Time to give Dante his due

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Mike Parente, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

Coaches can’t win MVP awards and assistants never earn Coach of the Year honors, so it’s time the NFL come up with a way to recognize those who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help craft the masterpieces we see on a weekly basis – the ones the players and head coaches typically get all the credit for.

Call it the Dante Scarnecchia Award, named after the coach who has flown under the radar all season – and, in all honesty, his entire career – despite the fact he’s played as big a role in the New England Patriots’ success this year as anyone else on the field, or along the sidelines.

The Patriots played their first seven games of the season without Pro Bowl left guard Logan Mankins, who held out due to a contract dispute, and then lost starting right guard Stephen Neal to a season-ending shoulder injury on Nov. 7 in Cleveland. And they’ve played the entire year without backup Nick Kaczur, who suffered a significant back injury during training camp.

Through it all, Scarnecchia – New England’s offensive line coach and assistant head coach since 2000 – has molded this motley crew of draft-day studs and unwanted free agents into the best run-blocking, pass-protecting offensive line in the NFL. He’s gotten more out of Dan Connolly, a versatile, journeyman backup who went undrafted in 2005, than any team could hope for, and he’s helped turn fellow castoffs BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead (both undrafted in 2008) into one of the league’s most prolific running-back tandems.

Entering Week 15, the Patriots are ranked 15th in the league in rushing yards per game (112.5) despite the fact two former undrafted free agents have accounted for 73 percent of their carries. Of the 14 teams ranked ahead of New England, 12 of them have at least one running back drafted in the fourth round or higher making significant contributions (which, for this study, means they’re ranked either first or second on their team in rushing). Seven of them have a first-round pick as a starter.

The only teams who’ve gotten more out of less are Houston, which has former undrafted free agent Arian Foster as the league’s second-leading rusher along with seventh-round pick Derrick Ward; and Atlanta, which has a fifth- (Michael Turner) and seventh-round pick (Jason Snelling) accounting for the bulk of its rushing yards.

Aside from ranking higher than half the league in rushing with two unknowns carrying the ball, the Patriots are also one of the best in the NFL at protecting their quarterback. They’re tied for sixth in the league with Kansas City for the fewest sacks allowed (21) and are fourth in fewest quarterback hits (42), which is remarkable considering Tom Brady is 10th in the NFL in pass attempts. And they’ve done it despite having three linemen miss a combined 25 games, which should be more than enough to prove Scarnecchia’s worth to the 2010 Patriots.

The craziest thing about this story is Scarnecchia, who’ll turn 63 on Valentine’s Day, has been here for 27 years since 1982, with the exception of two seasons in the late ‘80s when he left to work for Ron Meyer in Indianapolis. He’s served as a special teams’ coach, a tight ends’ coach, a defensive assistant and, most recently, an offensive line and assistant head coach under Bill Belichick. And the most impressive part is he’s outlasted the majority of the players who’ve been credited with molding the Patriots into the model franchise they are today – players such as Drew Bledsoe, Ty Law and even Troy Brown, who began his NFL career in 1993 when Scarnecchia was listed as a “special assistant” and retired in 2007, seven years after Belichick re-assigned Scarnecchia as his No. 1 assistant.

Scarnecchia has had a front-row seat for almost every ebb and flow in franchise history, including Dick MacPherson’s treacherous 2-14 season in 1992 in which he coached the final eight games after MacPherson got sick, and Belichick’s first Super Bowl title in 2001. He was on the sidelines at the Meadowlands when the Patriots went 16-0 in 2007, and he was in his usual spot at the old Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro on Dec. 12, 1982 when ex-convict Mark Henderson cleared a path in the snow to allow John Smith to kick the decisive field goal in a 3-0 win over Miami, commonly referred to as the “Snowplow Game” in Patriots’ lore.

What’s even more striking about Scarnecchia’s 27 years with the Patriots is the fact he’s survived numerous league trends and coaching styles – not just coaching changes – whether it was Bill Parcells’ fiery personality, Pete Carroll’s laissez-faire attitude or Belichick’s covert approach. Every coach who’s come and gone over the past three decades has valued Scarnecchia’s input and has always had a role for him on that respective staff, which says a lot about the respect Scarnecchia has earned as one of the league’s most underrated football minds.

On top of that, he’s a physical marvel. He can be seen during the dog days of training camp in mid-August running suicide drills alongside players half his age – and, in most cases, beating them to the finish line. He’d actually cringe at reading a column like this, because he prefers to take as little credit as possible while remaining a key figure behind the scenes, not in the limelight. Back in 2005 when Belichick’s father, Steve, passed away, Scarnecchia took over Belichick’s weekly media obligations while his boss tended to all the funeral arrangements. Scarnecchia opened his first and only press conference that season with a long story about Steve Belichick before warning the media, “I don’t want to talk about me” – a fitting statement from a coach who always tries to avert the attention elsewhere.

Despite his best efforts, it’s impossible to ignore the impact Scarnecchia has had on the success of this year’s team. The league needs to take notice. Now’s the time to start honoring football’s forgotten geniuses, and who better to name the award after than the man who’s served as the NFL’s consummate unsung hero for the past three decades.

Photo Credit: patriotworld Karen Cardoza