“I remember Bryan saying to me, ‘You think this is an interview?’” Raeburn said. Gundy never said anything about auditioning for a defensive coordinator vacancy. Once the plane ticket hit his inbox, it started to seem real. Nardo and Gannon head coach Erik Raeburn joked that he might be getting catfished. Gundy told Nardo he wanted to talk football and offered to fly him in for a visit. He’s like, ‘Quit f-ing with me.’ No, really, it’s me.” “I called him and he goes, ‘No it’s not, you’re s-ing me,’” Gundy said. That’s what former Oklahoma State OC Mike Yurcich assumed when Gundy contacted him at D-II Shippensburg in early 2013. Most Division II coaches receiving that random call from a Stillwater, Okla., number would probably think it’s a prank. Gundy heard enough good things to make the phone call. Clements and Nardo had stayed in touch over the past few years. He got his start as a student coach and graduate assistant at Ohio under Frank Solich and spent most of his young career calling the defense at Emporia State, a D-II program in Kansas. His father and two brothers were coaches. He learned Nardo came from small-town Shadyside, Ohio. But he kept hunting and did his homework. Gundy had never heard of Gannon, didn’t know where it was and didn’t know how to find its film. Joe Bob Clements, one of Gundy’s longtime defensive assistants, knew about another coach down in the Division II ranks who ran the scheme. “We’re not going to be shocked when that happens.” “Our goal is to compete at the highest level,” he said. But after being given this absurdly fortunate opportunity, Nardo is going to give everything he’s got. There’s no challenge greater than what’s next. He has never coached in a game of this magnitude. Nardo has never been to AT&T Stadium in Arlington. 18 Cowboys got this far with a coordinator who had never been a full-time coach at this level, one making one-third of the salary of Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski. 7 Texas squad chasing a College Football Playoff bid. The wild story of how Nardo ended up here adds a new chapter on Saturday, when he goes up against Steve Sarkisian, one of the best offensive minds in football, and his No. The Cowboys’ defense hasn’t been spectacular, but their new DC has them winning in the moments that matter most. It was a serious gamble by Gundy, a risk that could’ve wrecked Oklahoma State’s season. He’d searched all over the country and eventually found a 38-year-old in Erie, Pa., who knew his stuff. When something as serendipitous as this job pops up and changes your life, how can you not believe everything happens for a reason?Ĭowboys coach Mike Gundy plucked an unknown young coach from Gannon University, a Division II school, believing he had the scheme and the smarts to bring to Stillwater the odd front defense that Big 12 foes have popularized.
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