They've wanted this game for 20 years at East Carolina. It took the prompting of state government to make it happen. But now that the Pirates' much-anticipated matchup with cross-state rival North Carolina is set to happen this weekend in Chapel Hill, East Carolina coach Steve Logan is preaching perspective to his players.

"I won't tolerate the mentality of one game making it or one game breaking it," Logan said at a news conference this week. "There will be people in our constituency that live that way, but that's not the answer. I will not let our football team entertain that mentality."

	Nothing would please ESU head coach Steve Logan more than beating North Carolina -- except maybe winning the C-USA title.

"I imagine, with the old culture of East Carolina, there are people that would give anything to win this game," Logan added. "Quite honestly, we need to win our Conference USA football games, first and foremost. We've got to win our conference games; that's what we're all about and it is for every school. ... I'd be sitting here hanging from a rope if we had lost to Tulane."

Logan didn't come to his position yesterday, or last week, or even two weeks ago when North Carolina (2-3) stunned the nation with an upset of Florida State.

At the Conference USA media days in New Orleans in June, senior quarterback David Garrard was already getting questions about the Tar Heels. And Logan had already talked to his players about their answers.

"It's natural for us to get up for that game," Garrard said. "But in the big picture, there are a lot more important games on our schedule than that one. We're going to try to stay on an even keel." It's going to be tough. East Carolina (2-2) has had the best program in North Carolina for the past six years. But this season, the Pirates opened with a surprising home-field loss to Wake Forest after Deacons' coach Chuck Amato had done some administrative trash-talking at Atlantic Coast Conference media day, saying "If I could have the same kind of kids they do, I'd play them every year. ... The conference they're in, they can bring prop kids in."

Amato was talking about players who can enroll under the NCAA's Proposition 48, and he and North Carolina coach John Bunting agreed that ECU is at a competitive advantage because it can take a larger number of partial-qualifiers or non-qualifiers.

Still, Bunting appeared up for the game.

"If they continue to have a good football program, I want to keep playing them," Bunting said. "Is it an uneven playing field? Yeah, it is."

It looks pretty even to Logan, who sees a North Carolina team that has turned its act around after an 0-3 start. Logan's team, meanwhile, is coming off a 44-30 loss at Syracuse that didn't altogether displease the coach. The Pirates mounted a strong ground challenge behind senior running back Leonard Henry in a game in which Logan said his team "moved a step closer to defining ourselves as a team in all phases of the game." Henry has been outstanding. His 155 yards on the ground Saturday marked his third straight 100-yard-plus effort, and he ranks fifth nationally with 137.5 rushing yards per game. He leads the nation at 9.65 yards per carry and also leads his team with 11 receptions.

"He's really a finished product right now," Logan said. "And our offensive line is playing some of their best football in recent years here." Logan said he knows the fans are primed for the game against the Tar Heels. And he said he thinks the rivalry will be good for football across the state. But he said that in terms of importance, the Pirates' win over Tulane four weeks ago outranks anything that will happen this weekend.

Logan is hoping his players take a lesson from last season's meeting with then-No. 10-ranked Virginia Tech in Greenville. The game was hyped beyond belief locally and the ECU players reached an emotional fever pitch. In fact, Logan said, it was too much. Some uncharacteristic turnovers left the Pirates down 31-0 at the half in a 45-28 loss.

"I think the Virginia Tech game got out of hand emotionally," Logan said. "It was 'Michael Vick, Michael Vick, Michael Vick, we're going to get to play against Michael Vick,' and we just went out and beat the fool out of Michael Vick, but then that tailback named (Lee) Suggs beat the fool out of us when nobody was looking. He ran for 400 yards and I don't know how many touchdowns. We don't want to do that. That's not the answer. I think that's an immature way to go about your business.

"We've got a game to play this weekend and it'll be in and of itself enough."

Around Conference USA

Army
The Black Knights will play host to Houston on Saturday. The Cougars have won two straight in the series, including a 31-30 win last season in which Houston's Emile White blocked Army's 32-yard field goal try on the final play of the game. ... Army won the last time the teams played at West Point, 26-14 in 1999. ... When senior wide receiver Omari Thompson caught a 39-yard TD pass from Chad Jenkins in the first quarter of Saturday's 31-10 loss at Boston College, it was the first receiving touchdown of his career. He had three previous scores on a pair of punt returns and a rushing TD. ... After entering Saturday's game with just one forced turnover on the season, Army got two fumbles and an interception against Boston College. ... Of the Boston College game, second-year coach Todd Berry said, "We got down 17-0 and we kept playing hard. We kept responding. So that's a win, from a mentality standpoint, that's a win." From the won-loss standpoint, the Black Knights have lost 17 of 18.

Cincinnati
Bearcats coach Rick Minter said his team spent its open week working on juicing up its lagging running game, and on improving its defense. Cincinnati will look to open 2-0 in C-USA play when it plays host to Tulane on Saturday. Tulane has won all four meetings between the two since they met in the first-ever C-USA football game in 1996. ... Eight of the 12 meetings overall have been decided by seven points or fewer. ... Senior punter Adam Wulfeck set a career high against Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 22, averaging 50.8 yards on five punts, with two pinned inside the 20-yard line. ... At 1-2, Cincinnati isn't close to where Minter had hoped they would be by this time. "I wanted us to be 3-1 at this point, minimum," Minter told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "I wanted us to be a more complete team, to be able to have played more players, be more experienced and deeper. We felt coming into October we needed to be at a certain level to jump back into the league. ... We're just playing sparring football right now. If we're not going to do anything explosive, then we'd better be good at the normal, ordinary stuff."

Houston
New quarterback Kelly Robertson is looking good, but the Cougars still aren't as a whole. Robertson completed 20 of 39 passes for 272 yards and a touchdown, but it wasn't enough to beat TCU in a 34-17 loss last Saturday. ... Houston lost four fumbles in the game to blow the performance by Robertson and senior wideout Orlando Iglesias, who extended is reception streak to 35 games. ... Typifying last Saturday's game, junior tailback had 93 rushing yards on 15 carries, but also had two of Houston's lost fumbles. His 76-yard TD run in the first quarter was a career long. ... Senior Jeff Patterson's 30-yard field goal in the second quarter was the first for Houston in 20 quarters, dating back to last Nov. 4. ... Junior safety Hanik Milligan's 22 tackles against TCU was the fourth-best effort in school history.

Louisville
The Cards get a chance for redemption when Colorado State visits Thursday night. Not only is Louisville trying to get revenge for last season's Liberty Bowl loss to the Rams, but it hopes to erase the memory of a lackluster 34-10 loss at Illinois on ESPN two weeks ago. ... The Cardinal running game came to life behind a rejuvenated offensive line and a career-high 155 yards rushing by senior Tony Stallings in a 38-21 win over Memphis on Saturday. ... Stallings had runs of 51 and 45 yards late in the game. ... Louisville coach John L. Smith activated true freshman running back Lionel Gates, burning a redshirt after starter T.J. Patterson went down with an ankle injury. Gates carried 16 times for 68 yards and a score. ... Louisville lost wide receiver Damien Dorsey, a junior starter, to a dislocated wrist. He's not expected to play again this season. Versatile offensive lineman Mike Bowers went down with a torn knee ligament and could be out for several weeks. ... Louisville has lost five straight ESPN appearances and is 1-2 on Thursday night's under Smith.

Memphis
The Tigers got an offensive spark when redshirt freshman Danny Wimprine threw for a pair of late touchdowns against Louisville. Each team scored a pair of TDs in the game's final 2:38. ... Wimprine was 11 of 24 for 100 yards in the game, and also rushed five times for 30 yards. ... Starting QB Travis Anglin left the game when he re-injured his right shoulder. His status remains in question. ... The Tigers host C-USA power Southern Miss on Saturday. It will be their 52nd meeting in the most-played rivalry in C-USA. ... It has been a lopsided rivalry lately, with the Golden Eagles winning the past seven meetings. ... The Southern Miss defense has held Memphis to 3, 5 and 3 points in the past three meetings. ... Junior running back Dante Brown carried 16 times for 119 yards, including 97 in the first half, against Louisville. It was the best offensive effort of the season for Memphis, which finished the game with 389 total yards and 24 first downs.

Southern Miss
The Golden Eagles beat UAB 3-0 last Saturday in Hattiesburg, Miss. What is left to say? How about that defense? Southern Miss has allowed just one touchdown this season and leads the nation in scoring defense, giving up just 6.3 points per game. ... The shutout of UAB marked the seventh consecutive season that Southern Miss has notched at least one shutout. ... Senior kicker Brant Hanna kicked what proved to be the game-winning field goal from 25 yards out in the second quarter. ... Southern Miss travels to Memphis on Saturday. It has won five straight games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, including victories in the 1997 and 1999 Liberty Bowl games. ... Against a UAB defense that is tough in its own right, the Eagles managed just 3.1 yards per play and 196 total yards. ... "You give your defense credit for doing a heck of a job, and your special teams for coming up with two big plays," Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower said. "We really played good on defense. We bent a bit, but when we had to bow up we did." ... Southern Miss, which traditionally plays one of the toughest schedules in C-USA, is 3-0 for the first time since 1981. ... The Eagles' game at Alabama, scheduled for Sept. 15 but postponed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has been rescheduled for Nov. 29. To make room for that game, the Eagles' Nov. 30 game against TCU has been moved to Dec. 7.

TCU
They still haven't forgotten about LaDainian Tomlinson at TCU. But if Corey Connally keeps running the way he did at Houston last Saturday, one day they might. Connally, a third-string tailback pressed into service by injuries, carried 30 times for 199 yards, including an 80-yard TD run in the 34-17 win. ... "He reminded me a little of another running back we used to have here," TCU coach Gary Patterson said. ... "The game was TCU's first ever in C-USA. . . . The Horned Frogs are off this Saturday before visiting Tulane on Oct. 13.

Tulane
The quote of the week in C-USA came from Green Wave sophomore Mewelde Moore after Tulane beat Division I-AA Southern 41-7 for its first win of the season Saturday. His formula? Cliché, cliché, punch line: "A win's a win," he told the New Orleans Times Picayune. "When you come out and play and you strap it on, you put on the same pants like everybody else. There were 11 guys over there. There weren't 11 girls over there." ... Moore could say anything he wanted after running for 201 yards on 25 carries, the fourth-highest yardage total in Tulane history. Moore also had 270 all-purpose yards, second-highest total in school history. ... He ranks seventh among all Division I-A rushers with 136.6 yards per game. ... Tulane travels to Cincinnati Saturday in search of its first C-USA win of the season. ... The game drew a crowd of 41,319 to the Louisiana Superdome.

UAB
It's been a tough week in Birmingham after the 3-0 loss to Southern Miss, which was the lowest-scoring game in C-USA history. The Blazers can take little consolation in being part of an answer to a trivia question, because they had plenty of opportunities to be on the other end of the score. ... Rhett Gallego, who had missed just eight times in 41 field goal attempts coming into the season, missed field goals from 24 and 49 yards and had another blocked. ... UAB also had a 4-yard TD pass from Jeff Aaron to T.J. Simmons called back in the third quarter when they were flagged for an illegal man downfield. This Saturday the Blazers visit Central Florida in the teams' second meeting ever. UCF won the first in 1996 at Legion Field. ... The UAB defense ranks ninth nationally in rushing defense (64.5 yards per game), seventh in total defense (242.5 yards per game) and ninth in scoring defense (12 points per game). The Blazers have not allowed a touchdown in nine quarters, dating back to their Sept. 8 loss at Florida State.