East Carolina Pirates

Former Duke assistant Montgomery introduced as ECU's new head coach

Published Dec. 14, 2015 4:17 p.m. ET

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On Monday former Duke offensive coordinator and associate head coach, Scottie Montgomery, was introduced as the new head coach at East Carolina.

The 37-year old Montgomery played wide receiver for the Blue Devils from 1996-99 and did two tours of duty as a member of Duke’s coaching staff.

From 2006-09, Montgomery served as the school’s wide receivers coach before taking the same position on Mike Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers staff from 2010-2012. In 2013, Montgomery returned to Durham where he would eventually become the associate head coach and offensive coordinator.

On Monday, he became the 21st coach in East Carolina’s history.

“I am going to start by saying ‘Wow’ because this here is a wow factor. Pirate Nation is the real deal. I could not be happier than to be in Greenville, North Carolina this morning,” Montgomery said.

The Pirates latest head coach was thankful for the guidance he received from mentors such as Duke’s David Cutcliffe and Tomlin.

“I owe a lot to David Cutcliffe at Duke University because he believed in me as a young coach. When I was 27 or 28 years old, he said to me ‘You are going to be a head coach,’” Montgomery said. “I was more worried about him yelling at me during practice but he began to mentor me and put me in a situation to where I could be tutored by the greatest coacher of coaches I have met.

“Mike Tomlin could relay and articulate an idea to our players like no one else. He gave me the confidence to tell my players not what they want to hear, but to help them become the best players and men they can be.”

Montgomery takes the place of ECU’s sixth-year head Ruffin McNeill, who was fired on Dec. 4 after finishing the season with a 5-7 record. McNeill, a former Pirate football player, compiled a 42-34 record during his time at East Carolina.

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