Tag: Ruffin McNeil

Monday Big 12 morning rush: Headlines from around the conference

The Big 12 morning rush headlines that include Houston Miller returning to football, bad coach firings and the Baylor running back duo.

Each morning Longhorns Wire will share the top stories from around the Big 12 Conference. For this edition of the Big 12 Morning Twitter, Sports Illustrated, and 247Sports provide the headlines.

Texas Tech defensive lineman who declared for the 2020 NFL Draft in January has reportedly transferred to an FCS school

Prior to the 2020 NFL Draft Houston Miller of Texas Tech declared. Despite not being highly regarded, Miller wanted to try and make the jump to the NFL. After going going undrafted, he returns to school but this time at the FCS level. Once a player declares but goes undrafted they forfeit any remaining eligibility at the FBS level.

At Southeastern Louisiana, Miller will be eligible to play immediately in 2020.  The upcoming season would serve as his final year of eligibility, unless he were to pursue a sixth season from the NCAA.

Miller was a three-star member of the Texas Tech football Class of 2016.  The lineman played his high school football in Keller, Texas. – John Taylor, College Football Talk

The worst coach firings of the last 15 years

247Sports put together a list on the worst firings in college football over the last decade plus. Former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach made the list. The Red Raiders saw their most success under Leach and since his firing, they haven’t finished with a winning record in conference play since.

Ok, so we’re going to make a slight exception here as Mike Leach was fired in the aftermath of a player mistreatment claim in 2009 which coincided with a rocky relationship with Texas Tech brass and days prior to a guaranteed bonus in his contract. The circumstances and claims have been hotly debated and disputed in the time since and Leach has been vetted and hired by two Power Five programs since that time.

Leach’s resume at Texas Tech is well known. He led the program to its best run in about 40 years and reshaping modern offensive football along the way. The high mark of Leach’s tenure was the 11-win campaign in 2008 (his next to last season in Lubbock) that saw the Red Raiders take down then No. 1 Texas, reach No. 2 in the polls and finish with a 7-1 conference record among what might be the strongest group of teams in Big 12 history.

Former NFL scout: Baylor RBs ‘quietly one of CFB’s best’

“The Baylor RB duo of John Lovett and Trestan Ebner is quietly one of CFB’s best,” Nagy said Saturday on Twitter, publishing side-by-side pictures of the two in a tweet. “Lovett is a tough, durable 212-(pounder) that gives (Baylor football) a physical presence. (The Senior Bowl) staff loves Ebner’s upside as mismatch in pass game and he can roll.”

During the Bears’ breakout 2019 campaign, Lovett rushed for a single-season career-high 665 yards and 6.4 per-carry average. Lovett took 103 totes and scored five touchdowns in all 14 games, also catching eight passe for a personal-best 66 yards (8.3 average). – Garrett Stepien, 247Sports

Former Oklahoma assistant Ruffin McNeil joins North Carolina State staff

N.C. State announced Tuesday that former Oklahoma assistant Ruffin McNeil has been hired as the special assistant to the head coach.

Former Sooners assistant Ruffin McNeill will be coaching in North Carolina once again.

N.C. State announced Tuesday that McNeill has been hired as special assistant to the head coach.

“Having a former head coach on our staff who I can trust and have known for almost my entire career is a huge benefit for me personally, as well as for our entire program,” said N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren in a press release.

Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley wasted no time showing love for his longtime mentor.

Besides the 2015 and 2016 seasons, Riley and McNeill have worked at the same program every year since 2003. Riley worked under McNeill at both Texas Tech and East Carolina.

Beginning in 2017, McNeill spent three years as OU’s assistant head coach. He stepped away following the 2019 season to return to his hometown and care for his father.

McNeill’s hometown of Lumberton, N.C. is less than 100 miles from N.C. State’s Raleigh campus.

 

 

Oklahoma assistant coach Ruffin McNeil to ‘temporarily step away from football’

OU has one more staff change this offseason. Ruffin McNeil will be temporarily stepping away from football to go back to North Carolina.

Oklahoma has one more staff change this offseason.

Assistant head coach and outside linebackers coach Ruffin McNeil will be temporarily stepping away from football to go back to North Carolina to help take care of his 85-year-old father.

“This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” McNeill said in a press release by Oklahoma football. “But in the end, being near my dad was a necessary choice. Right now I need to be a son again and I need to help my brother and other family members take care of my dad, who is battling significant health issues. This is not retirement for me. I still want to coach in some form or fashion. But right now that can’t be the case. My focus needs to be on my dad back in North Carolina.”

McNeil came to Oklahoma a week after head coach Lincoln Riley was announced as the head football coach in 2017. He spent one year at Virginia in 2016 as the assistant head coach and defensive line coach before making the move to Norman, Oklahoma.

Riley and McNeil connected during Oklahoma head coach’s early years at Texas Tech from 2003-09. McNeil then made Riley his offensive coordinator when he was hired at East Carolina in 2010, and the two spent six years together until 2015.

It was Riley’s first full opportunity as an offensive coordinator.

“Ruffin means so much to me and to my family, and his family means so much to him,” Riley said in a press release from Oklahoma football. “I know his decision to leave OU was a very difficult one, but was one he felt he had to make.

“We go back a long, long way. Hard to believe we’ve been together 15 of the last 17 years. I certainly owe him for helping shape me as a football coach, but I’ll always be more appreciative of the impact he had on shaping me as a person. He’s as genuine as it gets. I’m incredibly grateful for his mentorship and friendship, and for everything he’s done for me and my family. We wish him, his wife Erlene and their family the best of luck as they return home.”

McNeil started his tenure at Oklahoma as the defensive tackles coach in 2017 and the beginning of 2018 before becoming the interim co-defensive coordinator when Mike Stoops was let-go as the defensive coordinator after the first OU-Texas game in 2018. For defensive coordinator Alex Grinch in 2019, McNeil moved to coaching the outside linebackers as well as still holding the title as an assistant head coach.

“The word ‘fantastic’ does not begin to describe my three years at OU working for Lincoln and this administration,” McNeil said in the press release by Oklahoma football. “And I need to include the fans, as well. They’ve been absolutely wonderful. And it’s more than football. It’s family. Lincoln and (his wife) Caitlin and their kids are family to me. All of the football staff and players here are family to me. These three years have been among the best of my life.

“I absolutely loved working for Alex Grinch  and with the other coaches. I absolutely loved all my players here. The championships were great and the playoff appearances were great, but the relationships were greater. That’s what I’ll miss about OU the most. I loved where I worked and I loved the people I worked for. And not one day felt like work. Not a day.”

Riley said in the release that the search to fill McNeil’s vacancy is already underway.

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