Ruffin McNeill likes to say he's as country as a dozen eggs, but there's nothing old-fashioned about what the East Carolina coach has planned for his new team this fall.
McNeill, a Lumberton native, returns to his home state and his alma mater with Texas Tech's old playbook tucked under his arm. He was the brains behind the Red Raiders' blitzing, gambling defense, and he brought 26-year-old Lincoln Riley with him from Lubbock to run the pass-first, pass-second offense.
No one knows exactly what to expect from the Pirates this season. Skip Holtz didn't exactly leave the cupboard bare when he moved on to South Florida, but it isn't full, either. Throw in the adjustment to new schemes on both sides of the ball, and mysteries abound Down East.
One thing, though, is certain: The Pirates will take more chances than ever before, and not just in the high-flying offense that posted such big numbers at Texas Tech. With and without the ball, they'll push the envelope as far as they can.
Holtz wasn't exactly vanilla in terms of persona or coaching style, but a big change is afoot. McNeill exudes down-home aw-shuckery to hide a coaching philosophy that's straight riverboat gambler.
Most defensive coordinators, when promoted to head coach, run offenses designed to minimize turnovers and maximize possession, but McNeill has wholeheartedly embraced an offense that moves as quickly as possible.
"That's what I believe in, having faced it for 10 years on a year-in, year-out basis in the spring and the fall," McNeill said. "That's what I wanted to do. Of course, I told Lincoln to put his own flavor into it, whatever he wants to add to it, too, but that'll be the basic concept."
Perhaps his biggest gamble, or at least his first one, was on Riley. The Texas Tech offense was very much a Mike Leach creation, and Riley was merely the receivers coach, and a young one at that. He won't turn 27 until after the Pirates' opener against Tulsa this season.
But when Leach was fired over a bizarre set of circumstances surrounding an injured player - who happened to be the son of ESPN analyst Craig James - McNeill got a pretty good sense of what Riley had to offer.
McNeill was promoted to interim coach for Texas Tech's bowl game against Michigan State. He turned the offense over to Riley, whose playcalling helped the Red Raiders post a 41-31 Alamo Bowl win over the Spartans, rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit with two unanswered touchdowns.
"That helped," McNeill said "But I had watched him coach and been around him. We raised him from a lamb to a ram when he was a young coach. But the Michigan State game really helped. In the game, hearing him on the headphones, hearing how he flowed and the confidence factor there, understanding where and when and what time to call, timing, I thought that was a big part of it."
So based on that experience, McNeill had no hesitation bringing Riley along to run his offense at East Carolina. And based on their experience at Texas Tech, the Pirates figure to be as fun to watch as any team in the state this fall, even if they're on the wrong end of a few Conference USA shootouts.
At last month's Pigskin Preview, McNeill joked that the Pirates would run the ball every play and play a base defense.
That's guaranteed to be just about the only thing they won't do.
