It was around 10 o’clock on a Thursday night in January. Jamey Chadwell had wrapped up another day on the recruiting trail. He was in South Carolina, making his way back from Georgia, where he visited some high schools.
There would be more high schools in South Carolina to hit Friday before he returned to Coastal Carolina’s campus in Conway, S.C., for a weekend of recruit visits. As the Chanticleers’ offensive coordinator, Chadwell played a big role in recruiting, and with his previous experience as a Charleston Southern assistant and head coach, this area was his bread and butter.
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His phone rang. It was head coach Joe Moglia.
“Hey, what are you doing? Can you come up tomorrow?” Moglia asked in his thick New York accent.
Chadwell asked how urgent it was that he return to campus so quickly. He worried that a player had gotten in trouble or something worse. He told Moglia he could be back on campus by 1 p.m. Friday.
“OK, get here by 1,” Moglia said. “By the way, I’m resigning, retiring from football, and I want to name you head coach.”
It was late and Chadwell was tired. He asked Moglia to repeat it.
Wait, what was that?
The idea of Chadwell taking over for Moglia had been talked about since Chadwell joined the staff in 2017. But Moglia’s contract ran through June 2021 after being extended in the summer of 2017. Coastal had already signed 22 recruits in December. Stepping away in January was strange timing.
But Moglia doesn’t make snap decisions. He always sides with his brain over his heart. It’s how he rose in the finance world to become the CEO of TD Ameritrade, where he still remains chairman of the board. Over the holiday break, getting away from the season so he didn’t make an emotional decision, he evaluated the state of the Chanticleers program and how he wanted to leave it for Chadwell.
The program is located just outside Myrtle Beach and began play in 2003, moving up to the FBS in 2017. It’s known in part for its teal playing field, the “Surf Turf.” A coach whose perspective is unlike any other in college football looked two years down the road and made yet another move few others would.
The way Moglia saw things, Coastal is still below the FBS limit of 85 scholarship players after making its FCS transition. Last year, the Chanticleers had 70 scholarship players. This year, they will have around 77. They should finally be at 85 in 2020. Moglia didn’t want the program to deal with a coaching change just when it should be hitting its stride.
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“I feel good about where we’re headed, but if I go through the next two years, going into the 2021 season, we’ll be ready to compete and do well,” Moglia said. “That means while we’re going through the transition, but the time we’re ready, that’s when I’d be stepping down.”
In December, CCU president David DeCenzo announced he would retire in 2021. DeCenzo went out on a limb to hire Moglia in December 2011 out of the United Football League, just three years after Moglia stepped out of the financial world. Moglia wanted to make sure Chadwell would still be able to replace him. So now was the time.
“Coach thinks things through,” Chadwell said. “Every decision he makes, he puts a lot of thought into it. He obviously did that and told me about it. It was out of the blue for me.”
To understand Moglia’s decision requires understanding his plan and why he’s always done things unconventionally with no fear of expectations.
Joe Moglia stepped down after a final season as head coach in 2018. (Coastal Carolina University Athletics)
DeCenzo conceded that hiring Moglia in 2011 would either be the smartest decision he’d ever make or a major mistake.
Moglia, born in New York to Italian immigrant parents, began coaching high school football in the Northeast from 1968-78. He then worked as the defensive coordinator at Lafayette and Dartmouth before leaving coaching in 1983 at 34 years old to work on Wall Street and provide for his family. He spent 17 years at Merrill Lynch, then left to become CEO at what is now TD Ameritrade in 2001. Under his leadership, TD Ameritrade’s assets grew from $24 billion to around $300 billion.
He successfully guided the company through much of the 2008 financial crisis, then surprised many when he stepped down that year because he wanted to get back into football. Having made millions of dollars, he certainly didn’t need to.
TD Ameritrade is headquartered in Omaha, and Moglia joined Bo Pelini’s Nebraska staff as a volunteer assistant, with hopes of becoming a college head coach. In late 2010, he became head coach of the Virginia Destroyers in the UFL, then president and head coach of the Omaha Nighthawks in January 2011 instead. The league fell apart that year, and DeCenzo decided to make an outside-the-box hire at Coastal Carolina.
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“The reality was, when I first met Joe, he certainly didn’t need to be working,” DeCenzo said. “For somebody that could have simply decided to go off on his own private island and relax, he didn’t. He had a passion for coaching, a passion for working with the players and people around him. That really is what sold me. He had coached before he left for Wall Street. It wasn’t like coaching was foreign to him. He had many years of experience, but I saw something in that passion where I knew he was going to be successful.”
The move paid off immediately. The Chanticleers went 8-5 with a share of the Big South championship in his first year in 2012. That was followed by consecutive 12-win seasons and FCS quarterfinal appearances. The program grew to such heights that it was invited to join the Sun Belt in 2015 and begin FBS play in 2017.
Moglia’s CEO background gave him a different coaching approach. There wasn’t much tackling in practice. Drills were set up for maximum efficiency and less standing around. Reps for backups increased, and injuries went down. Assistants were not to burn the midnight oil working; they had to go home to their families. Decisions were made based on philosophy, not gut feeling. Being a CEO made him a better coach, and vice-versa.
“Something like this had never happened,” Moglia said. “It took the right athletic director to understand what was going on, because there’s no precedent for it, and most people in academia aren’t out there breaking new ground.”
But there was one coach and one program that had been a thorn in Moglia’s side. Rival Charleston Southern, led by Chadwell, went 3-1 against Moglia from 2013-16. That included two Charleston Southern wins against Coastal Carolina teams ranked in the FCS top five.
Moglia had his eye on Chadwell for a while, and Coastal’s FBS move provided an opportunity to change that relationship.
Moglia first reached out to Chadwell in 2015. Moglia’s name was in the mix for bigger jobs, so he asked Chadwell if he’d be interested in becoming his offensive coordinator or replacing him at Coastal, which was considered a better job than Charleston Southern. Moglia noticed what Chadwell was doing with bigger challenges than his own program.
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Even then, Moglia thought about a succession plan at Coastal, just as he’d done at TD Ameritrade. So when the program finished its time in the FCS, Moglia went back to Chadwell with the idea of becoming offensive coordinator and head coach in waiting. Moglia would step down by 2021 at the latest.
“The combination of observing and competing against him, I felt he was an outstanding coach,” Moglia said.
For Chadwell, voluntarily leaving a head coaching job was a risk . But the year before, Fordham head coach Joe Moorhead left for the Penn State offensive coordinator job. Chadwell felt this move would help his chances of becoming an FBS head coach, along with his 35-14 record at CSU. He wanted to work for Moglia, whose style he admired.
Joe Moglia initially hired Jamey Chadwell as offensive coordinator in 2017. (Coastal Carolina University Athletics)
Chadwell’s debut as Coastal head coach came a lot sooner than expected. On the eve of fall camp in 2017, Moglia announced he would take a five-month medical sabbatical to treat inflammation in his lungs, and Chadwell would coach the team for the season. Moglia was adamant that his long-term health would be fine if he took this break and decreased stress. He maintains health isn’t a factor in his decision to retire now.
It was Coastal’s first FBS season, with far fewer scholarship players than its opponents. The program was suddenly being led by a coach many players still viewed as a rival.
“Guys on the team, he had coached against us, and we’d seen videos of him talking,” junior linebacker Silas Kelly said. “Some guys had ill will or whatever about that. And he was the interim. Coach Moglia was still around.”
The result was a 3-9 season. Still, it ended on a two-game winning streak, giving Chadwell some optimism.
“It was the hardest professional year of my life, as far as the transition, going up a level, the expectations being so good in FCS,” Chadwell said. “We weren’t ready for it in a lot of ways. Trying to get the team to believe in you when you came from a rival school, so there was always a little disconnect. Just professionally, going through the season, it was a tough year. But it did reveal some beliefs I had in a program. We finished winning two in a row and played better late in the year. It really reinforced my beliefs in how to run a program. If I could get that team to figure it out when they knew you were a lame duck head coach, it’s given me a good opportunity to continue the legacy Coach (Moglia) has.”
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Moglia returned afterward, and the Chanticleers opened the 2018 season 5-3, including a Week 2 win against eventual Conference USA champion UAB. But a four-game losing streak to end the year, including a 31-28 loss to South Alabama in the finale to miss out on a potential bowl game, left a bad taste.
Moglia thought about the future. He says Chadwell turned down jobs elsewhere to stay at Coastal. He talked with DeCenzo about the direction of the program and the university. He felt Chadwell was ready, and he didn’t want the succession plan to change.
“I’d given him my word, Dave gave him his word, and some people on the board were very supportive,” Moglia said. “There was a possibility the board (might change its mind). I’m in control of it now. I may not be in control a year from now, depending where we might be. You put those things together, the timing with being our best, Jamey having other opportunities, why not give him that opportunity right now and take any doubt out of the equation? It’s truly his team over the next couple years, and I will know he’ll do a good job.”
After getting the call, Chadwell returned from the road that Friday. Moglia said he would handle the process and that there wouldn’t be any leaks. Chadwell had actually been one of the last people to find out that Thursday night. There was a staff meeting at 3 p.m. on Friday, a team meeting at 4 and the press conference at 4:30.
Some players were shocked. Others quickly figured out what was happening. Moglia, always taking emotion out of decision-making, couldn’t help but get emotional during the announcement. He told the group he loved them and handed it over to Chadwell.
“I should have seen it coming, but I didn’t,” junior offensive lineman Trey Carter said. “You could tell he’s aging down a little bit. He’d be sitting on the golf cart at practice at times, stuff like that.
“I knew when it happened, there would be a lot of people leaving. Just some people didn’t like Coach Chadwell that much. It was a rough couple weeks for everybody to get adjusted. That’s just the growing pains with a new coach and new system. But ever since those two weeks, it’s been smooth.”
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There were a number of transfers, including All-Sun Belt defensive end Jeffrey Gunter, starting safety Jave Brown and offensive line starter Brock Hoffman. Reserve quarterback Chance Thrasher graduated in December and left the program. In late January, after some more CCU transfer news, Thrasher tweeted, “People need quit thinking these athletes are transferring because of lack of playing time or competition! A lot of us may be transferring because we want to compete! Play for a coach that cares about us. And the current culture isn’t what we committed too.”
A lot of us may be transferring because we want to compete! Play for a coach that cares about us. And the current culture isn’t what we committed too
— Chance Thrasher (@chancethrasher) January 24, 2019
Moglia talked to a handful of recruits and players to reassure them, but for the rest of the players who stayed, some change has been welcome.
“If you don’t want to be here, then get the hell out,” Carter said of the transfers. “It is what it is. It’s been a lot more energy this spring since I’ve been here.”
Chadwell has put his own stamp on the program. There’s more hitting in practice, the discipline is different and fall practices will be moved to the afternoon. If one person is late to study hall, everyone has to run more. Each day in workouts, Chadwell gives the team a quote to memorize. Players are called on to recite it, and if they get it wrong, they have to do up-downs until someone gets it right. One quote was, “Individual commitment toward a group effort, this is what makes a team work.”
Although Moglia is still part of the university and athletic department, most players haven’t seen him around. Since the meeting about the change, some players have only seen his car in the parking lot. He’s fully turned the program over to Chadwell.
In 2016, Moglia took the entire Coastal Carolina team to vote in the presidential election. The program had held mock debates with players impersonating the candidates. He says no program in college football history had ever done that. He regularly spent 30 minutes with players to talk about issues outside football, like politics, racism and terrorism.
He pushes back on the idea that football is like life. “Football is a game,” he said in a passionate explanation of his philosophy at Sun Belt Media Day last year. “My guys know what ‘ISIS’ stands for. I bet 90 percent of students in the nation don’t.”
It’s rare to hear someone clapping after a media day answer, but not everyone explains why they regularly take 30 min from practice to talk about non-football issues like Coastal Carolina head coach Joe Moglia: #SunBeltFB pic.twitter.com/S4xXasWEag
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) July 23, 2018
Though he’s no longer the head coach, Moglia moved into the position of chairman of athletics/executive director for football/executive adviser for the president. He’ll spend most of his time working with DeCenzo as they finish their tenures together.
“Joe is a very unique individual, and there are some things I want to accomplish before I retire,” DeCenzo said. “Joe has opportunities to open doors to get me in front of people that probably wouldn’t happen otherwise. Looking at his commitment and loyalty to the university, helping us to move the institution forward over the next couple years. He’ll leave when I leave. Between now and then, we’re going to team up and do some things for the betterment of the university.”
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Moglia remains chairman of the board for TD Ameritrade and is putting more time into that. He wants to write a third book, this one about his Be A Man (BAM) philosophy. He’s going to accept more speaking engagements that he previously turned down because of football time commitments. He’d like to get back into golf, which stopped when he started coaching again.
Moglia always goes against the grain. It’s defined his career path and his coaching style. It was evident in the timing of his decision. That never changes, even when it’s hard.
“It was always a difficult decision emotionally, but intellectually, it’s very much the right decision,” Moglia said. “It’s good for me. It’s good for the program. The timing is right.”
(Top photo of Jamey Chadwell: Courtesy of Coastal Carolina University Athletics)