MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Immediately after Saturday's victory against Villanova, West Virginia's players began talking about East Carolina and the weather that may await them.

"I remember the last time it got really hot down there and guys were cramping up bad," linebacker J.T. Thomas said. "The weather will be exactly what they want it to be. It'll be a nice and hot game. We'll be tested."

The weather is likely to be a factor in the 4:30 p.m. ESPN game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, but for a different reason. Hurricane Hannah is tracking toward North Carolina and is projected to hit the coast Friday. Rain and wind could be present at kickoff. Many schools in the region are following the storm and preparing for schedule changes.

"It could potentially be really bad," ECU Coach Skip Holtz said. "I hope it's not. I'm really looking forward to coming home with all the excitement right now and all the Pirate fans. To have the opportunity to come here, see that student section filling up that stadium, I think it'll be a great venue and atmosphere.

"If it does rain, we have to play in it. We got a lot of weather work last week. I think the field will hold up very well as long as we don't get like eight inches in two hours."

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THE PIRATES beat then-No. 17 Virginia Tech 27-22 Saturday and will take momentum into the WVU game for a second straight season. ECU beat North Carolina the week before last year's game in Morgantown. The Pirates hadn't beaten the Tar Heels in 32 years, but then suffered a 48-7 loss Holtz called "our worst defeat since I've been here."

"I don't think you have to go any farther than last year's North Carolina game," the fourth-year coach said. "We go against North Carolina and have one of the bigger wins we've had here at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and win an emotional game. Then we go out and play probably one of our worst games of the year against West Virginia and they put us in our place in a hurry with just how powerful they can be.

"I don't think you have to go any farther than how we responded to that win. We'll review that situation with the team and hopefully we can learn from that mistake and gain something from it." 

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EVEN THOUGH the season-opening opponent was a Division I-AA team WVU was expected to beat by more than five touchdowns, Coach Bill Stewart said he hadn't taken "one iota" away from Villanova preparations to get a head start on the Pirates.

In fact, practice was mostly about the Mountaineers.

"All I cared about was if they load the box and give us high safeties, this is what we do. If they load the box and play Cover 3, this is what we do. If they load the box and play man, this is what we do," Stewart said. "We tried to get ready for just basic, general defensive structures."

Holtz was focused only on the Hokies in advance of his second game and realizes getting ready for WVU will not be easy.

"I don't know how you simulate Pat (White) unless we're going to take our best athletes and put them on the scout team and play quarterback," he said. "But that won't happen because we're playing our best athletes. That makes it very hard. We're going to have to put multiple guys back there at quarterback to give us some different looks. We may take some wide receivers and let them play quarterback during the run period so we can see the type of speed that we're going to be getting. That's what makes it so hard.

"Not only are they good, but how do you simulate them and get ready for their speed? We don't have anybody who runs like Noel Devine and a couple of their wide receivers. It's very difficult to simulate that. You get out on the field on Saturday and take an angle, only to find that he's right past you. Those are some of the challenges we're going to have this week."

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NONE OF the 17 walk-ons who joined the team on the first day of the fall semester played Saturday and Stewart said it's unlikely one will make much of a difference this season. Anything, though, is possible in the future.

"Those guys who do have a chance have to get a spring under their belts," Stewart said. "Right now, it's awfully late to get into the system."

The most notable names are former Buffalo star David Robinson, former Morgantown star Spencer Farley and MHS graduate Reginald Rembert, son of former WVU receiver Reggie Rembert.

Farley, who rushed for 4,849 yards and 86 touchdowns with the Mohigans, was on scholarship at Ohio University in the summer of 2005, but left late in preseason camp. He worked out at WVU throughout the summer. Robinson was with WVU last season, but left the team.

Contact sports writer Mike Casazza at mi...@dailymail.com or 304-319-1142.