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By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, FEB. 25, 2014 – Ron Dugans knows a lot about winning.
USF's new wide receivers coach went 45-4 during his playing days at Florida State and he took home a national championship ring at the end of his senior year. Most recently, Dugans spent four seasons coaching the wide receivers at Louisville, which went 12-1 last season and defeated Miami in the Russell Athletic Bowl.
Dugans has gone to six bowl games as a coach and he plans on helping the Bulls get back to the postseason while working in the state where it all started for the former NFL veteran.
“I just felt like it was a great opportunity not only to come back home to the state of Florida, but to be around something I felt like had the chance to make special,” the Tallahassee native said.
Dugans, a former three-sport standout at Florida A&M University High School, learned a lot about winning during his FSU playing career as a receiver from 1995-99. Dugans started his final two seasons and registered 105 career catches for 1,520 yards, but more importantly he had a chance to play in three national championship games.
“The biggest thing we felt was we don't want to let the guys next to us down. We had togetherness; we had that belief and the mental toughness,” Dugans said. “We knew that if we were down 20 points in the fourth quarter, we felt like we were going to come back and win. We had the confidence level that nobody could beat us and nobody was more conditioned than we were.”
Dugans was selected in the third round of the 2000 draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and he went on to play five seasons in the NFL, the last with the Houston Texans, before returning to Tallahassee, where coaching came into play for the first time.
“I love being a mentor and I love helping kids because my upbringing wasn't the greatest and a lot of kids these days their upbringing is not the greatest,” Dugans said. “I want to give them some hope. If I made it, you could make it as well.”
Dugans started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at FSU from 2005-07 before picking up experience as an NFL coaching assistant with the Bengals.
“A lot of guys when they're done in the NFL they don't want to come back and be a grad assistant going back to school,” Dugans said. “I was home, so I didn't care what it took to get into coaching to be able to be a mentor with these kids.
“My grandmother, she raised me and she said, 'You need to be a pastor, you need to be in the pulpit,'” Dugans added. “I said, 'Mom, this is my pulpit, because I've got a chance to give back to these kids and be a mentor to them and not just a football coach.' I'm somebody they can come back and talk to when things are going bad. Everybody is going to be there when things are going good, but when your back is against the wall, who is going to be there for you?”
Dugans got his first wide receiver coaching job at Georgia Southern (2007-09) before helping shape Louisville into a winner from 2010-13. The Cardinals went 23-3 in Dugans' last two seasons with the program, which underwent a complete transformation from a mindset and image standpoint with Charlie Strong at the helm.
“At Louisville you had to get everybody on the same page and just kind of change the culture of the football program,” Dugans said. “Basketball they had always been winning, but football was kind of a struggle, so you had to start from the ground up.”
Dugans said a big part of building a winner consisted of getting the entire Louisville athletics department involved – coaches, staff, academic support and administration.
“Getting that support staff and getting the fans to come to the game to support the kids (was key) because those kids were out there giving it up every day in practice, so we felt they deserved to get people in the stands to come watch them play,” Dugans said.
Dugans sees great potential in USF and plans to help the Bulls by serving as a leader by example, especially with the players at his position.
“As a coach, I want these guys to do the little things, but I've got to coach the little things, so I'm giving 100 percent effort in practice because I want my players to give 100 percent in practice,” Dugans said. “They're a reflection of me; I'm the head coach of my position, so I can't ask those guys to do something I don't want to do. It's all a part of giving everything you've got, finishing every drill, working hard, being consistent and just being a detailed player.”
Part of being a complete player involves succeeding in the classroom and off the field, and Dugans will be keeping a watching eye on his Bulls.
“I always tell guys I do have favorites. Some guys say, 'Oh, I don't have favorites,' well, my favorites are guys that do right and don't hurt the team because at the end of the day it's all about the team,” Dugans said.
USF gets spring practice rolling 8 a.m. Wednesday on campus and Dugans has a plan in place for what he wants USF receivers to accomplish sooner rather than later.
“My goal first of all is to develop an identity at that position. What is our identity? We want to be physical, tough players, explosive players and we make plays at this position,” Dugans said. “I'm also looking for a leader in that room; somebody that if they see something isn't right they're not going to put up with it.”
Stay updated on the USF wide receivers and the rest of the team throughout spring practice on GoUSFBulls.com. Learn more about Dugans at his coaching bio page HERE.
