Recruiting is, obviously, the birth canal of every college football career, but it's also the process by which a player leaves college ball for the NFL. At East Carolina, a school that isn't a Florida State, Alabama, Ohio State-level automatic stop on the Pro Day tour, player personnel director Brian Overton reaches out to his network of NFL scouts, inviting them to practice in the fall and then back for Pro Day in the spring. And it worked. Overton was happy to note that all 32 NFL teams had a representative in Greenville for the Pirates' Pro Day.
"If you want to win a Super Bowl," notes head coach Ruffin McNeill, "put a Pirate on your team." The last four Super Bowl champions had at least one former East Carolina player on their respective rosters.