MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Had the Fiesta Bowl turned out differently, Skip Holtz might have been standing on West Virginia's sideline rather than the home side tomorrow at East Carolina.

The morning of the Mountaineers' game in suburban Phoenix, deputy athletic director and search committee member Mike Parsons rummaged the team's Scottsdale Resort, asking whether any assistant coaches had an East Carolina media guide or contact information.

Athletic director Ed Pastilong called up his East Carolina counterpart, Terry Holland, to indicate a preliminary search interest in the Pirates' head coach.

And, so the story went, Holtz -- apparently among the few candidates whom Chuck Neinas conjured to earn his $23,000 consulting fee -- surveyed his Pirates assistants for anyone who might follow him to Morgantown.

Funny how Jan. 2 ended.

Even he laughs about it now.

"The morning after the bowl game, we were done with that," Holtz chortled over the telephone Tuesday. "About an hour after the game, that selection committee was done with their issues.

"They made a great hire in Bill Stewart. I'm excited for him. He's been there a long time. It's in his blood. He's been very loyal to that program. You could just see, as the game went on, that was the best hire for West Virginia. And I'm excited for them."

The folks around Greenville, N.C., the site of tomorrow's 4:30 p.m. date between his Pirates and No. 8 West Virginia on ESPN, certainly seem glad Holtz hung around. He agreed last Tuesday to a contract extension through 2013, about which Stewart, still without a signed contract himself, joked aloud, "Boy, wouldn't it be nice to have one of those?"

Then, four days later, Holtz directed his Conference USA team to a league and school record with a second consecutive victory against a Top-25 foe. His little Pirates vanquished then-No. 17 Virginia Tech, 27-22, last weekend, eight months after their Hawaii Bowl victory against then-No. 24 Boise State, and their whole world suddenly has a purple-and-gold hue. Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, 43,000-plus, is sold out. Poll voters have them at No. 27 and 28. East Carolina and Holtz are hot.

"A dandy," Stewart called him. "Doesn't matter who his father is, this guy can coach ball. Probably could beat his dad. Tell Lou I said that."

"Bill Stewart said that?" the dad -- after accidentally referring to him as his former Notre Dame and ex-Steelers assistant George Stewart -- offered Wednesday from Greenville, where he is taping an ESPN "GameDay" interview with his son for tomorrow. "Tell him I said this: Skip is the best coach in the whole family. And that was voted on by his mother."

The hottest commodity among Beth and Lou Holtz's four children sports a 21-17 record in four Pirates seasons, is 55-40 overall, including his prior Connecticut stint. His Pirates have been to back-to-back bowls, won eight of their past 10 games and surged without the major-college trappings -- for instance, they own no indoor practice facility.

Sure, donors put up $5 million a couple of years ago to upgrade practice fields and meeting rooms. And, like West Virginia, the Pirates' locker room was refurbished this summer, though at $342,000, in contrast to the Mountaineers' $5.2 million.

"What he has done there is incredible," Lou Holtz said. "I'm talking about facilities."

Perhaps that explains why the son gets some of the postgame hugs and chats from Holland the way that former Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez sought from his former employers.

"They got it going," Stewart said of East Carolina's staff, where Greg Hudson even earns praise from opposing players ("Their defensive coordinator is great," Mountaineers tackle Ryan Stanchek offered). "Skip's really built a great football foundation. He's going to win big, big down in Greenville."

Up in Morgantown? If he ever got to the job interview set for that post-Fiesta weekend?

"He says this, and this is his original quote: I talked to him after that bowl win, he said, 'Dad, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him what your plans are,' " said the elder Holtz, a native of nearby East Liverpool, Ohio. He chortled. "That is so true."