At the conclusion of East Carolina's game against West Va. this weekend, Pat Hill might have sighed and said "finally."
The last two seasons especially, Hill has been dogged by questions about his "anyone, anytime, anywhere" scheduling as Hawaii and Boise State creeped into BCS games on weaker schedules. After being teased and tormented, he found pleasure that East Carolina took down No. 8 West Virginia last weekend and No. 17 Virginia Tech two weeks ago to break into the rankings at No. 14 (AP) and no. 20 (USA TODAY).
"I like what they're doing," Hill said at his Monday morning presser, and of course he would because it's the same thing he does here at Fresno State -- schedule BCS opponents.
"That sends such a strong message to the naysayers about scheduling. If you schedule big and you win, good things happen. If you schedule big and you lose, everybody can pick at you.
If you don't schedule big and you win, you're hoping for everyone else to lose. That's what it comes down to. So far it's worked out well. It gets very competitive down the stretch."
Then a radio guy snickered and Hill continued, dropping his best line of the day for the second time that morning.
"East Carolina went further in two weeks than Hawaii and Boise State did in 10 or 12 weeks. Now they gotta continue it. So it's whether you want to control your destiny in life or let someone control it for you. I like the way we schedule. And it's good to finally see someone else reaping the benefits from a tough schedule. It's not easy. It is not easy. But you know what? I like it."
East Carolina isn't done with this season's BCS scheduling yet. It still has ACC teams Virginia and NC State to face. It'll be interesting to watch.
And while Hill called East Carolina coach Skip Holtz on Sunday to congratulate the fellow mid-major coach, there's a chance the two could be chatting face-to-face before a game in which they play each other this postseason.
The Pirates played (and beat) Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl last season. If Hawaii doesn't become bowl eligible and neither Fresno State nor East Carolina makes it to a BCS game, the Hawaii Bowl could be a matchup of two of the better non-BCS teams in the country.
