GREENVILLE, N.C. - The Pirates hit the road to take on Southern Mississippi in a vital Conference USA matchup on Saturday.

It's crunch time for East Carolina and they must find a way to turn in a Pirate like performance to make this season a success.

The matchup coming this early in the season is curious to say the least. It find the Pirates stuffing this game between the South Carolina and North Carolina rivalries putting inordinate stress on the entire program.

For Pirate offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, this is a big week. Another big chance to showcase the Big Bang offense that ECU faithful hope to see come to fruition. To do it, Riley will have to find an offensive balance. The offense will have to continue to evolve and develop. It's his creation, his baby on offense.

"It's been a good week, the guys have really fought hard this week. We've made a lot of improvements and we have started to narrow the reps down in certain areas to try to get our playmakers on the field," Riley told PirateIllustrated, "You can see us making a lot of the improvements and doing a really doing a good job of ball security."

Finding a way to mix it up while maintaining the integrity of what he is trying to do through the air is paramount this Saturday at The Rock in Hattiesburg.

"It will continue to be explosive. I thin it's been a lot of emphasis on taking care of it. We are making so many good things and making so many big plays and moving the ball that we can't let turnovers overshadow what we're doing and hurt the rest of the team," said Riley, "Our guys know that. They've worked on it as hard on it as anybody I've ever seen. I think we'll go down there and take care of it and have a great game."

Gametime is 3:30 EDT when the Pirates meet the Golden Eagles in Conference USA East action from M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg on CBS College Sports Network and the Pirate IMG Radio Network.

Catch the complete PI-TV interview for Southern Miss week with ECU's Lincoln Riley as Golden Eagle Week continues here on PirateIllustrated.com.

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