Associated Press
RALEIGH ó East Carolina has grown used to playing these types of mismatches-on-paper against big-name programs from power conferences. Only this time, it’s the 15th-ranked Pirates who hold all the advantages.
Yet Skip Holtz’s team isn’t about to take its latest BCS-conference opponent lightly ó especially not when it’s struggling North Carolina State, perhaps the most despised rival on the schedule.
After all, the Pirates went through this 11 months ago when a struggling Wolfpack came to Greenville and beat them to temporarily turn their season around.
“These guys were 1-5 last year and they came in here and beat us,” defensive lineman Khalif Mitchell said. “They beat us at our game in our house. … We don’t look down on N.C. State. Last year, we fell into the trap where the media played a role, ‘State’s not good enough, State is undisciplined.’ And they came right in here and beat us.
“We know we can’t take these guys lightly, going into their house and us being ranked,” he added.
It has been a welcome adjustment for East Carolina (3-0) as the target instead of the perpetually scrappy underdog with something to prove.
The Pirates have made steady progress since Holtz arrived in 2005, reaching two consecutive minor bowls before breaking out this year with season-opening upsets of nationally ranked Virginia Tech and West Virginia and building a total defense that ranks in the top fourth of the FBS.