View from the East
Friday, December 16, 2011
By Al Myatt |
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Ruff making
his recruiting list and checking it twice
By
Al Myatt
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
East Carolina football
coach Ruffin McNeill hit the road to recruit shortly after the Pirates
finished the 2011 season. McNeill and staff have been traveling as much
as anyone this side of the North Pole on Christmas Eve. The ECU coach
and his assistants have made their list and have been in the process of
checking it twice.
"Right now we're on schedule to
sign 20 young men," McNeill said Thursday. "We want 10 (signees)
offensively and 10 defensively. We're going to try to add at least four
offensive linemen, one quarterback, three receivers and one, possibly
two, running backs. On defense, we're trying to upload our linebacking
position at five and defensive backs at five there, too."
The Pirates have been scouring
junior colleges in their talent quest.
"We're probably going to try to
add a couple of JC young men there at the offensive line position, maybe
one at wide receiver and at the DB (defensive back) position," McNeill
said. "I've been all over. You name it and I've been there."
McNeill can't address potential
recruits by name at this point but various recruiting services indicate
that ECU has recently received a commitment from Lance Ray, a receiver
at Northwest Mississippi Community College, who initially signed at
Arkansas. Ray, who is 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, had received offers from
Kansas State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Southern Miss,
Marshall, Troy and Middle Tennessee State.
Ray appears to be on the
athletic level of Lance Lewis, who became ECU's career scoring
receptions leader in 2011, and NFL rookie Dwayne Harris, who was
activated this week by the Dallas Cowboys.
McNeill's primary focus has been
on Georgia, Florida and North Carolina to this point.
"We haven't hit the northern
part yet but that will come after the (holiday) break," said the Pirates
coach.
Staff exits
McNeill has had a minimum of
staff transition in his two years at ECU. That changed to a degree when
former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach accepted the coaching job at
Washington State. Clay McGuire, who served as ECU's running backs coach
and special teams coordinator, and Dennis Simmons, the Pirates' outside
wide receivers coach, both accepted opportunities to rejoin Leach's
staff at WSU. McGuire will be offensive line coach and Simmons will
continue working with receivers.
Also, Antonio Huffman, who
played for Leach at Texas Tech, has resigned as director of football
operations at ECU and is expected to emerge in a similar capacity at
Washington State.
"When I hired them, I knew they
were going to be attractive to people," McNeill said. "Some people may
have questioned age and those types of things but having worked with
them, I knew they were good teachers on the field. They would get after
it and work hard in the office. The third part was recruiting. I thought
they would do a great job with that and they did.
"I knew people would come after
them. It happened to be that Coach Leach got a job. The money was at an
astronomical difference and those kinds of things. They had to do what
they had to do. I'm looking right now and moving slow. I'm going to
bring a special teams/running backs guy in and a wide receiver guy and a
director of ops guy in."
Ruff's thoughts on LSU-Alabama
The rematch between No. 1 LSU
and No. 2 Alabama will decide the BCS national champion in New Orleans
on Jan.9. McNeill encountered some of his coaching colleagues from LSU —
Brick Haley (Tigers defensive line coach), Ron Cooper (secondary), John
"Chief" Chavis (defensive coordinator) — on the recruiting trail this
week.
"I've known those guys for a
while," McNeill said. "They're good guys and good football coaches."
It's probably a good sign for
the Pirates that McNeill would be at the same place at the same time in
pursuit of players as representatives of the nation's No. 1 program.
McNeill noted that 'Bama has a
shot at the BCS title although a 9-6 loss to LSU knocked the Crimson
Tide out of even winning the Southeastern Conference's West Division,
much less the SEC championship.
"I think that's why they say a
plus one (a four-team playoff) is needed," said the ECU coach.
The LSU trio of coaches didn't
appear to be stressing over the pending rematch.
"They've got the talent and
personnel," McNeill said. "They're not really worried about them. Their
personnel is similar — NFL draft choices. They're excited just about
getting back to the championship game."
Spring ball
McNeill said the Pirates will
start spring practice on March 19. The spring football game is scheduled
for April 14.
ECU will return eight starters
on offense and seven on defense from a 5-7 team in 2011 that came within
a whisker of becoming bowl eligible in a 34-27 overtime loss at Marshall
in the regular season finale on Nov. 26.
The loss of senior quarterback
Dominique Davis creates a major void in terms of leadership on the
offensive side of the ball.
"The guys we have competing —
Rio Johnson, Shane Carden and Brad Wornick — have a chance to be pretty
good leaders," McNeill said. " ... Cody (Keith) is a guy who could come
in there but I think Cody is still rehabbing from ankle surgery, which
puts him behind the rest of the guys right now. Cody is a guy who is
going to be a fine quarterback here, too, but those guys are probably
ahead of Cody, just because they're older and they've been around and
those kinds of things."
Non-conference matchups set
ECU essentially will trade
Appalachian State for Virginia Tech on its nonconference schedule for
2012, as compared to the competition the Pirates faced outside of
Conference USA in 2011.
The Pirates will play South
Carolina in Columbia next season on a date to be announced. ECU will
host ASU, where McNeill spent seven years as an assistant, on Sept. 8.
Pirates associate head coach and inside linebackers coach John Wiley was
on the Mountaineers staff from 1993 to 2009.
ECU will play North Carolina in
Chapel Hill on Sept.22. Navy will come to Greenville on Oct. 27.
E-mail Al Myatt
PAGE UPDATED
01/03/12 02:39 AM.
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