ECU's McNeill embraces challenge of 1st game week
NCAA Football Betting Lines
08/31/2010 -
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -The smoke will billow near East Carolina's locker room, the pyrotechnics will sparkle and they'll blast Jimi Hendrix's ``Purple Haze'' over the speakers.
Then, for the first time, Ruffin McNeill will lead the Pirates onto the field.
``Right now, I'm getting little goose bumps,'' McNeill said Monday, a full six days before gameday. ``You can't fake that.''
While there's no hiding McNeill's passion for his alma mater, there are more pressing things to worry about than making a grand entrance.
Playing a Conference USA rival - not to mention, one that might be carrying a grudge - has a way of creating an added sense of urgency.
McNeill's first game in charge of the two-time defending league champion Pirates, and his first game as a full-time head coach anywhere, comes Sunday when Tulsa visits in the first C-USA game of the season.
``It's a conference game, but it's our first game, and it's the only game we've got this week, so all the focus will be on Tulsa,'' McNeill said. ``The motivation will be there. It's the next guy up. It's the first guy up. That's enough motivation for us.''
It helps that McNeill has some familiarity with Tulsa coach Todd Graham. McNeill spent the past decade on Texas Tech's staff, while Graham was a high school coach in a Dallas suburb before he made the jump to college ball, joining West Virginia's staff in 2001 and later getting his Division I head coaching job at Rice in 2006. He moved to Tulsa a year later.
``I've crossed paths with coach McNeill quite a bit,'' Graham said. ``It's genuinely the real deal. I'm very impressed with him. ... As a former high school coach, just the type of person that he is, he really cares about people.''
The Pirates are 2-0 in the past two seasons against Tulsa, including a victory in the 2008 C-USA title game, and that prompted Graham to call East Carolina ``the team to beat in this conference.''
But those teams were settled at quarterback. That is not the case, at least not yet.
McNeill said he has yet to decide whether former Boston College QB Dominique Davis or sophomore walk-on Brad Wornick will take the first snap Sunday against the Golden Hurricane.
The longtime Mike Leach assistant said Wornick at times reminds him of former Tech signal-callers Cody Hodges and Kliff Kingsbury. Davis, Ruffin said, has big-game experience after helping BC reach the 2008 ACC title game, plus the talent and intelligence to run McNeill's version of the ``Air Raid'' offense.
``In this offense, and what we do, a strong arm is great, but it's ... when and how you deliver that thing that's important in this offense,'' McNeill said. ``Both guys are doing a great job. ... Those guys are battling night and day. ... You'll see one guy in seven-on-seven just complete great throws. Then, the next guy in team (drills will) do the same thing.''
For the man known around campus as ``Coach Ruff,'' it's been a long wait to not only return home, but to get that elusive first head coaching opportunity.
The Lumberton native and former East Carolina defensive back in the late 1970s spent the past 30 years as a career assistant. He bounced from Austin Peay to Appalachian State to UNLV, before landing at Texas Tech in 2000.
Following a messy divorce between Leach and the school, McNeill was put in charge on an interim basis for the Red Raiders' Alamo Bowl victory over Michigan State. Tommy Tuberville got the full-time job and didn't retain McNeill, who was hired by his alma mater in January after Skip Holtz left for South Florida.
``I'm looking forward to seeing our fans and getting around Pirate Nation and getting our football team, more importantly than me, around them,'' McNeill said. ``They're not coming to see me. They're coming to see our football team.
``I'm sure it'll be emotional, and I'm looking forward to the execution of the game operation. That's the exciting part of it to me. Let's see who can beat who. I love that part of the game. But I'll be excited, I'm sure.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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2007 NFL Football Betting Preview
“You play to win the game!”
Those are the words of notoriously intense head coach Herman Edwards. Unfortunately, from a bettors’ perspective, most coaches don’t feel that way about the NFL preseason. August is a time to evaluate young players, finalize the depth chart and pray your star players stay healthy.
The trick to making money during the exhibition schedule is identifying coaches – like Edwards – who can’t stand losing even when there's nothing on the line.
The New York Jets betting won 15 of 21 preseason games and went 14-7 against the spread (ATS) during Edwards’s five-year tenure with the club. In his first season as the Kansas City Chiefs field boss, the team improved from 0-4 to 2-2.
Identifying win-a-holics like Edwards is a good start if you plan betting the preseason – even though most say you shouldn’t ... but what the hell do they know anyway?
Here’s a brief rundown of two teams that have a habit of winning during the second-stringers’ season, and another club that has a good chance of exceeding this year.
Playing in the media hub of North America can be stressful but the press can’t write anything negative about the way Tom Coughlin’s boys play in the preseason. The Giants won and covered all four games last summer, improving their record to 7-1 both straight up (SU) and against the spread over the last two years.
Coughlin has shown he’s not afraid to give his starters more time in the second preseason game than most of his colleagues, no doubt one of the reasons his team has been so dominant.
Bettors can count on America’s team early on. The Cowboys are 14-6 both SU and ATS since 2002 in warm-up contests. Former coach Bill Parcells, the coach of the team the last four years, has an intimidating, in-your-face presence – surely a reason Dallas has had so much early success.
The Big Tuna won’t be strolling the sidelines with looks of disgust, but new coach Wade Phillips will be anxious to make a good first impression for owner Jerry Jones.
Dallas plays the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos before things get serious. They then face the Houston Texans in their third contest (the game starters see most game time) and finish off with the Minnesota Vikings.
Expect a Dallas team able to walk away with another 3-1 preseason record.
This team scored a league-worst 12 offensive touchdowns last season, so the rookies and veterans each have something to prove. There’s a bounty of first-unit jobs up for grabs and plenty of bodies competing for those slots.
First-time head coach Lane Kiffin will be eager to impress an owner who employs the philosophy, “Just win, baby!”
The 32-year-old Kiffin has to command respect from a locker room full of players older than him. All of these factors should lead to purpose in preseason.
Don’t forget: before playing like a team that belonged in NFL Europe, Oakland went 4-1 (both SU and ATS) in exhibition games.
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