SYRACUSE - Dan Conley is back home at last.
Head coach Greg Robinson has hired the former Orange star to coach linebackers at Syracuse, bringing Conley's football career full circle.
“I was shaking (when Robinson called). This is the one job I wanted,” Conley said Wednesday. “Syracuse has always been a special place to me. It's just a great honor to be back home.”
Robinson contacted Conley a week ago and offered him the job Monday night.
“As a player, he had a great love of the game,” said Robinson, whose record is 7-28 in three years at Syracuse. “He's been able to take his passion for playing the game and turn it to the coaching side. He has paid his dues, come up through the ranks, and has become a real student of the game.”
Robinson also announced that he will share the job of defensive coordinator with Orange defensive line coach Derrick Jackson. Steve Russ, part of Robinson's first staff, resigned last week to take a job at Wake Forest.
“I want to coach. I look forward to being more involved, but I don't think I have to put as much time in,” said Robinson, who served as defensive coordinator his first two seasons before giving Russ the job for 2007. “The first year pulled me in many ways. It was hard. I have a lot of confidence in Derrick. You've got to have somebody running the show when I'm not around.”
Conley has been around off and on since graduating from Syracuse in 1995, having participated in summer camps with Robinson for three years. Conley has coached in college for 12 seasons, the past three at Wagner College. He has experience coaching every defensive position, mentoring the Wagner defensive line and coordinating special teams at Wagner last season. He also coached the linebackers in his first season at Wagner and defensive backs in 2006.
Conley, who began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Orange in 1997, has twice been a defensive coordinator, at Iona in 2004 and Canisius from 2000-02. In 2003, he was linebackers coach and special teams coordinator at West Virginia Tech, the same duties he performed in 1999 at Southern Connecticut State.
As a player, Conley was destined for NFL stardom until his right knee derailed his dreams. He was a two-time All-Big East first-team selection and candidate for the Butkus Award as a junior and senior.
In 1994, Conley played a sixth season for the Orange after the NCAA granted a rare waiver due to his knee injuries and was named ESPN's Comeback Player of the Year.“
As a senior, Conley captained the Orange and also was selected as captain of the 1995 Hula Bowl's North squad, and in 1999 he was selected to Syracuse's All-Century Team, which honored the 44 best Orange players of the 20th century.
Conley's right knee came apart for the first time in the second game of the 1991 season, just as the 6-2, 250-pounder was fast becoming a blue-chip player, a cinch first-round pick in the NFL draft. Conley said the injury was so painful his screams could be heard on the game tape.
In all, he has endured 13 surgeries on the knee, including three reconstructions, and never had the chance to don an NFL helmet, something the Pittsburgh-area native had dreamed of since he was 6 years old.
At least his long-time hope of coaching at Syracuse has been fulfilled.
“It's been my dream, my family's dream, to come back to Syracuse and be a part of this community,” said Conley, whose wife and two sons will move immediately to the area. “There's been lots of ups and downs, lots of adversity. Wouldn't trade it for the world. It really helped me become who I am as a person. I was able to overcome those obstacles.”
AP-ES-02-13-08 1650EST
“I was shaking (when Robinson called). This is the one job I wanted,” Conley said Wednesday. “Syracuse has always been a special place to me. It's just a great honor to be back home.”
Robinson contacted Conley a week ago and offered him the job Monday night.
“As a player, he had a great love of the game,” said Robinson, whose record is 7-28 in three years at Syracuse. “He's been able to take his passion for playing the game and turn it to the coaching side. He has paid his dues, come up through the ranks, and has become a real student of the game.”
Robinson also announced that he will share the job of defensive coordinator with Orange defensive line coach Derrick Jackson. Steve Russ, part of Robinson's first staff, resigned last week to take a job at Wake Forest.
“I want to coach. I look forward to being more involved, but I don't think I have to put as much time in,” said Robinson, who served as defensive coordinator his first two seasons before giving Russ the job for 2007. “The first year pulled me in many ways. It was hard. I have a lot of confidence in Derrick. You've got to have somebody running the show when I'm not around.”
Conley has been around off and on since graduating from Syracuse in 1995, having participated in summer camps with Robinson for three years. Conley has coached in college for 12 seasons, the past three at Wagner College. He has experience coaching every defensive position, mentoring the Wagner defensive line and coordinating special teams at Wagner last season. He also coached the linebackers in his first season at Wagner and defensive backs in 2006.
Conley, who began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Orange in 1997, has twice been a defensive coordinator, at Iona in 2004 and Canisius from 2000-02. In 2003, he was linebackers coach and special teams coordinator at West Virginia Tech, the same duties he performed in 1999 at Southern Connecticut State.
As a player, Conley was destined for NFL stardom until his right knee derailed his dreams. He was a two-time All-Big East first-team selection and candidate for the Butkus Award as a junior and senior.
In 1994, Conley played a sixth season for the Orange after the NCAA granted a rare waiver due to his knee injuries and was named ESPN's Comeback Player of the Year.“
As a senior, Conley captained the Orange and also was selected as captain of the 1995 Hula Bowl's North squad, and in 1999 he was selected to Syracuse's All-Century Team, which honored the 44 best Orange players of the 20th century.
Conley's right knee came apart for the first time in the second game of the 1991 season, just as the 6-2, 250-pounder was fast becoming a blue-chip player, a cinch first-round pick in the NFL draft. Conley said the injury was so painful his screams could be heard on the game tape.
In all, he has endured 13 surgeries on the knee, including three reconstructions, and never had the chance to don an NFL helmet, something the Pittsburgh-area native had dreamed of since he was 6 years old.
At least his long-time hope of coaching at Syracuse has been fulfilled.
“It's been my dream, my family's dream, to come back to Syracuse and be a part of this community,” said Conley, whose wife and two sons will move immediately to the area. “There's been lots of ups and downs, lots of adversity. Wouldn't trade it for the world. It really helped me become who I am as a person. I was able to overcome those obstacles.”
AP-ES-02-13-08 1650EST
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