When Kirk Doll walks into the Mercedes-Benz Superdome to coach East Carolina on Saturday against Tulane, the building undoubtedly will take him back to a championship memory. Now the special teams coordinator and running backs coach at his alma mater, Doll took the national stage in 2003 as a LSU assistant alongside Nick Saban for a prestigious night in New Orleans.
The Tigers won the BCS title game that season against Oklahoma, and Doll was by Saban's side in the Superdome as assistant head coach and linebackers coach.?
That championship in Doll's second and final year in Baton Rouge taught him a great deal about coaching, he said.
"It was an awesome time winning the national championship, a great experience," Doll said. "Each situation and each coach (I've worked with) had some type of specialty that made an impression on me. Coach Saban is very strong and paid attention to details and how you develop your players, not just the ones who are playing but the young ones."
Doll's connection to Baton Rouge also spans to his family as his two daughters, Kate and Kelsey, both earned degrees from LSU.
Doll graduated from East Carolina in 1974, where he lettered as a defensive end for the Pirates for two seasons, including 1972 when they won a Southern Conference championship.
After a plethora of coaching stops throughout his career, including three seasons as Denver Broncos special teams coordinator, Doll got an opportunity to return to East Carolina this season under fourth-year head coach Ruffin McNeill.
The crop of running backs Doll has to work with includes transfer Vintavious Cooper, who played quarterback for two years at Southwest Mississippi Community College. Cooper arrived to the Pirates during two-a-days and had to adjust to playing running back after quarterback had been his main position.
Cooper has made the most of the transition, needing just 109 more yards to become East Carolina's first 1,000-yard rusher since 2009. He's accounted for 67 percent of the Pirates' rushing total this season.
"He?s done a nice job in learning the offense in such a short period ... and he's gotten more opportunities as the season went on," Doll said. "We've been very fortunate to have a number of running backs - if one was banged up another one stepped up. (Cooper) got that opportunity and he hasn't relinquished it in the last month."
Cooper said he's valued Doll's wisdom throughout the season.
"It?s exciting to have a coach at his caliber to coach your position; you want to come every day and get better because you know he can make you better," Cooper said. "You understand you need to respect him and understand what he?s telling you is the right thing."?
While their current six wins are enough for the Pirates to be bowl-eligible for the sixth time in seven years, Doll and East Carolina want more.?
This is the 40th anniversary of East Carolina's team that won the Southern Conference, so these Pirates have an extra amount of championship zeal in their blood.
?Six wins are good, but to be great we have to go out and play each game at a time," Doll said. "The Tulane game is most important ? if we want to be an upper-echelon team."
Doll knows first-hand how to get there, and Saturday he'll return to where he first tasted that national prowess.
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