GREENVILLE — Rob Kass made his first college start on Saturday night at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and helped East Carolina into first place in the Conference USA East Division standings.

The opportunistic Pirates used five Central Florida turnovers to their advantage while committing none themselves in a 52-38 comeback win over the Knights. ECU, now 3-3 overall, moved atop the division race at 2-1.

Kass has worked his way back into the good graces of Coach Skip Holtz since a suspension for the season opener at Virginia Tech after a DWI arrest. The sophomore completed 12 of 23 passes for 201 yards with three touchdowns against UCF. He also ran six yards for a fourth quarter score.

Kass saw brief action at the end of a 48-7 loss at West Virginia two weeks ago and contributed a solid second half in a 37-35 win at Houston last week.

When a reporter commented at Holtz's postgame news conference that Kass looked like a starting quarterback, the Pirates coach said, "He looked like one six weeks ago. That's why we named him one.

"He's been playing great," Holtz said. "He had been playing really well. He had been playing better than the other quarterbacks. I thought he gave us the best chance to move the chains and I thought he gave us the best chance to put the ball in the end zone with his arm."

Chris Johnson did most of the work on Kass' first scoring pass as the speedy senior took a short toss 72 yards in the second quarter to take a chunk out of a 21-7 Central Florida lead.

Kass delivered on the money to Jamar Bryant for a 6-yard score on a slant route to tie the score at 31 with 8:16 left in the third quarter. He found tight end Davon Drew in the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown that put ECU ahead to stay at 38-31 with 3:18 to go in the third.

Patrick Pinkney, who stepped up in Kass' absence earlier in the year with 406 yards passing and three touchdowns in a 34-31 win over North Carolina, also saw time against the Knights. Pinkney connected on 3 of 4 passes for nine yards. Pinkney also ran three times for 14 yards.

"Both Patrick and Rob have a role on this football team," Holtz said. "We need 'em both. It's a long season. They're both going to have to play for us. They both do special things. There are going to be some games that Rob's going to play a bigger role. There are going to be some games that Patrick plays a bigger role.

"Tonight was a little bit more Rob's game — the running game, play action passing — and I thought he really did a nice job. I got on him really hard at halftime about the misfires that he had throwing the ball."

Kass drove the Pirates from their 35 for a 24-yard field goal by Ben Hartman in the final 1:34 of the first half. He completed three of seven passes on the possession. After getting a first-and-goal at the UCF 2-yard line, Kass was sacked for a 5-yard loss and threw incomplete twice before Hartman was summoned to trim UCF's lead to 28-17.

"We had four three-and-outs in the first half," Holtz said. "You go back and look at them and we missed a slant. We overthrew a hitch. It was like one throw after another. I told him if he's going to play, he's going to have to be more accurate throwing the football.

"He answered that in the second half. He threw a strike in there on that slant to Jamar Bryant."

Actually, Kass' numbers weren't that bad at the break. He had completed 9 of 17 for 156 yards with one score. The TD pass to Johnson boosted his first half production significantly.

"He really did a nice job," Holtz said. "Rob has been very patient. He's handled the adversity that he's been through extremely well. He's learned a very valuable lesson. He's earned an awfully lot of respect from his teammates for the way that he's handled it.

"He's been a back-up. He's never said, 'Boo.' He's stood up here and apologized to the team. He understands how he let the team down and the obligation that he has to the team. He's been very supportive of Patrick and Brett (Clay) while he was sitting the suspension.

"He's been very patient in working his way back. I know it was hard for him to watch Patrick go up there against North Carolina and have all the success that he was having. He just had to be patient and wait his turn. When he got it, he made the most of it."

Kass said the second half kickoff return by Johnson — 96 yards for a touchdown — gave the Pirates a huge momentum surge.

"I really felt like it turned the game around for us," Kass said. "The offensive line did a great job protecting and the receivers did a great job getting downfield. More than anything the defense giving us a short field without a doubt helped us win this game this week."

An 80-yard interception return by Travis Simmons to the UCF 9-yard line set up the tying touchdown pass to Bryant. Willie Smith forced a fumble by Knights star back Kevin Smith and Nick Johnson recovered at the ECU 40. With Pinkney at quarterback, the Pirates ran a reverse to Dwayne Harris that gained 40 yards. Then Kass came in and hit Drew for the lead.

ECU pushed the margin to 45-31 on an 18-yard run by Johnson after an interception by Khalif Mitchell. An interception by Leon Best that he returned 22 yards to the UCF 19 led to a scoring drive capped by a 6-yard run by Kass that extended the Pirates' advantage to 52-31 with 13:42 left to play.

After trailing twice by two touchdowns, that ended up being ECU's margin of victory. Former ECU quarterback Jeff Blake, who led some memorable comebacks of his own, was among those inducted into the university's athletic hall of fame this weekend.

"With it being a conference game, it's a great win," Kass said. "Getting back on the winning track with Houston and this week, it's a great feeling. Defense did a great job, special teams altogether and offense — we feel like we played a complete game today."