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GREENVILLE (MCT) — Skip Holtz admits he enjoys watching college football on the odd Tuesday night.

Now the East Carolina coach will get a much closer look at it.

The Pirates, coming off a dominant 49-13 win over Rice on Saturday, begin a wacky stretch of their schedule by sitting idle this weekend before visiting Conference USA foe Memphis on Tuesday (8 p.m., ESPN2).

The game is the first of three consecutive non-Saturday contests for ECU (4-3, 3-1 C-USA), including a visit from Virginia Tech on Thursday, Nov. 5, and a trip to Tulsa on Sunday, Nov. 15. The Pirates don't play on a Saturday again until UAB visits Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Nov. 21.

Holtz, whose team sits atop C-USA's East Division, said he loves the exposure Tuesday's nationally televised game will generate, adding that he often watches ESPN's Tuesday night games over dinner.

"But now that I have to go be part of it, I don't know that I'm as excited about it," he said Monday.

Holtz said he gave his players a half-day Sunday and planned to give them Monday and Tuesday off. The relaxed schedule comes at a convenient time for a team with a rising number of injuries.

Most notably, leading rusher Dominique Lindsay, who hurt his left ankle against Rice, remains questionable for Tuesday. Holtz said Lindsay is walking on the ankle but that he could be out anywhere from three days to two weeks.

Reserve linebacker Matt Thompson went on the shelf Saturday with an elbow injury that may require surgery, and reserve defensive lineman A.J. Johnson will likely have surgery on an injured knee he suffered Saturday.

Running back Jonathan Williams, who sustained a right knee injury at SMU on Oct. 10, remains unavailable for "probably a couple more weeks," Holtz said.

The fifth-year coach said that while his players get a chance to rest this week, playing on a Tuesday forces them out of class on Monday for a trip that will bring them back to Greenville in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

On the other hand, it also puts the Pirates on the national stage.

"That's an exposure that you can't get on Saturday," Holtz said. "So there's tradeoffs for it.

"There's just a lot of logistical situations that it creates for you as a football coach and a football team."

Passing Jordan

Holtz said he and his staff had not yet come up with a game plan to work redshirt freshman quarterback Josh Jordan further into the offensive mix.

Jordan, a St. Amant, La., native, completed all four of his pass attempts for 55 yards in his first college action Saturday. He led ECU on a nine-play, 66-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter, coming off the bench to spell starter Patrick Pinkney.

Jordan saw his first action late in the first half, part of a pregame plan to get him snaps. How his playing time will be doled out in the future remains to be seen, Holtz said, adding that finding a way to play him will be valuable.

"Every snap he gets -- even if it's just to turn and get in the huddle and call the play and hand the ball off -- is another play that's going to turn and calm him down a little bit once he gets into the game," Holtz said.

Big win

Saturday's 36-point margin of victory was the Pirates' largest of the season and the most lopsided since Holtz came to the school in 2005.

ECU hadn't won by more than 35 points since a 62-20 win over Houston in 2000.

Saturday's win was especially gratifying for a team that hadn't beaten an opponent with any semblance of ease all season. ECU's average margin of victory before Saturday was 4.7 points.

"We just haven't had a real emotional locker room because they feel like we haven't played a complete game," Holtz said.