After five seasons with East Carolina, and almost as many chances to
leave, Skip Holtz finally said goodbye to the Pirates on Thursday and
accepted the coaching job at South Florida.

Holtz leaves ECU with two consecutive Conference USA titles,
four straight bowl appearances and a 38-27 record. He inherited a
program in 2005 that was coming off 3-20 two-year stretch.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- There will be time down the road when East
Carolina looks back on the success of the 2009 season — the nine wins,
the second Conference USA title and the fourth straight bowl trip.

In the immediate aftermath of Saturday's 20-17 overtime Liberty Bowl loss to Arkansas, none of that mattered.

Cincinnati will go back to the Central Michigan pipeline for its new football coach, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Butch Jones will replace Brian Kelly as the Bearcats' new coach, just as he did at Central Michigan three seasons ago.

East Carolina coach Skip Holtz turned down Cincinnati in 2007 and Pirate fans hope history repeats itself.

Cincinnati is the latest school to eye Holtz, it was Kansas last week, and the ECU football coach could have another list of pros and cons to weigh.

ECU’s Skip Holtz said no to one basketball school, Syracuse in 2008, but the football coaching job at Kansas is a more appealing offer is extended.

After leading the Pirates to a second straight Conference USA championship, Holtz clearly is in the Kansas mix. He and Jayhawk athletic director Lew Perkins are tight.

East Carolina coach Skip Holtz felt a sense of déjà vu as he looked at the Arkansas helmet displayed at the Liberty Bowl news conference Thursday afternoon in Memphis, Tenn.

Holtz felt like he should be an observer at the conference rather than a speaker.

GREENVILLE -- Houston's Case Keenum threw for more than 500 yards and five touchdowns, but it wasn't enough to knock off East Carolina as Conference USA champions.

The Pirates intercepted Keenum three times, including the game-clincher in the end zone by safety Van Eskridge on the last drive of the game, to edge No. 18 Houston 38-32 and repeat as C-USA champs on Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The Chick-fil-A will wait to make its selection until after the ACC championship game, bowl president Gary Stokan said Thursday.

Virginia Tech's widely speculated to be the ACC representative for the New Year's Eve game in Atlanta but Stokan said he's not going to make a final decision until after Clemson and Georgia Tech meet on Saturday night.

If ECU beats Houston on Saturday for the Conference USA title, the Pirates will return to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Jan. 2 to face an SEC team, either Georgia, South Carolina or Auburn.

That's the easy part of ECU's bowl equation. A loss Saturday would put the Pirates in either Washington or Fort Worth, Texas.

It's early as these things go and that being the case, East Carolina's Skip Holtz has only been mentioned as a possible candidate for three coaching jobs so far.

In alphabetical order, the list is: Kansas, Notre Dame and Virginia.

At this point, Holtz isn't considered the front-runner anywhere.