Skip Holtz won 2 straight conference titles and was 19-5 in conference over his last three seasons at ECU.
Ruffin's last two seasons were 4th and 5th in conference with a .500 record.
What does Skip Holtz leaving ECU for a better job have to do with Ruffin getting fired? Ruffin had a higher winning percentage than Holtz and Steve Logan, but even if he didn't those coaches are completely immaterial to the point.
It has lots to do with the condition of the program. McNeil inherited 2 straight conference championships, promptly had two losing seasons, then one good season, sandwiched between two decent seasons. Holtz had a .700 conference winning percentage, McNeil had a .625 conference winning percentage. The last two seasons, ECU finished 4th and 5th in conference.
I also forgot McNeil has 6 seasons, and not 5, half his season's ECU had a losing record.
FTR, I thought he should have gotten another year. But again, downward trajectory and a major problem closing out seasons strong were his demise. ECU lost 11 out of McNeil's last 18 games there.
The thing is we don't disagree, not even a little bit. The thing with black football coaches is that you can always say that, "they should have had one more year." Even unquestionably terrible tenures like Turner Gill doesn't hold up to scrutiny seeing that Terry Allen, Charlie Weis, and David Beaty all got more time. Like it or not college football's history on a lack of patience with black football coaches is pretty damn obvious and Ruffin is just another example. There has never been a black football coach allowed to be Paul Rhodes or David Cutcliffe, that's a fact, Jack.
I guess I kinda agree, however I refuse to even acknowledge Paul Rhodes, because it is Iowa State, after all.
David Cutcliffe? LOL, he was crap canned with extreme prejudice after his only losing season at Ole Miss, he was 4-1 in bowl games. He was canned just one season removed from tying for first in the SEC West and winning the Cotton Bowl. He walked into a complete crap show at Duke and ultimately took them to 4 straight bowl games (Ed Orgeron was fired after 3 years). Ruffin McNeil did not walk into a crap show at ECU. Cutcliffe stands a good chance of being fired after this year, but the simple fact is and will always be, Duke is not a football school. ECU is a football school.
You certainly don't fire Turner Gill for Charlie Weiss, but both of their tenures are marked by some of the worst football I've seen in P5 football in the new era (I consider the new era to be the period around the mid 90's when schools started dumping millions into facilities and coaching salaries started ratcheting up dramatically). KU was awful under both guys, and both were fired after 3 seasons.
Tyrone Willingham. 76-88-1 overall record. He went 0-12 his last season at Udub. Nobody makes it past year 4 at a school that gives two shits about football by going 0-12, and 11-37 record overall. He finished losing 13 straight games at Udub. Here's Willingham's last 6 seasons:
5-7
6-5
2-9
5-7
4-9
0-12