I believe Mr. Al Myatt is the best person to write a book on the firing of Coach Ruffin McNeil.

I would say it’s a reminder that if you do a bad job at anything you get fired.

Blink you're missing quite a lot aren't you? We were 8-5 the year before Ruff got fired. In 2015 he won 5 games, nearly 6 to make us bowl eligible, without a D1 QB. Further to the unnecessary fact of his firing, Compher handled the whole affair with no class, telling the media before Ruff had a chance to tell his coaches or his kids. Mo has only won one more game in two years than Ruff did in his worst season with us. In that time two starting QBs have left the program. Not a good look. What else are you missing? How about a refusal to interact with fans, a lack of understand for the whole Pirate culture, a $3M budget excess turned into a $3M deficit, while adding another sport and taking a pay raise. Selling 14000 season tickets last year, and on course for even fewer this year, refusing to fire Jeff Lebo...i could go on. The Kidd, no one is hoping for a losing season. I hope we go 15-0 and have a season i tell my grandkids about, but it's not hard to believe that Mo is not the coach to make that happen and that a new AD is going to want to bring his own coach in. I actually think we've got a good chance of going 6-6 this year, but making a bowl game should be the minimum we expect at ECU.

Damn Right

If those are your questions Blink, yes you are missing something! You are missing EVERYTHING and clearly are not up to speed on any of this. The ousted AD and bonehead Chancellor are the ones who gave statements that were tone deaf and shrouded in ambiguity. Pirate fans have been CLEAR on what the issues were. So, either you haven’t been following any of this to which I say again, bring yourself up to speed OR you’re well aware of all of it and was one of the people who championed Compher’s decision to fire Ruffin and could come on any message board to boast your reasons for agreeing with that decision. But,now that he has tanked an entire program and is out the door, you want the ones who knew he was a mistake from the start to clarify something?

HEre is where you are wrong and everyone is wrong - your comments that the team wasn't getting better under Ruff "the last 2 years" - that is a lie. Ruffs 2014 team went 8-5 and was 2 plays away from winning the AAC in our first year, and we blew out P5 rivals. 2015 was an outlier year for Ruff - losing Carden, Hardy, Lincoln, and Benkert blowing his knee 1 week before season opener ---and he still won 5 games and was a last second FG from going bowling. Now if you say 2015 we trended down, that is correct, but it was under extreme circumstances in a rebuilding year.... You idiots that cheered Compher on to fire Ruff, are just as guilty as he is.... Now you all get to really see what poor coaching is.... fools!

Honestly, ECU never got the credit or respect that we deserve from the beginning of time. As a former player/ alumni the past couple of years really set ECU back big time. We allow outsiders to come into our house to destroyed what hard workers built. I never and will never understand of firing coach Ruffin after 5-7 record. Granted he was working with the 3rd string QB. Ok we fired Ruff, but we replaced him with Coach Mo. No head coach experience, blames everyone on loses but himself, players don't like him or want to play for him. Lets open our eyes everyone..... ECU is a joke now... The best thing is AD gone and HC is next....

I don't get it either, Blink. Now, we can hope for a losing season this fall to oust Mo (which I think some folks actually want), or have a killer season, undefeated, in which case this move will certainly make us look like idiots, or a mediocre season but we win a lower tier bowl, we are getting better. Is the new AD going to have so much pressure on him that he fires him? Looks like a rock and a hard place to me.

The AD is bad. The Chancellor is terrible. Saying that parents should send the children to a campus is is afraid to live next to is insanely stupid. The Chancellor is paid to work with local authorities to fix such situations not run away. The BOT and BOG also need to do their jobs. Future ECU leadership needs to have ties to ECU or the Greenville area. No more going back an agreements with Greenville. Greenville and ECU are in the same boat. They survive or perish together.

Just curious. Will you guys be HOPING for a losing season this fall so we can replace Mo? What do you want the new AD to do with Mo if we are better and we do make a bowl? What if he pulls a Scott Frost and goes undefeated?

So I feel like i am missing some information. I understand that Compher fired Ruff and made the move to Montgomery - and those results have not been positive. As an alum - I wanted our team to get better, and they were NOT getting better the last 2 years of Ruff. Agree or disagree w/ that move - Compher did it in order to make our team better, it backfired - and now he is being treated like a villain. What else am I missing that is/was so terrible?

I believe at the very least those of us that are giving hard earned money to ECU athletics deserve an explanation of how in the world you extend a five year contract to a guy with 1 year on his contract and then 6 months later fire him when we could have done nothing and saved, what, nearly a million dollars? On ECU's already shoestring budget? I want an explanation.

I agree with Jack and Van. It looks like a lot of collusion.

I agree with Jack. The trustees should pay the cost of Compher's buy out. What a ridiculous decision to extend his contract. I have been a long time Pirate club member. I am always asked to give more. I am never asked my opinion or rarely ever given a "Thank you". Van Braxton

When does our board of trustees shoulder some of the responsibility for what has transpired? They approved the contract extension for JC as well as being complicit in Ruff's firing. They have done a poor job when it comes to athletics.