Paul Pasqualoni was named head coach of the Huskies football team in mid-January. A former elementary and high school teacher, he served as an assistant football coach at Cheshire High School in Connecticut, assistant coach and head coach at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, and assistant coach at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, before becoming an assistant coach and then head coach at Syracuse University. He spent the past six years as an assistant coach in the National Football League for the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys. He talked about his return to college football with UConn Magazine editor Kenneth Best.
What were the challenges after being away from the college game for six years?
The first thing was to put a staff in place. We were fortunate to get Don Brown [from Maryland] as defensive coordinator, George DeLeone [a 1970 UConn Football Alum from the Miami Dolphins] as offensive coordinator, and Clayton White [from Western Kentucky] for special teams and to place the coaches who were here into the correct role. We felt the staff that was here had done a very good job. We wanted to give them the opportunity to stay if the fit was right.
Then it was getting to know the kids, sitting down with each of them, and making sure they knew we were moving ahead, not sideways or backwards, and what the approach in philosophy would be from this point. And we had two weeks to finish recruiting. Those were the real challenges.
What did you learn from spring practice?
We’ve got some guys with some ability, but not very much experience in some positions. We’ve got to continue to decide on who the starting quarterback is going to be. We’d like to do that as soon as we can. We’re going to continue the competition for that position. We don’t have a lot of depth at the tailback position. We’re fortunate that we have (senior) D.J. Shoemate, who is an older player but we’re going to have to continue to develop the depth at that position. It was unfortunate we lost Jerome Williams for the early part of the season from the linebacker corps (with a knee injury). We’re going to have to develop all the players at that position. We have more experience in the defensive line and in the corners and safeties, but the issue of the inexperienced player at the linebacker position is something we have to work really hard at. We’ve got a couple of positions in the offensive line that we’ve got to continue develop. We’ve got some experience with (senior tackle) Mike Ryan, (senior center) Moe Petrus, and (junior guard) Adam Masters, but then we’ve got some inexperience issues as well. We have two older wide receivers in Kashif Moore and Isiah Moore. We’ve got some young wide receivers with potential who may be able to contribute. This spring we learned a great deal about what we have. We’re still in the process of figuring out what we’re going to be able to do best.
After a six year absence from the college game, do you feel much is different?
I don’t think it’s any different dealing with players. Players are players. The thing that’s changed the most is the recruiting process on younger kids. There are more juniors and sophomores who are being offered scholarships early before the start of their senior year. All the recruiting services have really taken off in the last six years. The biggest difference now is the number of different platforms available via the internet in recruiting.
NCAA investigations have been in the news a lot this year, including a case involving UConn. Does this place an added pressure on coaches today?
When I was a college coach six years ago, you had all the same issues that you have today. You have to be aware of everything. The biggest problem to me has always been the extra benefit. It’s sometimes hard for the head coach and the coaching staff to be aware of everything. A kid walks into a restaurant and someone buys him dinner. Sometimes that’s hard to monitor. But I think you’ve got to know the pulse of what’s going on. When you’re in a Division I-A program, you’ve got a great fan base and people with passion for the program. There’s always the possibility things can happen. From the head coach and staff standpoint, you’ve got to constantly be aware of what’ going on. You’ve got to do your due diligence.
The academic progress rate (APR) has also been prominent in the news recently. Does that continue to get more difficult to meet?
The NCAA has put in legislation with the APR that makes it more challenging. We want kids graduating at least at the same percentage as the rest of the undergraduate student body, but a little better if possible. That’s been the case here and when I was at Syracuse. We want kids to get their degree in a timely manner. The NCAA has put in legislation that players have to pass a certain amount of credits in the fall to be eligible for bowl games and they’re increasing the legislation on eligibility for the next year so a player can be suspended for games. You’ve got to be right on top of it from an academic standpoint. We’ve got a great academic counseling program here. Bruce Cohen, Ellen Trip, and their staff (in the Counseling Program for Intercollegiate Athletes) do a great job. The coaching staff does a great job with the players that they’ve recruited and in knowing how they’re doing from an academic standpoint. When you sign on to be in I-A football, you sign on for that. You’ve got to work just as hard on the academic side.
Your background is a bit different than most college coaches, since you moved from being an elementary school teacher and a high school teacher before coaching in college. You cited your college coach, Joe Paterno of Penn State, as a major influence on how you run your program. How has all of this shaped your coaching?
Being at Penn State probably shaped two philosophical concepts. One was to get your degree on time; that you can be in I-A football and be a good student. The idea that football takes too
much time is really not accurate. It’s not that you don’t want the kids to have a good time and enjoy themselves, you do. But clearly the commitment’s got to be to your degree and to football if you want to be a good player. Then the college experience can be fit in. The second thing I learned is what it takes in I-A football to win games — how you have to go about practice, go about preparation for your opponent.
I wanted to be a teacher and high school coach. It was a great experience being an education major, going through all of the requirements to become a teacher. Going out doing student teaching was one of the most beneficial semesters I ever had. You learned not to take one thing for granted no matter the level of the student. My approach hasn’t change from the time I was an elementary school teacher to the NFL — be organized, know the material well, and teach in a progression so they can learn. It just worked out that I ended up at college and the NFL. Teachers try to improve every year. We do the same thing in coaching.
Are those the qualities you put as a priority in looking at for a staff, that they are teachers first?
That’s exactly right. They’ve got to be able to teach, motivate players and handle a classroom setting. We do an awful lot at this level of football, and even more in the NFL, in the classroom.
Your ability to get the information clearly to the player before you go out to practice at this level of football is critical. It’s not just run out on the field and do things, because you’re limited in how much time you can spend on the field. As a coach you’re trying to get the information from the classroom to the field with as few mistakes as possible, so you’re looking for the guy who can teach and handle a classroom. It happens their expertise is football.
With George DeLeone and Don Brown, you’ve got two former head coaches on the staff. What advantage does that give you having assistants who know what it’s like to be in your chair?
The first thing is you’ve got coaches who have been through it, know the importance of attention to detail, and know not to take anything for granted. Number two, you’ve got coaches who have had total responsibility for running the program, so when decisions have to be made as a head coach you need people on your staff to bounce information off of to make decisions. The staff can draw upon experiences they’ve had, maybe not the same, but you can get some battle-tested ideas. That part of it is great. They understand how much football is a complimentary game of offense, defense, and special teams. You’ve got coaches who have been through the issues of recruiting and know high school coaches around the country. I think having those people on your staff is pretty important.
When you were named the Huskies coach, there was great support voiced from high school coaches in Connecticut who were your colleagues in the past. Will you feel pressure to keep talent in state?
Every coach wants to keep the best players in their state home. It creates a tremendous atmosphere, excitement, and pride in the state; the best players are playing for the flagship institution. But it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s hard to say every player is going want to stay close to home. We’re going to work hard with the players, parents, and high school coaches to make them aware that these kids are going to be in a great program, exposed to football at the highest possible level, that they are going to be treated like someone’s son, and we are in to this for the holistic development of the total player – the academic side, emotional side, social side, and football side. I think when a parent sends their child to college they are sending you their most prized possession, their top priority in life. We need to send them back a well-developed young man. We want people around the United States to know we work hard at that.
In recent years a lot of effort was put into establishing a football culture in Connecticut, where basketball has been dominant, and last year’s first Bowl Championship Series invitation was a major step in that direction. What will it take to keep moving forward to the next level?
At the end of the day it’s about players, not plays. Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma have done a great job with that and this past year was a great example. The women had the best player in the nation on their team in Maya Moore, and the men with Kemba Walker had the best player in the nation on their team. One of the biggest challenges as a coach that you have, regardless of where you are in college or the NFL, is the evaluation of talent and convincing that talent they should come to your program and why. So it’s recruiting talent. The higher the level of talent, the more exciting the game, the better chance you have to win. Talent has a way of drawing more talent because great players want to be surrounded by other great players.
What will you be able to bring to the college game from your NFL experience?
You bring more experience in regards to concepts of offense and concepts of defense; what you’re doing on the goal line, in the last two minutes, on first and second down, third down. It’s football at the highest level. If you spend six years doing it every single day, you’re going to learn some things. You can bring and add some of those concepts to this level of football, for sure. Then just more experience in the overall organization of the daily, weekly, and yearly schedule, some ideas of having seen things done a little bit differently, some of which you can use. You gain a tremendous appreciation of how hard it is to win a game at that level. People talk about the importance of details, how the margin to win in I-A football is so small. When you’re in the NFL playing against Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, you have an appreciation for how exact and detailed you really have to be. Hopefully some of that will carry over.
What would be people be surprised to know about being a head football coach?
That you’re busier in the off-season than people think you are. The general perception is that when the season ends, life slows down. It really doesn’t. It’s hard for a head coach and staff to go on vacation when you have 18 to 22 year-olds on campus when the philosophy is they’re your kids and you’re responsible for what they do. You go back to the NCAA regulations; the summer is a vulnerable time, in my opinion. People would be shocked how much there is to this business of I-A football from mid-January to Aug. 1
What should people know that they don’t about being a head football coach?
In football you have 85 scholarships and it’s hard to know what 85 guys are doing 24-7-365. It’s hard to keep track of them, but that’s the job. At the end of the day, the buck is going to stop with the head coach.
