About Coaches Corner Guests

Philip Haywood is the winningest coach in Kentucky history, with a career record of 403-129 over 41 seasons. His teams have won five state championships and finished as the state runner-up six other times. Coach Haywood recently published the book Faith, Family and Football. 

Frank Lenti, Head Football Coach at Mt. Carmel H.S. in Illinois. Coach Lenti, the winningest coach in Illinois HS football history, talks about his philosphy and the Split Back Veer offense that he has run over over 3 decades.

Steve Weber, Head Football Coach at Bedford North Lawrence (IN) has developed a reputation for turning around High School programs. Coach Weber credits the evolution of his Offense - from the Wing T, to the Flexbone, to the Spread and finally to the Triple Gun. 

Ralph Isernia enters his third year as the Head Football Coach at RPI College (Division III - Liberty League). Isernia was most recently the Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator at Ferrum College. His previous experience includes six years at the University of Charleston, where he was assistant head coach, the offensive coordinator and interim head coach. 

John Bland enters his second season the Head Football Coach at Mississippi College.  Coach Bland previously appeared on Coaches Corner Volume 32  when he talked about Option Football. Bland became the Head Football Coach at Mississippi College after an eight-year career at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky, where he had a record of 70-21 with five Mid-South Conference championships ('07, '08, '09, '10, '13).

Coach Bill Mountjoy is a Virginia football coaching legend. In his 33 years as a High School football coach in Virginia – most of it as Head Football Coach. ...more

Marcus Mayo is currently an Assistant Coach at (NCAA Division II) South Dakota School of Mines, Rapid City, SD.  Mayo has held a number of positions on the Offensive side of the ball, including five as a HS assistant coach  - two in Illinios as an Offensive Coordinator & Quarterbacks Coach and three in Montana as a Wide Receiver and Quarterbacks Coach. 

Chris Fore is a veteran Athletic Director and Head Football Coach from Southern California who specializes in the hiring process among the highly competitive athletic world. His consulting business, EightLaces, has been instrumental in helping coaches navigate the employment process. He counts former NFL players, collegiate coaches at all levels, and high school coaches from all sports as his clients, including one client that just landed a NCAA Division 2 Head Football Coaching position.

Shaun Weaver  enters his eighth season as a member of the Gettysburg coaching staff and his seventh as the Defensive Coordinator in 2013. Weaver also coaches the linebackers. In 2012 Gettysburg finished among the conference leaders in numerous defensive categories, including pass defense (second, 182.5 ypg), scoring defense (third, 19.9 ppg), and total defense (third, 316.5 ypg) en route to a 7-3 season - the team's best record since 1994. Under Weaver, the 2012 Bullet Defense held four opponents to seven points or less and posted its first shutout in eight years. ...more

Mike Popovich  - is the Head Football Coach at Mt Zion H.S. in Decatur IL. Formerly the Offensive Coordinator at the US Army Sprint Football team, Popovich brought the Franklin system to Army three years ago.  Popovich arrived at West Point after serving as an assistant coach for six years as the Head Coach at Bunker Hill High School in Illinois for two years. As head coach, Popovich led the Bunker Hill Minutemen to their first winning season and first playoff appearance in program history.  Popovich left Bunker Hill as the winningest coach in program history. In his first season as Army's offensive coordinator the Black Knights averaged a CSFL-best 430 yards per game and 37.3 points per game and routinely produced 400+ yards of Offense per game.

Bud Boughton  is an Assistant Football Coach at Franklin College in Indiana, and was this year's featured luncheon speaker at the USA Football Coaching School held at the Indianapolis Colts Complex. Coach Boughton is a former college football player, coach and educator, sales professional, former senior executive, and author. Bud began his professional life as a college football coach and educator, obtaining his Master's degree while coaching college football at Ball State University in Muncie, IN With his roots in education and coaching, he moved from the coaching profession into the business world where he worked for several Fortune 500 companies early in his business career (Proctor & Gamble, Xerox and IBM). Bud held several senior level management positions and was an officer of a publicly traded software company from 1996 to 2001.   ...more

Mark West  - an active Lt. Colonel in the Army and Franklin's first High School QB enters his fourth season as the head coach of Army sprint football. West coached the Black Knights in 2008 and 2009 before serving a one-year tour of duty in Iraq. He returned to the Academy prior to the 2011 season. West guided the Black Knights to a 6-1 record in his second season, the best mark since 2000, before departing prior to the 2010 CSFL championship season.0. The 6-1 season ended Army's five-year drought of losing seasons.

Dave Cisar is the Founder and President of the Screaming Eagles Youth Football Organization, a program started in 1998 that has served 400 children ages 6-14 with programs in academic accountability, character development, youth football and other youth sports.  Dave now heads up the Eagle program in the Lincoln, Nebraska. Dave's teams have success both on an off the field, and he has been a frequent clinic speaker nationwide for Nike, Glazier Mega Clinics, Clinic of Champions. Cisar now conducts his own “Winning Youth Football” clinics.

Paul Markowski is currently the Running Backs coach at the United States Military Academy "Sprint" (aka lightweight) football program .  Previously, he served as an Assistant Coach at a number of NCAA Division II Colleges, including Mansfield University in Mansfield, PA and Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Markowksi also served as an assistant coach with the Charles County Lions, a semi-professional team in Waldorf, Maryland. ...more

Tony Demeo is an offensive innovator and the creator of the Triple Gun Offense.  He has published numerous books and DVDs and is a popular speaker on the clinic circuit. In his 25 years of experience as a head college football coach, Demeo built a reputation for turning around college programs, and had an overall record of 137-108 -4.  ...more

Darrel "Mouse" Davis , now retired, is best known as the “Father of the Run-and-Shoot Offense”. Davis was most recently Offensive Coordinator at the University of Hawaii in 2010, his second stint at UH.  Previously,  from 2004-06, Davis was a member of former coach June Jones’ staff and is credited with the 2006 Team leading the nation in passing offense (441.3), total offense (559.2), scoring offense (46.9)and pass efficiency (185.95).  Davis left Hawai‘i to join Jerry Glanville’s staff at Portland State in 2007. ...more

Mike DiMatteo is the Head Football Coach at Buffalo Grove HS in Illinois. Coach Mike DiMatteo previously was Head Coach at Hinsdale Central, Hinsdale, MI and Lake Zurich H.S., Lake Zurich, IL.  DiMatteo recently released a pair of videos available at Coaches Choice and has written articles for, and later served as Managing Editor of Option Central during his days at Lake Zurich and Hinsdale, including one entitled Formulating Formations  

Gino Arcaro is the Owner of X Fitness, Welland, Ontario and head coach of two football teams: Niagara X-Men (Canada’s only club collegiate-level football team that plays in the USA) and the Burlington Seminoles, a semi-pro football team is our guest on this edition of Coaches Corner.

Brett Taveau is the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach at Centennial High School in Franklin, TN. Taveua recently completed his 8th year coaching football. Prior to Centennial, Coach Taveau coached at Liberty High School near Kansas City MO.  

Justin Dottavio is the Head Football Coach at Cornerstone Charter Academy in Belle Isle, FL

Steve Gschwender is the Head Coach and Strength and Conditioning Coach at Louisiana High School in Louisiana, Missouri, and a member of a coaching family that is well known among followers of Missouri High school football.

Dr. Chris Stankovich is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor ...more

Ray Perkins is a former NFL player and coach, and currently the head football coach for Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi. Perkins played as a wide receiver for the University of Alabama and Baltimore Colts and coached 28 years, including stints as the head coach for the New York Giants, the University of Alabama, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Arkansas State University.

Mike Pope is currently an Assistant Coach at Wingate University, Camp Director of the Hawgtuff.net Football Camps, and author of the book Do They Play Football in Heaven? . ...more

Andrew Coverdale  is currently the Offensive Coordinator at Trinity High School in Louisville, Kentucky. ..more

James Vint  is an Assistant Football Coach at Coronado High School in Lubbock, Texas.  Vint  has produced a series of 9 DVD's and recently completed two books on the Pistol Offense - available at Coaches Choice.  ..more

Coach Manny Matsakis is the Head Football Coach at Enka High School in Candler, North Carolina.  His previous coaching experience spans two decades as a high school, collegiate and professional football coach.  From the start of his coaching career at Barberton H.S., Coach Matsakis has contributed to a number of turnarounds, including a few in big-time college football at places like Kansas State under Bill Snyder (still one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of college football), Texas Tech under Mike Leach, and the University of Wyoming.  While serving as Wyoming's Offensive Coordinator in 1999,  his Triple Shoot Offense resulted in a record-setting single season conference turnaround from worst to first in scoring & total offense versus Mountain West Conference opponents. “The Triple Shoot Offense is the toast of the Mountain West Conference this year”, said BYU Head Coach LaVell Edwards, after giving up 550 yards & 38 points to the Wyoming Cowboys that year.

Matsakis had similar success at stops at smaller schools, including Hofstra University (NY), where as Offensive Coordinator his teams set 34 school and 12 NCAA records over his three years on the staff; and Emporia State, KS, where as Head Coach at NCAA D-II school his teams produced the single-season best in wins (9) and had the nation’s number one offense over a four-year period, while establishing 65 school, 40 conference and 22 NCAA records.

After brief stint as Head Football Coach at Texas State University in 2003, Coach Matsakis returned to entrepreneurial pursuits for six years (it is not widely known that Coach Matsakis founded American Football Quarterly, the predecessor to American Football Monthly) and also worked as a consultant to numerous high school and college football coaches, including a return to his alma mater (Capital University – OH) as the Offensive Coordinator to mentor assistant coaches in implementing his offense.  He returned to coaching in 2009 in the CFL (Winnipeg Blue Bombers), where he was at the heart of a mid-season offensive turnaround, before being named Head Coach at Enka in Feb 2010. 

Coach Joe Daniel has 10 years of coaching experience between the High School and College levels, and is currently the Assistant Head Coach at Prince George High School in Prince George Co., Virginia where he coaches the Offensive Line and Linebackers. He has coached Defensive Line, Tight Ends, Quarterbacks, Linebackers, and served as Defensive Coordinator for the 2007-2008 seasons, followed by a year as the Linebackers Coach for Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls, Iowa where he helped the team to a Region XI Championship, a final #9 Ranking in the NJCAA Polls and a Top 25 ranked defense.   Coach Daniel has written a number of eBooks and operates the Football-Defense web site, among others. He also has a podcast of his own, which can be found at www.footballcoachingpodcast.com.

Coach Bill Mountjoy is a Virginia football coaching legend. In his 33 years as a High School football coach in Virginia – most of it as Head Football Coach.  Mountjoy coached at 6 different High Schools,  including 6A state power Deep Creek HS in Chesapeake, VA from 1982 thru 1986.  Coach Mountjoy also spent 4 years on the college level and 1 year coaching Semi-Pro football with the Richmond Ravens.

Gregory Gebo is the Outside Linebacker coach at Central High School in Springfield, Mass.

Charlie Coiner has an extensive and diverse football coaching background at the Collegiate and NFL levels. Coach Coiner, who recently joined the staff at the University of Tennessee as a Tight Ends and Special Teams coach, spent nine seasons in the NFL, including four seasons as the Tight Ends coach with the Buffalo Bills from 2006-09.

Bruce Eien is an Assistant Coach at Harrisburg High School in Eugene, Oregon.

Pat Curran is an Assistant Football Coach at Statesboro HS in Statesboro, Ohio.  Coach Curran is a coaching veteran with experience at both the High School and Collegiate levels.

John Konecki is the Offensive Coordinator at Crete-Monee High School in Crete, IL. as well as the Head Coach of the Chicago Force Womens Football team. Konecki's Crete Monet team scored over 400 points en route to a 10-1 season in 2012.  Coach Konecki recently published a book on the subject that is available at Amazon.com.

Jarod Dodson recently joined the staff at the South Dakota School of Mines at its Defensive Coordintor, after stints at Old Dominion, the University of Buffalo, and South Dakota (his Alma Mater). Coach Dodson has been a Special Teams Co-Coordinator and Defensive Coordinator in addition to coaching Defensive Backs.

Jerry Vallotton is a long time coach and Author of one of the most popular books on the Double Wing - "The Toss" . This book is available at Amazon.com and at  www.doublewing.org.

Blake Sandford has coached at every level of High School Football in the State of Texas in his career. He recently joined the staff at Lubbock - Coronado where he is responsible for Strength and Conditioning and is the school's Wide Receivers coach

Michael Wilbanks  is the Offensive Line coach at Shelby HS in Shelby, NC . Coach Wilbanks is a return guest on Coachs Corner, appearing earlier this year while on the staff of the HawgTuff Clinic in South Carolina in February.

James Vint  is a renowned clinic speaker and has produced a series of 9 DVD's. Coach Vint is presently at Coronado High School in Lubbock, Texas.  Coach Vint has also coached at Christopher Columbus High School in Brooklyn, Iowa Wesleyan, & Truman State.    In 2001, Vint was nominated for the prestigious Walt Disney Teacher of the Year Award. Three times he was nominated by his students for “Who's Who of American Teachers”.

Chris Husby  is the owner and head instructor of the Special Teams Football Academy, which is based in Maple Grove Minnesota. Husby started kicking at the age of 12 and worked his way to punting in college (Univ of St Thomas) and as an NFL Free Agent. Most recently, he was a Special Teams coach at Wayzata HS in Minnesota and a columnist for www.minnesotapreps.com.

Ralph Cornwell, Jr.  is a Ph.D. candidate in health promotion/human performance at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University He is currently developing a protocol for strength training the musculature that protects the cervical spine. Cornwell has coached at West Point, Radford University, University of North Carolina, and North Carolina and studied under legendary NFL Strength Coach Dan Riley. In addition, he has has worked with several professional athletes in all sports and the NFL, MLB, Women's Soccer, Men's Lacrosse, as well as working with International Basketball athletes.

Gabe Harrington  is the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Colgate University . A certified strength and conditioning coach through the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCA), as well as the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). Harrington served for five years at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, where he was associate head strength and conditioning coach for the Black Knights.   A graduate of Hillsdale College, Harrington received five varsity letters, and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference accolades as a special teams player. He also served as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Michigan State Spartans’ football team while earning his Master's Degree in BioMechanics.

Coach John Iannucci is a veteran of more than thirty years of coaching football on the high school and college level. His experience includes over 20 years as a head high school coach. and 8 years at the college level with stints in Division III, II and IAA level. Coach Iannucci  is an accomplished speaker with over 100 clinic speaking engagements during his career. He has published an "Option Quarterback Manual" and served as a private consultant for schools on the east coast.  His specialty is 3 back offenses and triple option football.

Coach John McGregor is an expert in pro-style offenses. John has been an assistant coach with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons and the Albany Firebirds (Arena League) as well as an assistant coach at Boston College, Ohio University, Florida State and Washington & Lee University.

John has also coached professional ball in Europe. He was head coach of both the Berlin Rebels and the Helsinki Roosters, as well as being an assistant coach with the National Team of Finland. Additional professional experience in the United States includes service as personnel director in the Professional Spring Football League and head coach of the Continental League’s Richmond Ravens, which supplied the Super Bowl winning Washington Redskins with players during the 1987 NFL players strike.