Sean McDonnell is a reputation that may not imply a lot to a majority of followers forward of the School Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championship Recreation between Notre Dame and Ohio State.
However it ought to.
The identify carries important weight within the Buckeyes’ return to the title sport. Earlier than Ohio State’s final nationwide championship look in January 2021, I requested Ryan Day about McDonnell. Day stated, “Coach Mac was an enormous half” of getting ready the Ohio State coach.
Equally, I introduced up McDonnell to Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly later that yr. The then-UCLA head coach choked up discussing McDonnell’s impression.
For these unfamiliar, Sean McDonnell is among the many winningest coaches of the twenty first century. A presumptive lock for the School Soccer Corridor of Fame, he coached the College of New Hampshire to 14 consecutive NCAA Division I-AA/Soccer Championship Subdivision Playoffs.
To offer some perspective on how exceptional that feat is, powerhouse North Dakota State solely surpassed UNH’s playoff streak with this yr’s look within the Bison’s fifteenth straight FCS postseason.
One key differentiator, nonetheless, is that North Dakota State claimed its tenth nationwide championship. UNH by no means superior additional than the nationwide semifinals.
The absence of a nationwide championship additionally plagues McDonnell’s head teaching tree, which is among the many most spectacular lively legacies within the sport. Amongst his noteworthy former assistants and gamers are Tony Trisciani, who coached Elon to the 2022 FCS Playoffs; Dan Curran, the Holy Cross head coach who beforehand helped Merrimack navigate its transition from Division II to Division I; and present UNH chief Rick Santos.
Ryan Carty will information longtime FCS energy Delaware into the FBS starting subsequent season, and the previous Coach Mac assistant gained a nationwide title as offensive coordinator at Sam Houston within the spring 2021 COVID season.
But when Ohio State can beat Notre Dame, Day will develop into the primary head coach from McDonnell’s illustrious tree to guide a group to a nationwide title.
Day’s offensive coordinator, Kelly, got here shut. Had been it not for a late-game Michael Dyer run—which Oregon trustworthy will gladly inform it’s best to have been whistled down—Kelly’s 2010 Geese may need claimed the Bowl Championship Sequence crown.
That flirtation with the nationwide championship got here simply three years after Oregon suffered one other unhealthy break that may have denied the Geese high billing. Dennis Dixon was a number one contender for the Heisman Trophy in 2007, and Oregon was threatening to achieve the BCS Championship Recreation earlier than Dixon sustained a late-season knee harm.
Regardless of the setback, Oregon’s revolutionary offense grew to become the discuss of faculty soccer. The scheme will be described as a Frankenstein’s monster, stitching collectively components of hurry-up, no-huddle play-calling often reserved for the ultimate two minutes of video games and using it for 60 minutes; combining it with components of the multiple-receiver unfold units that had been turning into more and more en vogue within the late 2000s; and including doses of the tried-and-true possibility.
This was Kelly’s first yr as Oregon’s offensive coordinator, and his arrival on the nationwide stage seemingly got here out of nowhere. Nationwide faculty soccer media handled Kelly’s background at UNH as little greater than a novelty—a enjoyable footnote when introducing the Geese’ gaudy offensive numbers.
In actuality, Durham, New Hampshire, supplied the best birthplace for ideas that revolutionized the game. To wit, had Dixon gained the Heisman in 2007, Kelly would have had the distinctive honor of coordinating offenses that facilitated each the Heisman and Walter Payton Award winners in consecutive seasons.
Present UNH head coach Santos, who took over for McDonnell first as an interim coach in 2019 after which because the everlasting Wildcats chief in 2022, earned the FCS model of the Heisman in 2006. That was the final of Kelly’s eight seasons coordinating the UNH offense, a tenure throughout which his quarterbacks included a younger Ryan Day.
The connection is well-documented, significantly since Day employed Kelly as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator final spring. A shock when it unfolded, Kelly described his transfer from being UCLA’s head coach as an opportunity to “coach once more, not [work as] a CEO.”
The Buckeyes’ protection has been entrance and middle for a lot of the season, most notably with Jack Sawyer’s Cotton Bowl-sealing scoop-and-score towards Texas. However in Playoff blowouts of Tennessee and Oregon, it’s arduous to not see Will Howard dissect proficient opponents and be reminded of earlier Kelly-coached quarterbacks like Dixon, Marcus Mariota, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Santos selecting aside the opposition.
And if Howard delivers towards Notre Dame, with Day and Kelly calling a successful sport plan, everybody watching this Ohio State group must be reminded of the identify Sean McDonnell—whether or not they knew the identify earlier than or not.