By Denny O'Brien
©2012 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.

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With three winnable games remaining on East Carolina’s 2012 schedule, it’s premature to pass judgment on Ruffin McNeill’s tenure as head coach. Win out, and the Pirates finish McNeill's third season on the job with an 8-4 regular season record, an outside chance at the Conference USA championship game and a guaranteed slot in one of the league’s postseason bowls.

Given the competition awaiting ECU, that’s a realistic scenario.

But considering the Pirates’ most recent performance, a puzzling 56-28 home blowout loss to Navy, any pause fans might have about the state of the program is understandable. When you combine that loss with the overall body of work, the criticisms fans are expressing on radio call in shows and Internet message boards seem reasonable.

There simply is no debating that the East Carolina football program hasn’t advanced over the past three seasons. There also is no debating that ECU football has taken a competitive step back from the day Skip Holtz departed for South Florida in 2010.

At this stage, the most glaring program weakness seems to center on game preparation and management, areas that historically have been the Pirates’ overwhelming strengths. It was certainly an advantage when Steve Logan and Holtz patrolled the sideline, with each demonstrating a unique capability to identify an opponent’s weaknesses, prepare a game plan to exploit them, and make adjustments as required.

While never void of decent talent, neither Logan nor Holtz enjoyed an overwhelming surplus, thus relying on an astute, experienced staff that could script enough wrinkles into the game plan to close the personnel gap. On most occasions, they stayed a step ahead of their competition with a keen ability to anticipate the opposing staff’s next step.

In the current climate of college athletics, that’s the proven model that must be followed for ECU to succeed, but it has been the biggest shortfall of the current coaching staff. Saturday’s loss to Navy provides the framing example that supports that argument.

By all measures, East Carolina’s performance against Navy was a collective no-show by the defense. Had the Pirates turned the ball over with the same frequency they did against the Midshipmen in 2010, perhaps the triple option would have eclipsed the 76 points it scored then.

No one is debating that the Pirates defensive staff spent the past week studying the triple option and crafting a game plan to at least contain the Middies. There also is no debating that the defensive alignment and sets we saw on the Pirates’ final defensive plays weren’t much different than the ones that opened the game.

The net result? Navy could have left its punter in Annapolis.

Even more damaging is the fact that a vocal segment of East Carolina's fans haven’t seemed this discouraged since John Thompson was coach.

Of course, all of this could become moot Thanksgiving weekend. Houston, Tulane, and Marshall are far from unbeatable, and the two toughest games within that trio will be played on Bagwell Field.

The Pirates also should have a talent advantage in those three games, so running the table is not an unrealistic objective.

A full evaluation of McNeill to date would be unfair without mentioning his recruiting success and his unique ability to connect on a personal level with fans. Save for a couple of positions, there is no shortage of capable athletes, and you simply won’t find a better ECU ambassador to tour the rubber chicken circuit.

Bottom line, everybody loves Ruff, and wants him to succeed.

In a results business, though, you can’t deny that there are questions and concerns. While the 5-4 record is hardly the embarrassment that defined Thompson’s tenure, the conference has been competitively gutted since then, and the Pirates’ four FBS wins this season came against opponents with a 4-29 record.

Given his status as an alum and his overall loyalty and passion for the program, McNeill deserves the benefit of the doubt for the next three games. But there also is no denying that Saturday’s game against Houston is a critical test for Ruff and his staff.