Dave Nichol has spent his career honing his knowledge of Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense.
Sometimes you see it coming, other times the firing comes as a blind side.
East Carolina’s firing of football coach Ruffin McNeill in December 2015 was one of the latter.
“This one was a real surprise,” said Dave Nichol, Washington State’s new outside receivers coach who was formerly the offensive coordinator on McNeill’s ECU staff. “Ruff had won eight games, 10 games and eight games, and this (past season) we went 5-7, but we lost the starting quarterback right before the season when he tore his ACL.