Here is my analysis of the Pirates under McNeill's tenure as head football coach. What I found was that the team was on an upward trend during the first five years as head coach, and then had one poor season and was let go. While I cannot answer why former head coach McNeill was let go, I can confirm that East Carolina is currently "atrocious".Can someone explain to me why East Carolina fired Ruffin McNeil? Always been a fine program, but they look atrocious— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) September 11, 2017
In the following season (2016), East Carolina was 3-9 and in terms of the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model the Pirates were ranked #113 out of 128 at the end of the season, with the #114 ranked offense and #100 ranked defense.
And things have gotten worse at the beginning of the 2017 season. East Carolina after both the second and third full weeks of the season ranked as the worst team in all of the FBS. Next week is not encouraging as they will face South Florida, which is currently a top 25 team in terms of total production.