Worth Gregory’s Ruffin McNeill story is similar to many other ones, and it is that similarity which perhaps best illustrates the former East Carolina football coach’s relationship with his players.
In the hours after ECU announced it had fired McNeill on Friday following a 5-7 finish to his sixth year leading the Pirates, Gregory, the team’s junior punter, summed up his time with McNeill.
“There is no other coach in the world that hugs their punter after a good punt or tells their players they love them as much as Ruff,” said Gregory, who like so many other success stories under McNeill joined the team as a walk-on and flourished in the coach’s family-first environment.