GREENVILLE, N.C. - When push comes to shove, the weather certainly isn't Bill Stewart's biggest concern as his West Virginia football team approaches today's game with East Carolina.

Oh, sure, Hanna is on his mind. How could it not be?

When the Mountaineers arrived at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for their walk-through Friday afternoon, they couldn't even get into the stadium. Instead they were asked to use ECU's practice field so as to not damage the playing surface in what by then was a light rain.

By the time they reached their hotel an hour later, Stewart stood in the lobby for a moment watching the first of several strong but intermittent downpours.

But all of that is out of the West Virginia coach's hands. There's nothing he can do about the weather.

Truth be told, though, there's nothing he can do about his chief concern, either. But at least that's something Stewart's team can fight.

"What worries me most is that this is a veteran football team. We're not playing a bunch of young pups who might get rattled,'' Stewart said. "This is the team they've been building for four years.''

Indeed, when the No. 8 Mountaineers face East Carolina in what is still scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. kickoff today (ESPN will telecast the game nationally), the chief concern for West Virginia has nothing to do with tropical storm Hanna, which was expected to pass near - if not through - Greenville early this morning.

Instead, it is a veteran team that is riding its first-ever two-game win streak over ranked opponents. The first of those came when East Carolina beat Boise State in last year's Hawaii Bowl and followed it up with a 27-22 upset of Virginia Tech in last week's 2008 season opener in Charlotte, N.C. It is a team whose defensive starting lineup is made up of 10 juniors and seniors and whose offense is led by a fifth-year senior at quarterback, Patrick Pinkney.

"Look at their depth chart. There are juniors and seniors everywhere you look,'' Stewart said late Friday afternoon as the rain fell harder outside. "Now, they lost [tailback and first-round NFL draft pick] Chris Johnson, true. But didn't we lose Steve Slaton? These guys are more experienced than we are in a lot of places, especially on defense.''

East Carolina is also a team that has had some success against West Virginia in the past. True, the Mountaineers dominated the 2007 game in Morgantown, rolling up more than 600 yards and winning 48-7. Had the clock run out only a minute earlier it would have been 48-0, so thorough was the Mountaineers' domination.

But this is also a team that in the two years prior to that gave West Virginia everything it could handle, arguably giving the Mountaineers more fits than anyone except South Florida. And although they lost both games, the Pirates had as much success shutting down WVU's running game as anyone.

Today, though, East Carolina probably will have to deal with more than just a running game. If last week's performance in a 48-21 win over Villanova is an indication, the Mountaineers will be more multi-dimensional than they've been in years behind the passing of quarterback Pat White. But the Pirates might also be better prepared for that than most teams because they've already seen White the passer in action. He completed 18-of-20 passes against them a year ago.

Still, all that having been said, it is difficult not to look at this game and think that Hanna will not have an effect on the outcome. Just what that effect might be is a matter of great debate. The storm was at near-hurricane strength early Friday evening out over the Atlantic, but once it made landfall was expected to weaken somewhat. The projections were that it would pass through or near Greenville, with the heaviest winds and rain between 4 a.m. and 11 a.m.

By kickoff, the system should be well to the north, leaving a few lingering showers and winds in the range of 20-25 miles per hour. On Friday night it appeared that the only thing that might change the kickoff time would be if the storm leaves the field unplayable, in which case it could be delayed by a few hours or perhaps even until Sunday. East Carolina officials wouldn't even speculate on that.

"They have to play in it, too. I just hope we don't slip too much,'' Stewart said. "But we shouldn't slip because they've got great drainage.

"If this was on certain fields we've been on in the past it would be a problem. That grass would be flying in clumps everywhere. But this is good stuff here and it drains well. It should be a fast track. It's not like the stuff out here in front of the hotel here, just four inches of regular grass.''

Stewart wanted to get his team on the surface Friday afternoon, but neither WVU nor ECU was allowed on it because of the rain that had begun coming down. The Mountaineers instead spent about 15 minutes on the FieldTurf practice field, just to shake out the cobwebs of the flight here.

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.