Quoted from the head football coach himself:

"I grew up in New Jersey. I was an avid sports fan, wasn't a very good athlete, mind you, but I was avid sports fan. At one time I wanted to be a sports announcer because I recognized at an early age, I don't think I'm going to play pro, so I'm going to be a sports announcer. And then I went to Notre Dame and I said, oh, maybe not a sports announcer. Maybe I'll get involved in some other way, I'm not really sure how.

"So I was getting a degree in speech and drama, and communications as an emphasis. I also decided to get certified to teach just in case I wanted to go in that direction and be involved in the coaching. I remember my parents saying to me, 'You're going to Notre Dame to be a teacher?'

"Well, my father, God rest his soul, he's smiling in heaven today, because if he ever knew I would have been where I am today, he would be a very proud man.

"I finished up at Notre Dame, and after a brief time in industry, I took a time teaching in a high school in New Jersey. And after, oh, about a five-year stint coaching in New Jersey, well, after the first year as a matter of fact, I changed schools and went to another school in New Jersey and was working for a guy by the name of John Cherone who was the head football coach at a school called Morristown High School. Here I was this know-it-all 22-year-old kid with all of the answers. I had all the answers, I knew it all. I was one of those guys who could watch the game and tell you all of the dumb things those coaches were doing. I was humbled working with him because I learned how little football I really knew at that time.

"After working with him for five years, I ended up going down to the University of South Carolina with Joe Morrison who I met through a recruit he had recruited at Morristown High School. I went down there and guess what, I was humbled all over again, because now after going through five years of learning how to coach football and learning that coaching football is really -- is really just teaching, not coaching. Football is really just another class and we also have treated it like you're a teacher, not that you're a coach.

"So, after getting to South Carolina and learning the ins and outs of college football, unfortunately for me on February 5, 1989, just when I was really settling in to being a college football coach, on the last day of recruiting was a Sunday, it was February 5, on lunchtime of that day, I had a lunch with Joe Morrison and the athletic director at South Carolina at the time by the name of xxxxx, and they gave me an extra year and a half contract on that day. They extended me a year and I said, I've really made it in the world, okay, I'm moving on up. I went on a recruiting trip, when I came back, he had died. He had died that afternoon. He had played racquetball and he died. So now all of the sudden you're in limbo, it's 1989, just when you're starting to settle into college football the guy who was your head coach dies.

"Well, let me tell you something. February is not the best time to be out looking for a job, it's not a great time. If you don't know somebody, usually the jobs fill up and it's a tough market out there.

"So I went back to Jersey and I worked, I did some pro personnel work with the pro football Giants for Tim Rooney who is another guy that really helped me out in this business and Al Groh, who is head coach of Virginia who had been with us at South Carolina had said to Tim, I know some guy that's down in South Carolina that's got some time free, you want him to do some work, he's your guy.

"So I was doing some work for Tim Rooney, I took a job coaching a high school in Jersey as you guys have seen my resume or transcript or bio by now, after coaching at the high school in New Jersey one year in '89, I went back so South Carolina figuring, let's see if we can go in another direction. I got a phone call one day in January from and my secretary says, 'Hey, there is a guy by the name of Bill Parcells is on the phone.' So it's one of my friends obviously calling up just like I used to get the Ara Parseghian and Dan Divine calls when I was in college.

"So I said, 'Oh, sure, put him on the line.'

"So I said, 'Hey, Bill how is it going?' Well, it was Bill on the other end of line. He said, 'What are you doing?'

"I said, 'Well, I'm working in here trying to figure out what I'm going to do.' And he paused and I said, 'Coach, if you're telling me I have any opportunity to come work for the Giants. Just tell me where and when you want me there I'll be there, I don't care if I have to drive.'

He said, 'Well, tell you what, we'll fly you up here on Friday let's just meet.' So I flew up there and met with him for an entire day and flew back and I'm sitting down there with my friends in South Carolina saying I just interviewed for a job with the New York Football Giants. It's just like interviewing for a job like at head coach at Notre Dame. I said wouldn't that be something if I ended up getting hired.

"Sure enough, about a month later, he must have got desperate because he hired me and obviously one of the two greatest influences of my life in the coaching profession is Bill Parcells. I mean, he took me, gave me an opportunity when I was an absolute nobody, hired me and groomed me, and started me on special teams and then I moved to offense and I coached running backs and I coached tight ends and I coached wide receivers and I coached quarterbacks, and I've done them all as position coaches.

"But it always seemed like wherever I was with him, he always put me in positions that despite the fact that teams might not have been the best, they had good players at those positions, so it kind of set you up for success.

"So I have no illusions of grandeur that I'm the greatest coach known to mankind, but I do appreciate the fact that Coach Parcells both gave me an opportunity and kind of groomed me and developed me into a legitimate football coach.

"Then when I left -- when Coach Parcells ended up retiring with the Jets and Coach Belichick who has been a friend of mine for 15 years left and went up to New England, I went up there with him, and obviously, what Coach Belichick has done is he's magnified what Coach Parcells had done. He's taken it to another level. They both are probably two of the greatest football coaches ever to coach in the National Football League."

Coaching History

Year	Organization	Position	Record	Accomplishments
1979	Boonton (N.J.) High School	Assistant Coach	unknown
1980	Morristown (N.J.) High School	Assistant Coach	unknown
1981	Morristown (N.J.) High School	Assistant Coach	unknown
1982	Morristown (N.J.) High School	Assistant Coach	unknown
1983	Morristown (N.J.) High School	Assistant Coach	unknown
1984	Morristown (N.J.) High School	Assistant Coach	unknown
1985	University of South Carolina	Graduate Assistant Coach/Defensive Backs	5-6
1986	University of South Carolina	Graduate Assistant Coach/Linebackers	3-6-2
1987	University of South Carolina	Volunteer Coach/Defensive Ends	8-4	Lost in Gator Bowl to LSU
1988	University of South Carolina	Assistant Recruiting Coordinator	8-4	Lost in Liberty Bowl to Indiana
1989	Franklin Township (N.J.) High School	Head Coach	10-1	Mid-State Champs / GIII Champs
1990	New York Giants	Def. Assistant, Asst. Special Teams	13-3	Won Superbowl XXV
1991	New York Giants	Running Backs Coach	8-8	Developed RB Rodney Hampton into 1,000 yard rusher
1992	Running Backs Coach	Assistant Coach	6-2	RB Rodney Hampton elected to first Pro Bowl after 1,000 yard rushing season
1993	New England Patriots	Tight Ends Coach	5-11	Developed TE Ben Coates
1994	New England Patriots	Tight Ends Coach	10-6	Wild Card loser, TE Ben Coates elected to first Pro Bowl after 1,100 yard receiving season
1995	New England Patriots	Running Backs Coach	6-10	Developed rookie RB Curtis Martin, who was elected to Pro Bowl after 1,400 yard rushing season
1996	New England Patriots	Wide Receivers Coach	11-5	Developed rookie WR Terry Glenn into 1,100 yard receiver as a rookie
1997	New York Jets	Wide Receivers Coach	9-7	Developed WR Keyshawn Johnson
1998	New York Jets	Offensive Coordinator / Wide Receivers Coach	12-4	Lost in AFC Title Game, WR Keyshawn Johnson elected to first Pro Bowl after 1,100 yard receiving season, Team was 4th in league in total offense
1999	New York Jets	Offensive Coordinator / Wide Receivers Coach	8-8	WR Keyshawn Johnson elected to second straight Pro Bowl
2000	New England Patriots	Offensive Coordinator / Running Backs Coach	5-11
2001	New England Patriots	Offensive Coordinator / Running Backs Coach / Quarterbacks Coach	11-5	Won Superbowl XXXVI, QB Tom Brady elected to Pro Bowl, named MVP of Superbowl XXXVI
2002	New England Patriots	Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks Coach	9-7
2003	New England Patriots	Offensive Coordinator	14-2	Won Superbowl XXXVIII
2004	New England Patriots	Offensive Coordinator	14-2	Won Superbowl XXXIX

Do you like the webpage? Do you want your ND fan site included in (or removed from) my links page? If so, e-mail me at nwaechter@hotmail.com