Ruffin McNeill Interview

INTRO MUSIC That man was Ruffin McNeil. I hear his laugh right now.

It's a familiar one. Of course now you're an assistant coach for Dave Doran at NC State, but how are things going? How are things going with Earline and being back in North Carolina?

It's going great, Josh. It was good to, you know, come back and be in the home state again. And like we talked about before we came on air, able to see my dad in a short amount of time.

We had bought a home here right outside of Raleigh probably four years ago maybe. Earline found us and, you know, we'd come home in summers and stay there, but we already had it. So when I came up from my dad, we just, it was already ready-made and we went in and, but it's been good, you know. Now, you know, it worked for Dave and I know we're getting that little bit here in a little bit, but it's good to be back home.

It really is. While we're going down memory lane looking at 2010, it was your first year at ECU and you brought with you from Texas Tech at the time the youngest offensive coordinator in college football by the name of Lincoln Riley. And I remember there were some questions with that early on. He was young, it's a bit of a chance, but did you know even then that he had head coaching material?

What did you see? Yeah, no doubt. I knew he had leadership ability and that was from how he had earned his way, Josh, from my ethos is earn not given. I've lived by that and, you know, it's what I was brought up on and I believe in now. And I saw Lincoln earn it from the very beginning from a student coach making zero bucks to a GA, which is making maybe a dollar more than zero bucks, and then working with a full-time position at Texas Tech and saw him work, recruit, coach the kids, communicate with the kids, and then when all the mishap happened at Texas Tech, well really before then, that whole bowl practice, Lincoln took over the offense because Leach was not around much, you know, he was doing book tours and that kind of thing, and I was called a defense at that time. So besides knowing him, seeing him come through the ranks from a student to a grad assistant to a full-time, and he took the place of calling it during that period, and then the bowl game thing happened at Texas Tech, and when I found out, Lincoln, he got the plays and he understood the offense, and then we thought we'd be there, but it didn't work out, and then each kind of job came for me, and it was the first call I made because I knew, I knew what offense I wanted to run as a head coach, and I knew how I wanted to run, and I knew Lincoln was ready, and he had done it, and learned it from the ground up, and from the top down.

So the hiring process, we put questions at age, I never did, I'm old enough for both of us, is what I told someone, but age is just a number, it's not the knowledge part, but he had the leadership ability, and then he, what I like about Lincoln is the loyalty and the trust, he had a job offers while he was there with us at East Carolina Josh, and turned him down for, offered three, four, five times what he's making, and I'm not exaggerating, and he said no, that's the loyalty part, and the trust part, and Oklahoma, Oklahoma job call, excuse me, Bob Supt's calling, I knew Bob from coaching against him for ten years, and he asked about Lincoln, I said you got to take it, and I told Lincoln, Lincoln, you know, you got to go, and it was, it was his time, and anyway, the head coaching, he did his job out there as an assistant offense coordinator, and now he's doing a good job as a head coach, so he's really handling the team well, and he has a great presence about him, he handles the media, the coaching staff, as well as the players, and you know, it was a joy to be with him, and to see him get, get it started, and then it was tough, but I, we had talked about this time, possibly when I first took the job, about my dad, and Lincoln was great about it the entire time there, and I just told him it was time for me to, you know, go back and kind of be a son for a while, Josh, and, but he was great, matter of fact, I talked to him Monday, yeah, on Monday, and talked a long time, so. Yeah, there's a guy I want to get your read on, we're being joined here by Ruffin McDeel, NC State assistant coach for Dave Doran. Matt Ruhle was just hired to be the Panthers head coach, he's going into his first year with the Panthers, you faced him on Lincoln staff at Oklahoma the last few years, but also you went head-to-head with him when he was at Temple as well.

What interests you about Coach Ruhle, what separates him from some of the coaches that you face? There's no doubt Matty's gonna be, do a great job at the Panthers. Like you mentioned, Matty and I, you know, at Temple and the East Carolina interaction that we had, head coaching means that we had, I just, you know, you knew Matty was one of those guys that had a plan, knew how to execute the plan, and did, and did it at Temple, and then took over a Baylor job in a situation that was, was up in, you know, upheaval a little bit, and took it over, and did it in a methodical way, just like he did Temple, and he'll do the same with, not in a situation with the Panthers, but I have no doubt that Matt would do a great job. I call him Matty, that's what we call each other. Matter of fact, today, as he got the job, we saw each other in, at the convention, I think in Nashville, I think it was, and we spent a long time together, and, you know, got his number, and he got my, he got mine.

I was, he knew I was getting ready to go back. We talked about, you know, going back home, and, but he's excited to be there, and excited to, for his adventure, and it's always been a part of his goals, you know. He had worked with the Giants in a capacity, and, and he won, one of his goals, Josh, was to get to the NFL, and he had done a great job at each stop at Temple, a turnaround program at Baylor, a definite turnaround, and won, and, and had a great, great years there developing the program, and he's got some great staff.

He got some great staff members too as well, so I look for Maddy to do a great job for the, for the Carolina Panthers. Dave Doran was with us not too long ago, and every time we, we catch up with Dave, he's somebody who could be a bit, he can internalize things, he can be somebody who's not quite the socialite, but he also has his hobbies, and one of those is fishing. You have your boat, time out, of course. Is it still at Little Washington right now? Yeah, it still is. It's right there. Still at Little Washington. I got to know, Rob, who's the better fisherman, you or Dave Doran? Dave. Dave is. I, I, I, I'm the better, prouder boat, the captain of the boat, but Dave, he does it a lot, and, and I do it every now and then.

I'll do some special trips, but, you know, not, uh, the boat is, is sufficient at some times when we pull in the old places, but I would have to get that today, no doubt. We've had conversations before, Coach, Ruffin McNeil with us, former ECU head coach, NC State assistant coach, talking about how things ended at ECU. It was ugly. It wasn't the way that you wanted it to be, of course, but you're somebody who, um, I think years ago forgave ECU for how that happened, but you were still wounded in the immediate aftermath of it. I'm sure it helps that time goes by, and it helps that you have former assistants who are still in Greenville, but what is your current perspective or your current characterization of your relationship with ECU? Well, first I know Mike Houston, and I think Mike's going to do a great job there, and I know Mike a long time, and, uh, and then, of course, when he was at James Madison, he brought Donica Patrick and Chip Reaver, also Dale Steele, with them, and they're there with him, so I have a lot of, a lot of people in that staff that I know, including Mike, and, and, uh, you know, I never, you know, of course it's tough when you, you know, the job didn't end the way you hoped, but at the same time, nothing negative toward East Carolina, and, and, and, and, and I've always, I've always been that way, Josh, not one negative comment about him, and what happened, things happened in his business, that's why, you know, that's the part of the coaching part, and I've never said one negative, nor will I, and, but I'm glad to see that Mike is there, and I know Mike, he's built a program and, and, and, getting the right type of kids in there, I think, and I was going to do a coaching school, but then the, the COVID-19, the virus came, and, and it was cancelled, and so I was going to get a chance to go back to Greenville and do something, I, you know, I apparently did it, but COVID-19 said, not, not right now, so we obeyed, we obeyed that, that command by the virus, and I didn't do it. You're, you're the man, it's good to hear from you, hope we could see you in person sometime soon, congratulations on the job with NC State, it's good to have you back in the state of North Carolina, thanks for doing this. Josh, just glad to be on with you, man, it's great, again, glad to be on with you, let's stay in touch, brother, any time, let me know. Sounds good, that is the head coach, the former head coach of the East Carolina Pirates football program, now an assistant head coach for Dave Dorn at NC State, Ruffin McNeil, you're just not gonna find a better guy than him, you just aren't, I enjoy every single time we catch up, just a plethora of knowledge, and a lot of interesting things we could talk to Ruff about, really just all day, hence is why that went really long to the point where Robert's telling me to hit a break. Alright, Robert, continuing our series of decade-end lists, I'll rattle off the best ACC basketball players of the 2010s next on the drive.