130 pounds lighter, Ruffin McNeill feels ‘like a ninja’

By the end of last season, standing on his own two feet caused Ruffin McNeill so much pain he needed a golf cart to get around East Carolina practices. By the start of the Pirates' first preseason practice last Friday, he was showing up to press conferences looking like a modern jazz saxophonist and feeling like a svelte assassin: A slimmed-down McNeill opened his second season as East Carolina football coach with a practice session that he described as a normal first day filled with excitement and a little bit of nerves shown by some. On a personal level, the East Carolina alumnus and former Texas Tech assistant said it was a good day for him. McNeill used a golf cart to maneuver the practice fields last season as he battled with health issues. But he had a pair of offseason surgeries and said he should rarely need a cart this year. "I was like a ninja today. The kids couldn't hear me coming up on them," joked McNeill, referring to the noise his golf cart would ma...