Heading into Saturday’s ECU - UCF contest, Mike Houston says his team put in a solid practice on both Tuesday and Wednesday. In the process, execution is getting better for the Pirates. That is a good thing when you’re playing a team that leads the league in scoring at 45 points a game.

The Pirates had a chance to work out in wet conditions on Wednesday even though the rain itself ended early in the practice session. But there was enough moisture to get the football wet.

“I thought that was a benefit to us to have the opportunity to practice in it. I thought the kids handled the conditions very well. We had a very solid practice and that’s something I talked to them about. We’ve had a lot of solid Tuesday practices and we’ve been up and down on Wednesday,” said Houston, “To be able to put together a solid practice on Tuesday and Wednesday was encouraging to see. Effort was really good, very physical and execution is getting better. We’re not where we want to be yet but it’s getting there.”

Wet conditions could slow the pace of play down a bit for a UCF team that likes to spit out plays every few seconds. Having said that, Houston cautions that a lot of the Knights’ offense is set up by the run.

“Their passing game is set up by the run game, but I don’t think the weather benefits anybody. It’s going to come down to if there is weather, who handles it the best,” Houston told PirateIllustrated.com, “What we’ve always tried to do over the years is prepare our teams and beat into our teams that you control what you can control. You can’t control the weather conditions but you can control the response and how you handle it. It’s who can handle it the best.”

Houston says freshman running back Demetrius Mauney is playing his best football at the moment at a time when his talents could come in handy.

“He had a really solid open week practice and that’s the thing. If you see adjustments on the depth chart, I promise you it’s earned on the field. That’s a result of his efforts and there are some other guys who are coming along too.”

The first year ECU coach says the offense’s ability to show the defense UCF’s looks have improved as the week has progressed.

“It's our ability to show things to the defense in a more accurate light, what they’ll see Saturday night. The scout teams did a really good job today so I think how we handle playing on Saturday night with the tempo or anything else is not like they haven’t seen it or haven’t been prepared for it. Hopefully we’ll be prepared enough to go out there and play at a high level.”

D’Ante Smith and the ECU offensive line’s ability to protect the quarterback and open holes for the run game is important to the Pirates’ fortunes this week.

“Our attitude for this week is to get to number four so I feel like as long as we do the things our coaches are preaching to us now, we can accomplish our goal,” Smith told PI, “They’re a great team for speed and everything. They play pretty hard, so we’ve got to come ready to play. We’ve got to do great job of saying focused and do what we’ve got to do.”

Job one for offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick is ball security and scoring points because you can pretty much expect UCF to score their share of points too.

“We’re always going to try to control the ball. That’s who we want to be. Right now we don’t feel like we’re best suited to play we’re going to outscore you and whoever has the ball last wins the game, said Kirkpatrick, “We’re going to run the ball. We’re not going to milk the clock, but we’re definitely going to try to take possession of the ball and not turn it over. Those are things you try to do every week.”

“It will be important this week to try to keep the ball and keep the defense off the field. Our big thing is we’ve got to score some points,” Kirkpatrick said, “We’re not scoring enough points. We know that’s the issue right now. We’ve analyzed it but it didn’t take much analytical study to figure that out. We’ve got to make a few more plays. We had a lot more opportunities in the last few games that we did not take advantage of.”

Kirkpatrick says he likes to take the football first if they win the toss and go through a scripted first drive based on what UCF likes to do and what they feel like they can do successfully on offense. It's the second drive that has been a bit of an adventure.

“Are they making better adjustments than us, I don’t know. They’re not really making any adjustments. We’re just not sustaining play over a period of time. We are good enough but we have to play good more often and consistently,” said Kirkpatrick, “Some of it is we’re a little young in some positions and they’re a little up and down and making some mistakes. It’s really come down to four or five plays and we can really point to them.”

At 3-3, if ECU can put together a solid outing this week in Orlando, it could carry over to the rest of the season and help manufacture and generate some late season success.

“There’s no doubt. So much of it is momentum and confidence and believing you can do,” Kirkpatrick told PirateIllustrated.com, “I think so much of it is mentally, you hold yourselves back. You get pretty ready to play. Practicing pretty well, the coach is getting them ready, they’re believing they can do it. With the exception of Navy we’ve started well. It’s just then I think those thoughts of doubt creep in when something bad happens."

"I've never been such a cheerleader in any of my thirty-something years or coaching when I'm over there saying, we're okay, we can bounce back. So much of that you're doing," Kirkpatrick told PI, "Because the heads drop, the shoulders drop. The body language. You go to the bench and they're not even at the bench. They forgot to come over there. They're over with somebody else getting council a little bit too so we're spending a lot of time doing that because the self doubt is still there. We've got You get confidence from having success. If we could bust the top off of one of them, I think then I think they think they could do that from now on.”

Kirkpatrick says as fast as UCF is on offense they’re just as fast on defense.

“Coach likes to talk about the offense a lot but I’m telling you they’re not hurting on defense either. They’re got two defensive ends who are nightmares. They’re big, they’re long and they’ve played a good schedule. They’re super aggressive. They’re in your face. They’ll give up a play or two because they’re so aggressive but they don’t care. They’ll come right back at it. They make a lot of plays and a lot of plays for a loss. You have to be really cautious not to go turn it over because they’re coming after you hard.”

ECU enters the game looking to pick up their fourth win of the season Saturday night at 7 o’clock in Orlando against 4-2 UCF on CBS Sports Network television.