East Carolina Hires McNeill as Head Football Coach. Sportsbook has seen East Carolina be a pretty successful team the past few years under Skip Holtz. Whether that will continue with new head coach Ruffin McNeill is the question for those that wager at the online sportsbook to answer. McNeill was named East Carolina’s head football coach on Friday.
Sportsbook had Carolina going 9-5 this past season straight up and 7-6 against the online sportsbook odds. McNeill comes over from Texas Tech where he was the interim coach after Mike Leach was fired. McNeill was thrilled to be back at his alma mater, Carolina. “This is my destination job,” McNeill said, “Let’s get that out front right now. This is not a stepping-stone hop for Ruff. This is where I want to be until you tow me away from here. You’ll have to drag me away.”
East Carolina lost head football coach Skip Holtz who took the head job at South Florida. Carolina had been very successful under Holtz vs. sportsbook lines so it will be up to McNeill to make sure the team doesn’t regress. McNeill was an assistant at Texas Tech for the past 10 college football sportsbook seasons. He was the defensive coordinator for Tech but he really didn’t get much sportsbook attention until Leach was fired.
Online sportsbook stats indicated that East Carolina has gone to four straight bowl games and has won two straight Conference USA titles. Their success vs. the sportsbook college football odds under Holtz is going to be hard for McNeill to duplicate. It also doesn’t help that he was not the school’s first choice. Athletic director Terry Holland wanted Middle Tennessee’s Rick Stockstill but couldn’t get him.
The online sportsbook question for East Carolina is going to be their offense. Skip Holtz had East Carolina as a team that could score and impact sportsbook results. McNeill really doesn’t have much of a resume that points to him being a head coach. Texas Tech really never had a good defense while he was there as sportsbook statistics showed and he doesn’t have experience on the offensive side of the ball. It may be a reach for East Carolina to hire someone like McNeill but McNeill is sure happy. “This is a dream come true for an East Carolina boy,” McNeill said. “This is my alma mater. This was an easy sell.”