When I made my list of fattest coaches, I didn’t include East Carolina head coach Ruffin McNeill. I wondered if I overlooked him (insert pun here), but it looks like he hadn’t been hired yet. McNeill was one of the leading candidates to replace Mike Leach at Texas Tech, but instead of going with one of the fattest coaches, they went with one of the skinniest (seriously, does Tommy Tuberville eat?). But his alma mater hired him. An extremely good hire.

Anyhow, his tenure as one of the most overweight coaches in football didn’t last long, and not because he was fired…

He had gastric bypass surgery that went a lot better than Charlie Weiss’. To his credit, he was already looking better before the surgery.

East Carolina is one of those unappreciated schools. They’re angling for an invitation to the Big East, where they would probably do well. They pull in over 50,000 a game, which is hard to do in a conference like Conference USA (it helps that they schedule – and beat – the likes of West Virginia and Virginia Tech). Unfortunately, because of their poor market position and over-saturation in their state, an invitation is likely not forthcoming any time soon.