Tulsa didn't leave East Carolina much time for an answer as the Golden Hurricane scored with 1:22 remaining for a 49-45 lead on Sunday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

After Dwayne Harris returned the ensuing kickoff 11 yards to the ECU 34, there was just 1:15 left for the Pirates to drive for a winning touchdown. First-year ECU coach Ruffin McNeill figured that was enough time, based on his experience at Texas Tech.

Rewind to Nov. 1, 2008, and the Red Raiders, ranked No. 6 nationally, were hosting No. 1 Texas. After the Longhorns had scored for a 33-32 lead, Texas Tech took possession at its 38 with 1:29 to go.

"That's about what we figured," McNeill said. "You check back to the Texas game a couple of years ago with the (Michael) Crabtree deal and there was about that much time. We feel with one timeout we can move it about 80 (yards). ... I believed we had enough time on the clock."

Texas Tech used the passing of Graham Harrell to score in six plays, the game winner coming on a 28-yard scoring play to Crabtree, who sidestepped a Longhorn defender on the right sideline and went into the end zone with one second showing for a 39-33 Red Raiders win.

Along came Jones

Before Sunday, Justin Jones' game day experience at ECU amounted to running onto Bagwell Field at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and standing on the sideline as a redshirt for Coach Skip Holtz, who had recruited the 6-foot-8 former basketball standout from Conyers, GA, as a tight end.

The new staff moved Jones to the "Y" position, an inside receiver in the new spread passing attack. The coaches were excited about Jones, based on his size and skills, but he was mostly an unproven and virtually unknown quantity.

The Pirate Nation didn't see him in the spring game because he had been excused to take care of some academic matters.

The team spent Saturday night off campus and Jones had time to ponder the first game of his college career.

"I was laying in the hotel just going over my playsheet, going over my assignments and stuff like that in my head, trying to picture myself doing my job," Jones said. "That's just something I like to do. Never in a million years did I see myself catching the game winner."

"The ball in the air is ours"

With five seconds left, the Pirates were at the Tulsa 33. The play call was "Big Ben," a Hail Mary pass with Jones, Harris and Lance Lewis lined up as trips to the right side. Quarterback Dominique Davis had ample time for his receivers to get downfield despite a Tulsa blitz. Jones' route wasn't complicated.

"It was really just a vertical," said Jones of his route. "I had to let Lance (Lewis) go in front of me and let Dwayne (Harris) go around me. Really I'm just kind of like the middle man. I just go in a straight line. Just run and jump, that's all it was."

Jones had taken his coaching well. His focus was narrowed to the task at hand.

"I was really just trying to size it up and figure out where I needed to be so I could jump up and make the play to the best of my ability," he said. "I wasn't thinking about everything that had happened in my life. I was just trying to get myself in the right place to make the play. I guess I'm just lucky I'm taller than everybody."

Davis' towering pass descended as receivers and defenders jockeyed for position.

"Coach said if we keep a clear head, our feet will follow," Jones said. "I was just looking up at the ball, trying to find out where I needed to be. ... I could tell by how it was flying that it wasn't going to be in the back of the end zone."

Jones was mindful of another edict from inside receivers coach Donnie Kirkpatrick.

"Coach Kirk tells us the ball in the air is ours," Jones said. "That's what I was thinking the whole time. If a ball is thrown in my direction then it's already gone through my head that it's mine. That's how we practice every day. If the ball's in the air, it's ours."

Jones' gloved hands rose above the sandwich of Tulsa defenders. The Golden Hurricane behind him took a swipe that dislodged Jones' helmet as he fell to the ground on his back. His left hand had cupped the ball initially and he brought the pigskin to his chest with both hands. Then Jones and the ball disappeared in a mass of white and purple. The Golden Hurricane players were trying to pry the ball away while his teammates were piling on in celebration.

"It happened fast," Jones said. "The second I came down with it, I felt a couple of Tulsa guys trying to rip it out of my hands so my first thought was just get the ball safe. The next thing I know I felt like I was being crushed by a truck. I was about ready to fight my teammates because I wanted them to get off me so bad. I couldn't breathe."

Personal motivation

Jones has a phrase tattooed on his upper chest which says, "You watch it while I live it." The statement had particular significance over the Labor Day weekend. His catch was the ultimate highlight of the nationally-televised, 100-point game, which was played before the second largest crowd in stadium history. On Monday, when his reception was No. 1 on SportsCenter's top plays on ESPN, there were countless more viewers.

"Up until my junior year, no one really ever thought that I would be able to make it to college playing sports or anything of that nature," Jones said. "People voiced their opinions on the subject and I just took it and used it to get myself better. When I signed my scholarship, a week or two after that, I went out and got this tattoo for everyone who wants to watch my life while I live it."

Jones was about 5-11 when he entered high school.

"My sophomore and junior year I started growing," he said. "Basketball was my first passion. I just decided to play football my freshman year in high school. All my buddies told me to do it. We played football in the yard and they told me, 'You can catch. You should go and try to play football.' "

Jones averaged a double-double in basketball and got college recruiting interest.

"I knew I was going to go all the way with football," Jones said. "That's what I put all my effort into."

Holtz's last class

Jones and the rest of ECU's recruiting class of 2009 signed after the Pirates topped Tulsa in the Conference USA championship game in 2008. They envisioned playing for the former ECU coach who led the Pirates to four straight bowls before leaving for South Florida.

"The (signing) class of 2009, we were the last class that Coach Holtz brought in," Jones said. "People were excited about us but they didn't know how we'd respond to getting a new coach because a lot of the reasons we all came here was to play for Coach Holtz. You know, I think it all worked out for the best. We got it in today and we're hoping to do the same thing next week against Memphis."

Jones said that the players have adapted well to McNeill's style.

"He loves all of us and I think he really, genuinely does," Jones said. "He said he would have loved us if I had made that catch or not and I believe it. He doesn't spend too much time just praising one person because it wasn't just me that won the game. It was my whole team."

Focus on improvement

The manner in which ECU won its season opener 51-49 on Jones's catch as the clock on the new scoreboard went to zeroes left Pirate partisans in a state of euphoria, but the reality of yielding 49 points on defense provides a quick dismount from cloud nine. Coach McNeill said Tulsa's point production, which exceeded any opponent in the 5-year Holtz era, was a result of the Golden Hurricane's expertise and ECU's inexperience. The tempo of ECU's new offense also increases an opponent's possessions.

McNeill pointed out that cornerbacks Emanuel Davis and Travis Simmons are the Pirates' only returning starters on defense.

"Some of our guys got more reps today than the rest of their career," said McNeill, a defensive coach throughout his career.

The ECU coach also noted that the return of defensive linemen Antonio Allison, Jimmy Booth, Michael Brooks and Derrell Johnson from injury should strengthen the unit up front. Steve Spence, who projects as a premier linebacker, should also provide a boost when he comes back.

The Pirates need to and have the potential to get better on defense. Last week's dramatics amount to little more than a 1-0 record in C-USA heading into another league game.

"I worry about East Carolina improving," McNeill said. "Anything a player didn’t do well or struggled with is something he has as a personal challenge to get better on this week.

“The opponent is next and this week it's Memphis, which we respect very much. The only things can we can control are how well we’re prepared, how well we study film, how hard we work and how focused we are on improving. Improving is so big from game one to game two. My focus will really be on that."