Upon hearing the news that the East Carolina Pirates fired the great Ruffin McNeill yesterday as head football coach, I was very disappointed.  

As the old saying goes: it will take a special breed of cat to win on a regular basis in Greenville.  They had that cat in Ruffin McNeill.  Come on…we are talking about East Carolina here.  Is it a great place? Yes.  Is it what the college football talking head blowhards call a “destination job”?  No.  Unless you are Ruffin McNeill.  That is where the ECU boosters, I assume they are most to blame, got it wrong.  The next football coach they hire should be announced something like this:  “Welcome to Greenville, the revolving door is there.  We installed it after we got rid of Ruffin McNeill.”

This is what I call stupid tax.  East Carolina will be paying it for some time and as time goes on they still won’t have the wits to admit they screwed up.  The excuse factory will be blowing smoke from the bowels of its boiler…and hot air will be abound.

Know that I am taking this at face value.  I have never been a fly on the wall in Greenville and I don’t know the whole story.  But I have been observant of Coach Ruffin’s career.  I know he was put in a bad spot when he took over for Mike Leach at Texas Tech when the Chancellor ran Leach out as head coach.  You remember, the episode when the player was in a shed.  Why didn’t that boy go to SMU?

I have seen Coach Ruffin at work sitting a few rows behind him and his team the last two times they played in Huntington to take on the Marshall Thundering Herd.  I have always been impressed.  One game was a thriller in 2011.  Remember the Aaron Dobson backhand catch before the first half ended?  That was in that game.  A 34-27 victory for the Herd that, if memory serves, went in to overtime.  The 2013 was a Marshall being Marshall at home…they beat ECU 59 to 28.  Fans I have spoken with from Greenville have had good things to say about Coach Ruffin, just as I suspected they would.

Alas, there are a few rotten nuts in every bag.  Whether they are pee-wee league coaches trying to make every game the Super Bowl for their child or deep pocketed boosters threatening to take their pile of money to another luxury box or athletic directors that are such because they had a hard time coaching or an owner of a pro team that wants to micromanage to the point no one is comfortable and most of the fun is gone, the rotten nut can spoil it for the many.

I suspect that is the case in Greenville right now.  A few bad nuts.

And speaking of Greenville.  I know they moved up to the AAC…the corny sounding American Athletic Conference,  nearly as bad as the moniker that is the C-USA. Conference USA…though geographically that may make a bit of sense…and never as woeful as the Big Ten/14 and their former Leaders and Legends divisions (nothing like a heavy dose of good old wholesome pretentiousness from the Big Ten).

I digress.

Back to Greenville.  Know that I love North Carolina.  Those of you who know me know that is true.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I have spent more time there than any place off of Hoosier soil.  God bless the folks of Greenville.  They are good people.  They have a great venue to play football and they love their Pirates at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and up and down the coast.

You feel there is a “but” coming in here don’t you?

But…it is Greenville, NC.  There are four ACC schools ahead of them in the pecking order from a national perspective.  Two or three of those are ahead of them from a state pecking order…and that may be kind.  And coming from a guy who knows, remember, I am from INDIANA….North Carolina is not a football state.  It is a basketball state.  And maybe football is bigger on campus than it is at the ACC schools.  I get that.  Still…and I hate to be critical, but as you know I will speak the rights, we are talking about a stepping stone and a revolving door of a job for someone other than a guy like Ruffin McNeill.  That and the thing I have really been stepping around here, but I know I need to point it out….we are talking about Greenville, North Carolina.  I may love Eastern Carolina; most very educated folks I know would have to consult an atlas and spend some quality time with it to find Greenville.  Sorry Pirate Nation.  I love you.  I hate what has happened to Coach Ruffin McNeill.  I hope it works for your present and future players.  We often forget about them in times like these.  It is the roll of the dice a kid makes when he walks on campus with sugarplums of playing for a Coach Ruffin for four years and then something like this happens.

I looked at my purple ECU t-shirt this morning.  I had but one thought.  Coach Ruffin McNeill is the last one that should have been made to walk the plank.

On to this week’s speaktherights.com College Football Predictions.

I followed my heart and spoke the rights about Coach Ruffin McNeill

I am following my heart today with my picks.  You want to know who I am for?  That is what this week’s picks are all about.  Tomorrow we will know what teams are in the final playoffs and the other bowl participants will be known too.  It is a shame some of them will have losing records.  Again, it is not the fault of the players.

Temple beats Houston…I hope they will.  I have my doubts.  I will lose this one.

Southern Miss beats WKU…the boys from Hattiesburg are back because they need to be.  They need this game and WKU might be pressing a bit as speculation abounds around their head coach, Jeff Brohm, moving on.

Baylor beats Texas…and Charlie Strong, I believe, is moving out of Austin.

Alabama beats Florida…by 30 pts.  There is already a new pedestal installed in the Football Complex at Bama.  It is waiting to hold up another National Championship trophy.  I am just glad Ole Miss beat them.  A band-aid on a cut is better than no band-aid at all.

Grambling beats Alcorn…This is for you, James Harris.

Kansas State beats West Virginia…I hear Doc Holliday has a 3 million dollar pay Marshall clause if WVU goes after him.  That has got to feel good to the old ego.

USC beats Stanford…Pat Haden handed off a set of keys to Coach Clay Helton on an interim basis after they fired Sark.  Now they won’t change the locks.  Helton is the Man of Troy now.  Good for him.  They don’t need more limelight.  They need a football coach.  They have him.

North Carolina beats Clemson…So I am for UNC.  But…if Clemson losing means Ohio State is mentioned for a playoff spot, I hope the Tigers win big.

Iowa over Michigan State…Back to the Future.  Will be a great game.  It is a shame they are playing this indoors in Indianapolis.  Ahhhh…television.  The team that gets that fumble or interception or punt return or punt block will win.

Air Force beats San Diego State….what can I say, I needed a tenth game.  Go Falcons!

Enjoy the games…and Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson