Pirates in need of game action

Whenever East Carolina head football coach Skip Holtz describes a week of practice as “a lot of inside, good-on-good, going against each other,” the translation is simple: it's been a long week for all of Holtz's players.

When Holtz follows that by saying he knows his players can't wait to hit someone other than each other, it's been just about too long.

The extended camp mentality was one of the results of ECU's two off weeks in the month of October, the most recent of which fell between an Oct. 18 win over Memphis and Sunday night's game at UCF.

With the fall of November comes the five-game finish in Conference USA, the time when October's back-to-basics approach will be put to the test.

“They're ready to play a game,” Holtz said of the 4-3 Pirates, who finished 1-1 in October's tame stretch. “We've played two games in the last five weeks, and all of a sudden we're going to play three games in 13 days.”

After Sunday night's game in Orlando, the Pirates (2-1 C-USA) host Marshall in another division clash next Saturday before heading to Southern Miss Nov. 15.

Sunday special

The last time ECU played on a Sunday was last year's Hawaii Bowl, one of the more unforgettable nights in ECU history.

Inside Aloha Stadium last December, the Pirates erupted for a big first half lead behind tailback Chris Johnson against Boise State. But the Broncos rallied to tie the game in the second half and force Ben Hartman's game-winning field goal as time expired for a 41-38 thrilling ECU win.

Prior to that, the Pirates hadn't played a game on a non-Saturday since doing it twice during the forgettable 2003 season.

The Pirates' opened the John Thompson coaching tenure by taking a 40-3 drilling at Cincinnati on Labor Day Monday that year. On Sept. 30 of the same season, the Pirates saw their Tuesday night home tilt with Houston slip away, 27-13, on the way to a 1-11 season.

Injury update

Injuries have become an unfortunate characteristic of the season for ECU, leaving Holtz feeling a little paranoid about communicating with his trainer.

“I walk off this practice field every day and I'm afraid to look at the e-mail my trainer sends me, what's going to show up this week,” Holtz said.

The coach said he was pleased with the midweek practice results from wide receiver Dwayne Harris, though his effectiveness after a shoulder strain will likely be in question until he's on the field at UCF.

Senior safety J.J. Milbrook remains in doubt with his ankle injury. Holtz said he was limited in his activity all week.

Contact Nathan Summers at nsummers@coxnc.com or (252) 329-9595.