CARY -- Terry Holland figured he would have to replace Skip
Holtz sooner than later. The East Carolina athletic director only
wishes he had more time to find a new football coach.

Holtz left ECU, after five seasons, on Thursday for South Florida,
about a month later than college coaches typically change jobs.

East Carolina football coach Skip Holtz is staying, Pirates athletics director Terry Holland told the Raleigh Sports Club at Highland Methodist Church Wednesday.

"We kept our coach," Holland said. "Thank goodness. And what a terrific guy he is."

Cincinnati, which Holtz turned down in 2007, apparently will hire Central Michigan coach Butch Jones.

Senior Pastor Bill Wilson of The Lord's Table Church in Goldsboro talks about Terry Holland, a victim of the Ocracoke fireworks explosion. Video ... more

ECU athletic director Terry Holland issued the following statement on Sunday night, in response to reports by the Boston Globe and ESPN that ECU football coach Skip Holtz was scheduled to interview for the opening at Boston College, without mentioning Holtz or BC: 

"Given the fact that the media now reports what other media report, sometimes even with headlines on the sports page and/or the announcement of press conferences that were obviously not scheduled, I am going to comment one time and one time only.

No one has asked to speak to any ECU head coach.

• Read Terry Holland's letter to N.C. State, UNC (PDF)

You know a football rivalry is hot when the athletic directors can't even agree when two schools are supposed to play.

In an e-mail released to the media Wednesday, Terry Holland said East Carolina expects N.C. State to honor a contractual obligation to play five times between now and 2016 unless the schools reach a mutually agreeable alternative schedule.

N.C. State's Lee Fowler said he has a letter dated June 18, 2008, indicating Holland's agreement in principle that the schools will play just three times during that period.