Although the Ohio football team trots out onto the field at Peden Stadium to the roar of a crowd and the tune of a catchy pump-up song, following a revving motorcycle, the amount of preparation that goes into planning for a game is rarely viewed with the ensuing fanfare.
Ohio’s four graduate assistants accomplish a majority of the legwork for the team, each working about 80 hours a week, said Andrew Mooney, a second-year graduate assistant.
Mooney is working towards a master’s degree in Ohio University’s Adolescent to Young Adult Education social studies program while the other three are pursuing a master’s in OU’s Coaching Education program.
Some of their duties throughout the week include watching copious amounts of film, running the offensive and defensive scout teams and creating scouting reports for players.
Mooney, a former Ohio tight end from 2006 to 2008 who works with the offensive line, said graduate assistants have to be versatile jacks-of-all-trades. He said he enjoys the job, especially because he gets to continue to build a connection with his alma mater.
Tony Koehling, a first-year graduate assistant who spent the 2012 season as an Ohio student intern, now works with the Bobcats’ linebackers. He, like Mooney, said he doesn’t mind the long workdays.
“We’re here a monumental amount of hours every week,” Koehling said. “When I talk to my family and friends and they ask, ‘How do you stand being at your job that long?’ I don’t even realize I’m here that long most of the time.”
Ohio’s graduate assistants receive a monthly stipend and payment for their education as compensation for their work. They said they would like to be coaches in the future and are consuming all the information they can from Ohio’s coaching staff to prepare them for their next step.
“Our coaches are great,” Koehling said. “They respect what we have to say, (and) they know they have us here for a reason. So if we see something that needs to be taken care of, I feel totally comfortable letting them know that. That’s really important. I don’t think that happens everywhere in the country.”
LeDominique Williams, who is in his second year as a graduate assistant and works with the defensive line, said he and his fellow graduate assistants have bonded this season.
“We spend so much time around those guys, it’s kind of a quick adjustment, and everybody seemed to mesh really quick and really well,” he said.
Jason Grooms, Ohio assistant athletic director for football operations, said he and the other coaches prefers to hire former players and candidates from within the program but aren’t opposed to hiring candidates with no Ohio connections.
Vince Luciani, a first-year graduate assistant working with Ohio’s wide receivers, fits into the latter category. The Canada native said American football coaching jobs are hard to come by for those who were raised north of the border.
Luciani was a student intern for Ohio during the 2012 season and previously assisted the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2011, where he crossed paths with former Bobcats Chip Cox and Chris Garrett.
Grooms, himself a former graduate assistant, said the ability to soak up lots of information quickly is a must for grad students. He said he often notices the grad students paying close attention and taking mental notes.
“You get kind of be a fly on the wall at times,” he said. “Sometimes you learn what to do and what not to do in certain situations.”
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