. It marks the fourth straight season the program has accomplished a key goal that went unfulfilled the previous year, tangible proof that East Carolina isn't becoming stagnant amid its recent success under the fifth-year coach.
"To keep the momentum of the program, I think it's huge," Holtz said Monday. "It's something the seniors have looked at as this is their legacy that they're leaving. I don't think there's any doubt they have left (the program) much better than they found it."
The same could be said of Holtz, who inherited a program that had lost 22 of 25 games -- with 19 coming by double-digit margins and seven by at least 33 points -- when he arrived after the 2004 season. The Pirates (8-4, 7-1 C-USA) have been on a steady ascent ever since, flirting with bowl eligibility his first season before reaching the postseason in 2006 and winning their bowl the following year.
Last season, the Pirates upset Virginia Tech and West Virginia early in the year to earn national rankings before winning the C-USA East Division championship that had barely eluded them the previous two seasons. East Carolina went on to beat Tulsa on the road in the league title game, the first such championship for the program since winning the Southern Conference in 1976.
East Carolina, an independent from 1977-96 before joining Conference USA, earned a return trip to the league title game by beating Southern Mississippi in last weekend's regular-season finale. With the best record in the league -- Houston won the West at 6-2 -- the Pirates will have homefield advantage as they try to become the first team to win consecutive C-USA titles since the league went to divisional play four years ago.
The teams didn't play this year, but Houston (10-2) rolled to 621 total yards in last year's 41-24 win here. East Carolina has won seven straight home games against league opponents since that loss.
Holtz said the senior class has been critical to the program's rise, noting that defensive end Scotty Robinson told the team before last weekend's game that losing to Southern Miss and missing the chance to defend its title would make the entire season "a waste."
"That's the standard and the expectations they've kind of put on themselves," Holtz said. "That's why that locker room is where it is after a game. When you have to step out in that arena and get it done, it's an unbelievably gratifying feeling."
