Widener’s New head coach Mike Kelly.

By ROCK HOFFMAN

When the Widener Pride take the field to open the 2014 football season at Rowan University on September 5, they will do so with a new coach. Mike Kelly was named to replace Bobby Acosta, who left after one season at the helm to become the tight ends coach at Syracuse University.

“They’ve been a remarkable group,” said Kelly when asked how the team was adjusting to their third head coach in as many years. “I tried to sell to them that I have experience in this going all the way back to their age. I went through a coaching change myself when I was in college, going into my senior year. So I know their anxiety.”

So far, Kelly is happy with what he has to work with which includes the MAC Offensive Player of the Year in wide receiver Anthony Davis, who was named a first-team All-America by two organizations. Also he’ll have quarterback Seth Klein, who was the MAC Rookie of the Year and defensive linemen Shakore Philip and Stacey Sunnerville, who combined for 11 sacks in 2013.

“I’ve been very impressed by these young men in their willingness to take ownership in this program,” Kelly said. “Any good football team I’ve been with the discipline and drive have all come from within the group.”

Kelly comes to Widener with a wealth of coaching experience, he’s been at it over 30 years across the high school, collegiate and professional levels including stints as head coach at Division II Valdosta State, from 1997 to 1999 and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League in 2009.

Kelly, who played quarterback at Bluffton College in Ohio, is no stranger to the Delaware Valley as he spent two seasons with the Eagles (2001-2002) as a scout and offensive assistant.

“I’m coming back to an area I feel most comfortable in,” said Kelly when he spoke to FootballStories recently, “I have a lot of friends and family in this area. It was an opportunity to come to a place where football is important to them, where the educational process is intertwined with the athletic experience and there were too many positives to say no to this.”

When Chuck Noll was building four Super Bowl winning teams as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, he always claimed that as a coach, he was a teacher.

Kelly actually has been a teacher. From 2005 until 2008, he was on the faculty at Drexel University in the Sport Management program. For his outstanding teaching and mentoring, he received the Make a Difference Award from the school’s Student-Athletes Committee.

Dr. Ellen Staurowsky, a professor in the Drexel Sport Management program, was not at the university when Kelly was but says he is fondly remembered.

“Mike was viewed by his colleagues in the department as a motivating and innovative teacher,” said Dr. Staurowsky, who has more than 30 years experience in collegiate athletics as a coach and administrator. “[He] was able to translate his considerable expertise in the business of football and engage students in interesting and challenging ways. Known for his generosity and humor, Mike was popular among students and faculty.”

“I’ve always defined coaching as teaching,” said Kelly, “but in the realm I’m in with an extra drop of enthusiasm and an extra drop of testosterone. I want people around me that are good teachers and those guys that say they’re a coach and not a teacher are missing the point. Anybody that’s a good football coach is a good teacher. A good teacher is someone that can find different methods to convey the same message because every person learns differently.”

In the NFL, Kelly has also worked for the Washington Redskins (2003-05) and New York Giants (2010) organizations and elsewhere in professional football he served as offensive coordinator for the Blue Bombers (1992-96), offensive consultant and NFL Scout for the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos (2000), Eskimos receivers coach (2008) and offensive coordinator for the Orlando Rage of the XFL.

Kelly was an assistant coach at five different colleges and universities during the 80’s and early 90’s, always with the offense, he’s not looking to replicate what Widener did last season on offense with a goal of 90 snaps a game.

“I’m going to do what it takes to win,” said Kelly, who has selected Brian Picucci as his offensive coordinator. “Over the years, as I’ve evolved as a coach, I believe that when you’re running a fast-paced offense like that it’s very taxing on your own defense.”

“We will be pressure oriented,” said Kelly when asked about the Pride’s style of defense. “I hired Bill Shuey (as defensive coordinator), he and I were together with the Philadelphia Eagles back in the early 2000’s. He had the tremendous opportunity to work under Jim Johnson.”

Most recently, Shuey was linebackers coach with West Chester University and filled that same role for the Eagles from 2008 to 2011.

Picucci comes from Central Connecticut State where he was interim head coach and offensive line coach last season. The team allowed just five sacks while setting school records for total yards, passing touchdowns and rushing touchdowns.

“You can say,” Kelly added, “that with every phase of our football program, our goal is to dictate.”

Email Rock Hoffman at Rock@footballstories.com