ESPN College Football Preview 2008

Fresno State might be the most well-known team for its anybody, anywhere, anytime approach to scheduling, but on the other side of the country, East Carolina continues to concoct schedules that deserve a piece of the spotlight.

This season, the Pirates will open against Virginia Tech in Charlotte. They'll host West Virginia and travel to NC State and Virginia. Scheduling three bowl teams and a tough NC State team might seem a little daunting, but it's something East Carolina has quietly been doing for years.

The Pirates have played West Virginia every year since 2002. They have cycled in ACC teams such as Wake Forest, NC State and Miami. Every year this decade, East Carolina has played at least three BCS teams in its nonconference schedule.

But when coach Skip Holtz took over the program in December of 2004, the schedule became even more challenging. He replaced Duke with a tough Navy team in 2006 and replaced Navy with Virginia Tech last year.

"We've talked about the way we want to build this program is inside-out instead of outside-in," Holtz said. "We're not looking to schedule a bunch of wins to say, 'Look at us, we won nine games last year.' We're not just going to build wins with scheduling. We've got to get to the point where we're good enough on the field to line up and compete with these top-10 and top-20 programs."

East Carolina finished last season 8-5. Three of those losses were to BCS schools and all were by double digits. Holtz said the losing was frustrating initially. The Pirates started off the season 1-3 and couldn't understand how they could play their best game and come away with a loss. But they came to realize that playing a tough schedule early made them a better team in conference play.

"What we can't do is get frustrated or disheartened because we lose a football game to a team like Virginia Tech or West Virginia or a lot of these top-10 teams," Holtz said. "That doesn't mean our season is a wash. We've got to take it and we've got to learn from it. But I think at the same time it's really helped our program because it's given our players an idea of what it's going to take to play at that level."

East Carolina won its conference games by an average of 15.5 points per game, and that included close victories against Houston and Texas-El Paso. The Pirates beat eventual Conference USA East champion Central Florida by 14 and would have cruised to their first division title had it not been for a slipup at Marshall, a team that won three games last season.

It was the second consecutive year that one sloppy game cost the Pirates a spot in the C-USA title game.

Senior defensive end Zack Slate said he's constantly asked about falling one game short and whether the Pirates are ever going to cross that threshold. This year, the team decided not to make T-shirts with slogans about winning the conference because they've deemed them bad luck.

But Slate said with 20 returning starters and leadership that's stronger than it's been in his five seasons, the Pirates have no problem talking about their difficult nonconference schedule and the possibilities of a BCS bowl should the they come through it unscathed for the first time in the program's history.

"There's really no excuses, no reason why we shouldn't have a chance to go 12-0 with the schedule that we have," Slate said. "Even though it's a really tough schedule, I think we have that much belief in us.

"And you can't look at that as a cocky statement either because it's coming from a bunch of kids that have been kicked on and have been disrespected. It's more of a humble situation where we're kind of tired of almost being there, almost winning this game, and we want to cross over that hump."

Holtz doesn't disagree with Slate's assessment. He's watched this program mature during the past three seasons and he's watched each player understand the commitment and effort it takes not only to win games in the nonconference part of the schedule, but also carry that momentum over to the conference season.

Holtz isn't naive. For East Carolina to beat its first two opponents, No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 8 West Virginia, it would have to play perfect games and hope for mistakes from the big boys. But Holtz does think this team is better equipped mentally to handle the schedule this season. The fact that the Pirates have two bye weeks this year, including one almost immediately after the nonconference schedule, helps. Last year, the Pirates played 11 consecutive weeks before a bye.

"It was a physical and emotional grind," Holtz said.

Holtz isn't going to change his scheduling. During the next three seasons, the Pirates will play some combination of West Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia Tech and South Carolina. Navy, the only non-BCS school, will resume its series with the Pirates in 2010-12. East Carolina will continue to be the anybody, anywhere, anytime of the East.

"Since the BCS has come along, it has really tried to draw a line between the BCS and the non-BCS," Holtz said. "The university's mindset has been that if they won't let us in the BCS bowls, let's schedule our own BCS bowls. That is East Carolina's philosophy. There is part of me that would love to be able to play a game in there where you could empty your bench and get some of your younger players experience, but at the same time I really enjoy having the opportunity to play the caliber of teams that we're playing."

Graham Watson covers college football for ESPN.com.