By
Al Myatt
©2013 Bonesville.net
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GREENVILLE — Ruffin McNeill has been working for the
harvests that culminate with signing day for decades. His fifth
recruiting class at East Carolina was announced at a news conference on
the club level of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
It was a higher elevation than the defensive meeting room
in the Ward Sports Medicine Building, where such gatherings have been
held in the past, but maybe that's appropriate since the football
players who faxed their national letters to ECU this year figure to be
playing on a higher level as the Pirates move to the American Athletic
Conference.
The class was heaviest on offensive linemen with seven.
ECU also went after receivers and linebackers in quantity, signing six
of each. Four defensive backs are coming in to help another area
affected by graduation.
Some of the signees, with a redshirt year, could be
playing in 2018.
They are the future, the lifeblood for years to come in
the AAC.
McNeill saw
all 27 of them, thanks to Parker
Overton's jet and assistant coach Dave Nichol, who drove him out of
gridlock in the winter storm that snarled Atlanta last week.
McNeill will soon become daddy to his new signees, four
of which are already enrolled, making the academic adjustment as well as
preparing for the physical transition with strength and conditioning
authority Jeff Connors.
McNeill's experience with his own father still shapes his
own philosophy of recruiting.
McNeill had worked and saved enough money to go to Dean
Smith's basketball camp before his senior year at Lumberton. He thought
hoops would be his ticket to the next level and was not planning to play
football that season. But Lumberton changed coaches and the new man
revealed how much interest college football recruiters had in McNeill by
opening a drawer full of letters to him in the coach's office.
McNeill reconsidered and went out. One of his
life-changing moments came as he ran down Mitchell Strickland of Lee
County, who ECU coach Pat Dye had come to scout.
Dye said, "I like Strickland, but who was the guy who ran
him down?"
McNeill's mom loved Dye in the recruiting process and
McNeill accepted a scholarship offer to become a Pirate.
He became a sought-after player and Southern Methodist
tried to sway him to become a Mustang.
The Ponies sent a private jet to take him for a visit to
Dallas and McNeill was excited.
That's when Ruffin McNeill Sr. told him he wasn't getting
on the plane. Dad told young Ruff he had given his word and that was
that.
That became a life lesson that McNeill still applies, not
as the CEO of the ECU program but as its father.
"I mean what I say and I say what I mean," McNeill said.
"It's very simple. I grew up that way. The light's on or it's off. No
dimmer. It's either wet or dry, not damp. It's day or night, not dusk.
The no egos, no entitlement, teamwork. That's how I grew up. Having
trust, belief and accountability, the commitment part. That's how I grew
up. That's how I grew up.
"I see more families caught up in the glitter and the
limelight. The hype. The noise. Instead of evaluating the substance and
the relationship. When the season is over or your son is sick and he's
going through a tough time and needs to talk to an adult — football is
what he does. It's not who he is. When he's in that mode of who he is
and he's having a tough time, he's got somebody to talk to.
"I'm just going to love him and listen to him and take
care of him. I have no ulterior motive but to help him be successful."
Two quarterbacks who initially committed to the Pirates
saw greener grass elsewhere. That didn't worry McNeill.
"When players start getting fidgety, that's when I start
getting fidgety," said the Pirates coach.
One criteria that potential Pirates must pass is their
desire to be in the program. McNeill and staff don't beg.
"When they start talking about hats, I say take our hat
out," McNeill said.
He was talking about the drama of players announcing
their college choice on camera by putting on the cap of the program they
intend to join.
New recruit Dre Massey played quarterback his senior year
at Mauldin (SC) High but he is designated to use his skills at inside
receiver at ECU.
"We won't have a quarterback in this class," McNeill
said. "We'll get some guys to walk on. We've got quarterbacks in place
with Shane (Carden) and Cody (Keith) and Kurt Benkert. We don't rush at
that position. Lincoln (Riley, offensive coordinator) and I have talked
about that.
"We don't sign kids without knowing them and learning
them. We're not going to sign a kid just to say we got a quarterback.
Let's get the right guy."
Although there was some erosion at quarterback, the
Pirates also made some late additions to the signing class by winning
some last minute recruiting battles. Offensive lineman Quincy McKinney
(6-4, 311) of Hutchinson Community College in Kansas was pursued by
Arizona State, Kansas State, Louisville and N.C. State with ECU emerging
over the Cardinals in McKinney's final decision.
Dontae Levingston (6-4, 280) of Santa Monica College in
Harbor City, CA, chose the Pirates over Kansas, Kansas State and Texas
Tech among others.
McNeill and staff aren't into the stars by which many
recruiting services rate players. They are into character and
identifying players who fit their systems.
Carden and linebacker Derrell Johnson were not highly
rated coming out of high school but were vital performers on a 10-3 team
in 2013 that closed with a win in the Beef O'Brady's Bowl.
Despite all of his old school ways, McNeill has taken to
a new means of communicating with recruits. He's on Twitter. It's
practically a necessity.
Observing the AAC last year helped McNeill formulate the
type of players the Pirates targeted.
"I watched how the successful teams in that league were
built, frame-wise, thought process-wise," McNeill said. "I know how
George (O'Leary, Central Florida) does by competing against him. I
notice length and height at the wide out positions. Everybody had a guy
who could lead them behind the center.
"You saw a physical front on both sides. We've been
headed that way already because that's what we believe in. Speed is
always key for us, whatever conference.
"We have some backs who are already in place, like
Marquez (Grayson) is here, Cory Hunter will be back. Breon (Allen),
Chris Hairston, those guys will be back and ready to go."
East
Carolina head
football coach
Ruffin McNeill
addressed the press
on Wednesday to talk
about the Pirates
recruiting class of
2014:
Audio: Talk of the
Town
