thedrifter
01-02-09, 07:03 AM
Waufle finds niche in NFL
By Craig Hislop
The first time I met Mike Waufle, we were standing on the Aggie football practice field east of Romney Stadium.
Bruce Snyder’s staff had recruited him from California’s Bakersfield College where he had been a standout linebacker and defensive lineman on the 1976 national junior college championship team.
He had this voice, the voice of a marine sergeant, which he had been … technically.
Mike was a pleasant enough fellow but obviously possessed of a quality that today in sports we call “focus.” He seemed to know where he wanted to go and there wasn’t a lot of time to waste getting there.
We found out later his intended destination: The National Football League. By golly, here we are 31 years later and darned if he didn’t make it. The kid from Hornell, N.Y., who came to Logan by way of Bakersfield and three years as an MP in the Marines is just about to finish his 11th season in the NFL.
As a coach.
He never made it as a pro football player — his Aggie D-line mate Rulon Jones certainly did — but now as the New York Giants defensive line coach, he’s in the business of turning out some of the league’s top upfront defenders (i.e. Michael Strahan.)
Unquestionably at the top of his profession now, Mike knows how it happened and who helped him make it.
“I had two professors at USU, Dale Nelson and Lanny Nalder, who were way ahead of their time in the world of exercise physiology,” he said this week from his home in Oakland, N.J. “To this day, in coaching some very gifted athletes, I use some of the things they taught me. Remember, when I coached for Bruce at Utah State, I was also the strength coach.
“Dr. Nelson helped me a lot; he told me once, ‘Go to the best and find out how they did it.’ I spent a long time studying all the great defensive line coaches in the NFL and by the time I got my first job interview in the league, I was more than ready for it. When I got my first NFL job I called and thanked him.”
This appears to be a charmed coaching career, and Waufle admits he’s been fortunate to coach great athletes, but in 30 coaching years there have been 1-10 seasons (three of them). One of those was at Oregon State; UCLA had just fired him and Dave Kragthorpe — another Aggie — hired him on in Corvallis. He and Kragthorpe remain dear friends.
Mike spent six years as Cal’s defensive line coach under Keith Gilbertson, Steve Mariucci and Tom Holmoe, and it was Mariucci who lined up an interview for Waufle with the Oakland Raiders.
This wasn’t your run-of-the mill, every day question-and-answer routine. This was a one-on-one, four hour grilling session across the table from Al Davis.
“First of all, understand Mr. Davis’ favorite part of football is defensive line play,” Mike said. “He had never hired a college coach to handle the Raiders’ defensive line. I guess he just wanted to be sure.”
It’s led Mike to 11 years in the NFL, 13 playoff games, five Pro Bowls, two Super Bowls (with Jon Gruden and the Raiders and last year with Tom Coughlin and the Giants) and still those Aggie workouts of three decades ago stay with him as a young USU line coach Rod Marinelli taught his defensive ends Waufle and Jones the nuances of the 3-4 defense.
(Ironically, in 1982, he and Marinelli would coach the Aggie “offensive” line together and later he would coach against Rod in the Tampa Bay-Oakland Super Bowl of 2003.)
Mike’s career also led to a trip to the White House — Super Bowl champs earn those opportunities, you know — and there he was walking those hallowed halls remembering Richard Nixon and the President’s decision in the ’70s to freeze all advancements in military rank; Waufle had earned his Marine sergeant’s stripes but never got them.
One time bureaucracy beats down the will of man; rare in the life of Mike Waufle.
———
Craig Hislop is a longtime Cache Valley broadcaster, who can now be heard weekday mornings on KVNU. He is among a number of Cache Valley freelance writers whose columns appear in The Herald Journal as a part of an effort to expose readers to a variety of community voices. He is not an employee of the newspaper. He can be reached at craig@cvradio.com.
Ellie
By Craig Hislop
The first time I met Mike Waufle, we were standing on the Aggie football practice field east of Romney Stadium.
Bruce Snyder’s staff had recruited him from California’s Bakersfield College where he had been a standout linebacker and defensive lineman on the 1976 national junior college championship team.
He had this voice, the voice of a marine sergeant, which he had been … technically.
Mike was a pleasant enough fellow but obviously possessed of a quality that today in sports we call “focus.” He seemed to know where he wanted to go and there wasn’t a lot of time to waste getting there.
We found out later his intended destination: The National Football League. By golly, here we are 31 years later and darned if he didn’t make it. The kid from Hornell, N.Y., who came to Logan by way of Bakersfield and three years as an MP in the Marines is just about to finish his 11th season in the NFL.
As a coach.
He never made it as a pro football player — his Aggie D-line mate Rulon Jones certainly did — but now as the New York Giants defensive line coach, he’s in the business of turning out some of the league’s top upfront defenders (i.e. Michael Strahan.)
Unquestionably at the top of his profession now, Mike knows how it happened and who helped him make it.
“I had two professors at USU, Dale Nelson and Lanny Nalder, who were way ahead of their time in the world of exercise physiology,” he said this week from his home in Oakland, N.J. “To this day, in coaching some very gifted athletes, I use some of the things they taught me. Remember, when I coached for Bruce at Utah State, I was also the strength coach.
“Dr. Nelson helped me a lot; he told me once, ‘Go to the best and find out how they did it.’ I spent a long time studying all the great defensive line coaches in the NFL and by the time I got my first job interview in the league, I was more than ready for it. When I got my first NFL job I called and thanked him.”
This appears to be a charmed coaching career, and Waufle admits he’s been fortunate to coach great athletes, but in 30 coaching years there have been 1-10 seasons (three of them). One of those was at Oregon State; UCLA had just fired him and Dave Kragthorpe — another Aggie — hired him on in Corvallis. He and Kragthorpe remain dear friends.
Mike spent six years as Cal’s defensive line coach under Keith Gilbertson, Steve Mariucci and Tom Holmoe, and it was Mariucci who lined up an interview for Waufle with the Oakland Raiders.
This wasn’t your run-of-the mill, every day question-and-answer routine. This was a one-on-one, four hour grilling session across the table from Al Davis.
“First of all, understand Mr. Davis’ favorite part of football is defensive line play,” Mike said. “He had never hired a college coach to handle the Raiders’ defensive line. I guess he just wanted to be sure.”
It’s led Mike to 11 years in the NFL, 13 playoff games, five Pro Bowls, two Super Bowls (with Jon Gruden and the Raiders and last year with Tom Coughlin and the Giants) and still those Aggie workouts of three decades ago stay with him as a young USU line coach Rod Marinelli taught his defensive ends Waufle and Jones the nuances of the 3-4 defense.
(Ironically, in 1982, he and Marinelli would coach the Aggie “offensive” line together and later he would coach against Rod in the Tampa Bay-Oakland Super Bowl of 2003.)
Mike’s career also led to a trip to the White House — Super Bowl champs earn those opportunities, you know — and there he was walking those hallowed halls remembering Richard Nixon and the President’s decision in the ’70s to freeze all advancements in military rank; Waufle had earned his Marine sergeant’s stripes but never got them.
One time bureaucracy beats down the will of man; rare in the life of Mike Waufle.
———
Craig Hislop is a longtime Cache Valley broadcaster, who can now be heard weekday mornings on KVNU. He is among a number of Cache Valley freelance writers whose columns appear in The Herald Journal as a part of an effort to expose readers to a variety of community voices. He is not an employee of the newspaper. He can be reached at craig@cvradio.com.
Ellie