CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Ruffin McNeill has a picture of a boat in his new Virginia office, high atop a bookshelf. If you squint really hard, you can see him standing inside the cockpit.

This is the boat that saved him.

When he bought it several years ago, McNeill had no idea the boat would help change his life. Rather, he offered to take the 37-foot chinook as a favor to his longtime mentor Donnie Duncan, who at the time was battling cancer.

McNeill had never driven a boat before. He had only ridden on one maybe three times. But something compelled him to help the man he admired more than anyone in the profession.

Ruffin McNeill keeps this photo of him on his boat on a bookshelf in his office. Andrea Adelson/ESPN.com

As he drove away that night, he called his wife, Erlene.

"Hey, how you doing?" he said.

Noting something off in his voice, she said immediately replied, "What?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"What?"

"We bought a boat."

"We did what?"

It is only now that McNeill understands the true meaning behind his purchase. After he was fired as head coach at East Carolina last December, he turned to the boat to find inner peace, riding long hours staring at the water, allowing everything else to fall away.

The boat is called "Time Out."

"God winks in my life every now and then," McNeill said. "With all the stress of the job last year, the boat saved me. I went from Coach Ruff, the head coach, to just Ruff. On the water, nobody knows who you are or cares who you are. Everybody waves. The boat was magnificent that way. Donnie told me that it would be."

McNeill still gets emotional about the way his tenure ended at East Carolina after six seasons and four bowl appearances. After going 5-7 in 2015 with a third-string quarterback, athletic director Jeff Compher called McNeill in for a meeting.

It lasted only a few minutes. Compher told McNeill he wanted to take the program in a different direction. McNeill said fine, but felt blindsided. He went to his office and called Erlene, but before he had a chance to tell his two daughters, assistants and players, East Carolina had issued a statement.

It still bothers him that he didn't get an opportunity to deliver the news himself.

"I thought at least my staff and I deserved a little more courtesy, dignity," said McNeill, who also played at East Carolina. "Don't let my coaches read about it on Twitter. We've given our souls to [ECU].

"I don't want to hear, 'This is the world we live in.' You're talking to the wrong guy. I understand social media, but there's a way you do things. If I had done things some other people have done in this business, immoral things people have done. ... If we had not treated everybody with respect ... but with the respect that I've always shown everyone, that's the only disappointing thing."

Phone calls and text messages started pouring in, offering words of encouragement and support. Like many other coaches, Bronco Mendenhall saw the news and shook his head in disbelief. How could East Carolina fire McNeill?

Mendenhall and McNeill first met face to face at the 50-yard line last season, before East Carolina played BYU. But their friendship started years earlier, when Mendenhall allowed his BYU staff to teach East Carolina assistants the Cougars' 3-4 defense.

Nick Howell traveled to North Carolina as part of the coaches' exchange. When it came time to leave, McNeill handed him a check to cover his expenses during his time with the Pirates. He looked at it and realized it came from McNeill's personal checking account.

"That's the kind of guy he is," Howell said. "He wanted his program to get better."

Mendenhall had that in the back of his mind when the teams played last year. One of his players got hurt on the East Carolina sideline. Before he could get over there, he saw McNeill consoling the player, telling him, "We are going to take great care of you. I'm right here with you."

"I thought, 'That is an amazing thing I just witnessed,'" Mendenhall said. "These stories just built this resume of he is the exact kind of person that I want to have coaching kids on our team. I want to be with people I like. I want to be with people that I admire. Being a head coach is lonely, so here is another person who can be a confidant, that I can talk with, who is seasoned, that I respect. I felt like, what a great asset that could be."

The same day McNeill was fired, Mendenhall offered him an assistant-coaching job on his new Virginia staff. Completely overwhelmed, McNeill said he had to think about it.

That weekend, McNeill had plans to attend the National Football Foundation Awards dinner in New York -- where Duncan would receive the Legacy Award.

When he arrived at the dinner, coaches from Dabo Swinney to Bob Stoops approached him.

"They all came up and gave gratitude like I'd done something," McNeill said. "I'm the simplest man you'll ever meet. But I felt appreciated, respected, thankful and humbled. That's therapy in itself."

A week later, McNeill accepted Mendenhall's offer. Then he retreated to Time Out for nearly a month.

This spring, McNeill is rejuvenated, enjoying a more hands-on role coaching the defensive line after years as a CEO. The way he cares for his players is apparent, though he is only beginning to get to know them.

Ruffin McNeill is working with the defensive line in his new position at Virginia. Andrea Adelson/ESPN

"Every day it's family first," defensive tackle Donte Wilkins said. "He asks, 'How's mom, how's dad? Sister OK? Anything you need to tell me? How's class going?'"

He gets deeply involved in drills during practice, coaxing without berating. And he tries his best to lighten the mood with Mendenhall when he can. After a recent practice, McNeill held court for a good 10 minutes, telling a story that had Mendenhall doubled over with laughter.

Does McNeill want to be a head coach again? He won't rule anything out. But he truly believes he is meant to be at Virginia now, with this staff, on a journey he never envisioned for himself.

McNeill pulls out his cell phone and searches for a text message, dated Friday, Nov. 13 at 11:05 a.m. It is from his youngest daughter, Olivia.

In the message, she explains to her father that she has a feeling their time at East Carolina might be coming to an end. She writes, "Even warriors need times of peace" and closes with:

"If we leave, we will leave with our heads high, our eyes upturned to the kingdom and our hearts filled with gratitude for what God has done for us here. It's time for our next blessing."

Olivia McNeill had no way of knowing that three weeks later, her father would lose his job. McNeill tears up reading the message again. Another wink, he says. Just like Time Out.