VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT

VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT

When Jim Tressel’s Ohio State Buckeyes battle Louisiana State University for the national football championship on Jan. 7, Mark “Bo” Pelini will be making his final appearance as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator.

After that, Pelini will devote his full football coaching attention to the University of Nebraska, where he was named head coach a few weeks ago.

By hiring the 1986 Mooney High School graduate, Nebraska makes five the number of Division I universities with football coaches who hail from the Mahoning Valley.

Their colleges list like Fortune 500 companies.

Joining Tressel and Pelini are brothers Bob and Mike Stoops coaching at Oklahoma and Arizona, respectively.

And, an ascension of sorts was made this year by Mark Mangino, head coach of the University of Kansas Jayhawks, which climbed to the top of the nation this season — his sixth with the team.

Three of the coaches — Tressel, Bob Stoops and Mangino — will have teams in the top bowl games next month.

The run might not stop at five coaches, as three more Valley natives hold top assistant jobs in various places.

VALLEY TRADITION

It’s not uncommon for successful coaches to trace their careers back to a single place or person. One of the more noted threads is the late Bill Walsh, whose San Francisco 49ers were top teams in the 1980s and ’90s and which also yielded top coaches who succeed today.

For the Valley’s success, two names surface as the root for others: Don Bucci of Mooney High School and Tressel.

“It makes me feel so good that some of the things we taught rubbed off on some of these guys over the years,” said Bucci, seeing his former players ascend. Bucci retired from coaching eight seasons ago.

“We ran a real tough, strict program, and sometimes I kind of think players were glad to get the hell out of there.”

The Stoops brothers and Pelini come from the Mooney tradition of Bucci, whose staff included father Ron Stoops, a defensive guru of sorts.

“All of the Stoops brothers are intense,” said Paul Gregory, Mooney’s alumni director.

“They are industrious and committed to football because of their dad Ron’s heritage. Ron made a life out of football. He gave them an intense education of the game, and all have learned to incorporate that work ethic into their respective programs,” Gregory said.

TRESSEL’S SUCCESS

Tressel, 55, is regarded as the dean of the bunch, as well as a mentor. He has his team in its third BCS Championship Series title contest in six seasons.

The Buckeyes will take the field at the Louisiana Superdome hoping to avenge last year’s 41-14 loss to Florida in the BCS Championship Game.

Tressel, the son of a college coach who grew up in Mentor, Massillon and Berea, spent three years coaching on Earle Bruce’s staff at Ohio State before taking over for Bill Narduzzi at Youngstown State University in 1986.

In his 15 years at YSU, Tressel guided the Division I-AA Penguins to four national titles. Two other times, YSU played in the I-AA title game.

On Tressel’s first staff was a graduate assistant coach from New Castle, Pa., named Mark Mangino.

OTHER CONNECTIONS

The paths of Mangino, 51, and Bob Stoops, 47, mixed as well.

After graduating from YSU in 1987, Mangino cut his teeth coaching high school football at New Castle High and Ellwood City, Pa. In the late ’80s, he returned to the collegiate ranks at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, then was hired at Kansas State in 1991.

One of Kansas State’s defensive coaches was Bob Stoops.

Stoops played at Iowa and began his coaching career with the Hawkeyes. After a season at Kent State, he was hired in 1989 by Kansas State to coach the defensive backs.

In 1996, Stoops joined Steve Spurrier’s staff at the University of Florida as defensive coordinator. The Gators were national champions in 1996, which led to Stoops’ taking over at Oklahoma in 1998.

One of Stoops’ first hires was Mangino as offensive coordinator.

The Sooners went 13-0 in 2000 to be crowned national champions. That helped lead to Mangino’s being hired as the University of Kansas head coach in 2002.

Also on the Sooners’ staff was Stoops’ brother, Mike, the defensive coordinator. In 2004, that Stoops, 46, took over as head coach of the University of Arizona.

MANGINO’S RECORD

This fall, the Jayhawks enjoyed their most successful season under Mangino, winning their first 11 games.

But a Nov. 24 loss to Missouri knocked them out of BCS title contention.

All of it was almost not to be for Mangino — as recalled by Bob Hannon, a New Castle native who is the sports director at WYTV Channel 33.

“He went 0-10 as the head coach at Ellwood City and was run out of town. 

“He had a wife and family, had a comfortable job on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and entertained thoughts of getting completely out of coaching,” Hannon said. “I’d see him at the local YMCA and while he was making a good living, he was miserable.

“Kansas State and their head coach at the time, Bill Snyder, gave him a chance for $1,200 a month. What an investment they made,” Hannon said.

SIMILARITIES

It was Stoops’ Sooners who gave Tressel a chance at the BCS title by defeating Missouri in the Big 12 Championship game.

That victory sent the Sooners to the Fiesta Bowl, where they will play West Virginia.

One night later, Mangino’s Jayhawks will play Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

And Pelini, 40, will be right there coaching in the biggest college game of the season before moving on to the biggest job of his career.

“Bo was an assistant in 1991 at Mooney, and he came on the staff for one year,” Bucci said. “The following year, he was with the 49ers. I don’t think that’s ever happened to a high school coach in America — going from an assistant at the high school level to the 49ers.”

Devlin Culliver, Pelini’s Mooney teammate who is now the head coach at Painesville Harvey High, said, “Bo’s success is really a combination of two things. 

“First, as a football player who played quarterback, he was always in charge. He was a natural leader,” Culliver said. “Secondly, when things went wrong, he never wavered.”

Bucci said his disciples share strategies.

“[Pelini] and Bobby and Mike all confer on defensive schemes, and they’re all very similar in what they’re doing,” Bucci said. “Bo was very instrumental in getting strong safeties up on the line, almost as linebackers. He was doing that way before anyone else. He was really ahead of the game defensively.”

OTHERS ON TRACK

It’s quite possible the Valley’s college head coaches could someday have company.

A third Stoops brother — Mark — is the defensive coordinator at Arizona.

Ursuline graduate Pat Narduzzi, son of the former YSU head coach, is the defensive coordinator at Michigan State.

And in the National Football League, Austintown native Mike Trgovac is completing his sixth season as the Carolina Panthers’ defensive coordinator.

Trgovac, a Fitch High graduate who attended the University of Michigan, has been coaching in the NFL since 1995 but has experience with Michigan, Ball State, Colorado State and Notre Dame.

“What sets [Trgovac] apart today from the rest of the pack is the same thing that set him apart back then: a fierce, competitive desire,” said Phil Resch, the Fitch wrestling coach when Trgovac won a state championship.