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By Mike Giardi
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Published: Aug. 30, 2019 at 09:22 a.m.
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Updated: Aug. 30, 2019 at 10:29 a.m.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Damien Woody had no idea what he was in
for. The Boston College standout was considered a lock to be a first-round pick
and -- in his own words -- "was reading his press clippings." So when
he made the 45-minute drive from Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, down to
Foxborough to meet with the New
England Patriots, Woody figured he'd have to answer some
questions, maybe spend some time in front of the white board, but generally be
stress-free. That was initially reinforced when he met Pats offensive line
coach Dante Scarnecchia. They exchanged pleasantries. "He couldn't be
friendlier," recalled Woody.
Then Scarnecchia had Woody sit
down, put a tape into the VCR (they still used those back then) and "it
was literally my worst game in college," laughed Woody, recalling his
performance against Syracuse. "He went play by play and I sat with him for
hours and it seemed like every play took 15 minutes. I literally felt like
melting in the chair."
Woody left the meeting convinced
there was no way he was going to be a Patriot. But a month or so later, in the
1999 NFL Draft, the
Pats called out Woody's name, making him the 17th overall selection.
"When we had our very first
conversation after that and he (Scarnecchia) said, 'How did that visit of ours
go?' He just wanted to see how I would react. I guess it was better than I
thought. We both laughed."
Scarnecchia has been coaching in the NFL since 1982, and other
than a brief stint in Indianapolis, he's been a fixture on the Patriots'
sideline, lasting through six different head coaches, from Ron Meyer to Raymond
Berry, Dick MacPherson, Bill Parcells, Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick. Safe to
say those bosses all had different styles and approaches to the game, but
Scarnecchia has been a trusted member of each and every one of those coaching
staffs.
"I think he's a great
coach," Belichick said some 20 years ago when he took over the Patriots job,
famously adding: "I would trust him with my career. In fact, I am trusting
him with my career."
That trust was so great that
Belichick was able to lure Scarnecchia out of a brief two-season retirement
earlier this decade, bringing the coach back following the 2015 campaign.
That Patriots season
had ended with Tom Brady taking
a vicious beating during the AFC Championship Game in Denver, a 20-18
New England loss. Belichick believed if anyone could rectify
that, it was Scarnecchia, who swears he wasn't looking to get back in the game,
dismissing the notion that retirement was boring.
"It wasn't," he smiled.
"I was doing good."
I reminded him that, when he left
at the end of the 2013 season, he said it was time to hang out with the
grandkids.
"I did," he assured me.
"And I'm going to do that again."
But there is no timetable on the
now-71-year-old's coaching career.
"I like what I'm
doing," he said. "I like all aspects of it. I like the meetings. I
like the practices. I like the games. I think if it's something you really
enjoy doing, the energy, the passion, comes out that way. I really do. I think
those are the things that are really important. You've got to let 'em know how
you feel about everything."
He does. Don't just take it from
me. The players, past and present, will tell you.
"He's honest to a
fault," 2007 Pro Bowl center
Dan Koppen told me. "He's going to tell you exactly where you are, what
you're not doing well, what you are, what's your standing on the team. I think
most players appreciate that. There's no messing around. You know where you
stand."
"He just wants me to
give him as much effort as he's giving me," said Stephen Neal, a starting
guard on New England's 2004 title team. "If you don't match that, you'll
feel his frustration because he's doing everything he can to make sure you're
prepared for what's happening out there."
In his younger years, Scarnecchia
ruined many training camp B-rolls with his sharp and sometimes profane tongue.
But it never came from a bad place.
"Offensive line coaches are
all unique and stuff," said left guard Joe
Thuney, entering his fourth NFL season. "You just gotta hear the
message of what he's trying to say. He cares so much about the game and his
players. You gotta have that in your head (when you're getting yelled
at)."
"Sometimes it's tough
love," said fifth-year right guard Shaq
Mason, "but you can tell it's just because he wants the best for
you and from you. He knows what the hell he's talking about. Listen and
learn."
Sebastian Vollmer was a surprise
second-round draft pick back in 2009. Not that draft guides are the be-all,
end-all, but most figured Vollmer was a sixth- or seventh-rounder. The Patriots didn't
see it that way, although there certainly were growing pains.
"I remember, as a rookie, I
was trying to emulate Matt Light," Vollmer recalled. "[Scarnecchia]
was like, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I watched [Light]. I'm just trying to
do it that way.' He said, 'No. You need to find your own style.' "
Koppen recalls a lowlight -- but
teachable moment -- for him a couple of seasons into his 11-year career during
an in-stadium training camp practice for season-ticket holders.
"Apparently I wasn't giving
him the effort he was expecting. Boy, did I learn that pretty quickly that
there's no days off. I got an ass-chewing. It wasn't in private. It was in
front of all my teammates, all my linemen. He'd do it to me, to Matt Light, to
Shaq. There are no sacred cows. And he would say he's not one, either."
That may be one of the reasons
Scarnecchia will join the linemen as they condition during practice, or have to
run a penalty lap for a mistake or even hop on the team's training hill
post-practice for sprints. That, and the fact that the former Marine is in
ridiculous shape, known for doing crunches in the back of a meeting when
the Patriots' defense
is being discussed.
"When you see that," said Mason of Scarnecchia running
hills, "you have no choice but to fall in line and keep pushing."
Neal is probably Scarnecchia's greatest success story, a four-time
All-American wrestler at Cal State Bakersfield who hadn't played a snap of
college football. He had to be built from the ground up -- and, in Neal's mind,
Scarnecchia was the only one capable of such a task.
"Absolutely," Neal told me. "If I had come in under
these new rules (limiting contact and eliminating two-a-days), there's no way
he would have been able to teach me how to play. I needed to learn everything.
I mean everything. Wrestling is one-on-one. You don't have to worry
about the big picture. It's one-on-one and I'm trying to dominate you. Football
is 11-on-11. I had to see the game the same way everyone else was. But he
(Scarnecchia) was great at it, always putting us in good position. He had us
prepared out there. He had me prepared."
"Think about that," marveled Woody, who won two Super Bowls
in New England. "You don't play football in college and you go on to do
pretty well in the NFL. That's remarkable. You have to give a lot of credit to
Stephen Neal, obviously, but a lot of it has to do with coaching."
The German-born Vollmer was also
raw, not playing football until he was a 14-year-old. He was later recruited to
play tight end collegiately, signing on with the University of Houston. He
eventually moved to left tackle and started 25 straight games for the Cougars,
but even that didn't earn him an invite to the NFL Scouting
Combine. Still, the 6-foot-8, 320-pounder emerged quickly in New
England.
"I needed to learn how to
play the game and he was the greatest person I could ask for," said
Vollmer, who spent his entire eight-year career in New England. "He would
push you really, really hard, but I went from the eighth or ninth tackle on the
depth chart to ending up starting and, I think a year after that, I was an
All-Pro (second-team in 2010). No doubt, it was his coaching for sure."
Scarnecchia will resort to a
number of methods, including putting in what Koppen refers to as the
"fuzzy film," showing his group tape from an earlier era, be it of
the player in his younger days or of one of the game's greats. "Shoot, you
had to pay attention," Koppen said. "There was always a point to what
he'd put up there for us."
But what he's really known for is
drilling his players with the same teaching points. "Over and over and
over again," Koppen stressed.
"He leaves no stone
unturned," Mason noted. "Scar goes over everything multiple
times."
Why?
"Sometimes guys that have
seemingly done this over and over and over again for a long time can get into
funks and they start stepping the wrong way, don't quite do things the right
way," Scarnecchia said to me. "I notice this about a lot of them.
They have a tendency to improve and a tendency to flatten out and you gotta get
off that plateau and get them to a higher level. I think that's what it's all
about."
Fans of the Patriots long
ago adopted an "In Scar We Trust" motto. That theory will be tested
again, with a new left tackle (Isaiah Wynn) and the very real possibility that
center and two-time captain David
Andrews will miss a good portion -- if not all -- of the season
due to a blood clot in his lungs. Should
followers of the team be worried?
"I don't think there is a
better offensive line coach," said Vollmer when I asked. "I don't
think there's a coach that will get more out of a group. There is no doubt in
my mind. He can make it work. He will make it work."
