By Denny O'Brien
©2010 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.

It’s unusual for this state to be the epicenter of college football discussion, especially a month before the season begins. But because of the alleged transgressions in Chapel Hill, the NCAA and national media have claimed temporary residency in North Carolina.

These days, you can’t listen to sports talk radio and not be subjected to the rants of talking heads and irate callers in what has become the athletics equivalent of CSI. Each new clue leads to more accusations and a seemingly endless line of questions for which there aren’t many answers.

Will Marvin Austin or Greg Little ever suit up for the Tar Heels again? Does Butch Davis somehow, someway survive this two-headed scandal to return as North Carolina’s coach in 2011?

How long will the investigation last, and exactly what penalties will the Tar Heels have to endure?

These are the questions being volleyed, and it could be a while before the topic is completely absent from the public eye. There is no shortage of theories, to which we can credit our culture’s fascination with scandal and semi-obsession with seeing others’ demise.

But if you look beyond the Tar Heels’ pickle between agents and tutors, there are other football stories in the region worth noting. Feel-good stories that include unassuming coaches and players who have emerged from relative obscurity with unexpected early-season performances.

East Carolina is one of them.

Few could have predicted this scenario for the Pirates. Make that no one. After losing the foundation of consecutive Conference USA championship teams and the architect behind it — Skip Holtz — who could have envisioned the Pirates winning the opener on a Hail Mary, starting 2-0, averaging 50 points per game, and again edging themselves into the conversation mix for another league title?

Not me. And probably not anyone who objectively looked at the Pirates’ roster, the makeup of their new coaching staff, and the abundance of questions facing some of ECU’s personnel both on the field and off.

When Ruffin McNeill was named as Holtz’s successor, I’ll be the first to admit my skepticism over his hiring. When he brought the bulk of Texas Tech’s staff — many of them several years my junior — it only increased my doubts about whether or not this new regime could actually work.

Many of those were erased by the Pirates’ dramatic victory over a good, veteran Tulsa team last week. Several others were evaporated by the ease with which ECU dismantled Memphis, a game it could have won by 50 if it didn’t apply the brakes on its powerful offensive machine.

But most of my doubts have been erased by McNeill himself, who is the biggest story of them all.

In hiring McNeill, athletics director Terry Holland not only found the Pirates’ new football coach, but also an alumnus who has become a surrogate father effectively mentoring the young men in his charge. He has used his ‘Ruff Love’ approach to inject discipline into the program and provide an image makeover to some important pieces to the Pirates’ puzzle, including talented running back Jonathan Williams.

“The respect is mutual there,” McNeill said about Williams. “I love Jon. I love the way he is progressing. I’m still a ball of clay. You know that. I’m still in development, too.

“Jonathan is a guy who had a clean slate. We’ve put expectations on one another. Not just me on him, but on each other. I try to make sure I talk to Jonathan. I also hold him at a higher standard. I expect a lot out of him. I also tell him I love him every single day.”

Who would have predicted Williams suddenly walking the straight and narrow? These days he’s actually running it, and he could be sprinting it all the way to the NFL.

There is also Dominique Davis, another improbable subplot in the early-season chronicles of ECU football. The journeyman quarterback has mastered the task of mail forwarding, just like he’s quickly grasped the concepts of offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley’s Air Raid offense.

Not bad for a quarterback who many believed wasn’t suited for this pass-heavy attack.

And who can forget Riley? The Boy Wonder of offensive coordinators, a football Doogie Howser if ever there was one. As far as career paths go, this 27-year old prodigy demonstrates a good balance of maturity and confidence, and it is clear to see that he is on the fast path to coaching stardom.

Riley has the Pirates on track to demolish school yardage and scoring records, and drives that don’t end in touchdowns are quickly becoming the exception in Greenville.

But as far as stories with East Carolina go this season, all of them lead back to Coach Ruff. Good ol’ lovable and bear-huggable Papa Ruff, whose post-game press conferences provide insight into his philosophies with a touch of standup comedy from the jolly fellow himself.

It’s too early to tell how this season, much less how his tenure at East Carolina will unfold. Even so, with two wins in as many games and a 50 points per game offensive average, McNeill already has the Pirates ahead of schedule by most standards.

Though ECU has a tough four-game stretch ahead, and is unlikely to be favored in any of them, the Pirates clearly are a story worth following. It’s certainly a nice alternative to anyone needing a break from NCAA probes.