“I never did anything famous or play in a big enough program to be famous. We won the last football game. We beat The Citadel in Charleston (S.C.) in the last game I played in.”
 

How did you get into coaching?

“Truthfully I was going to go to law school. I took an education class my senior year. I wanted to coach but I wasn’t too fired up about teaching. But I took that course and I got fired up about education. I took some more education courses.”

Shankweiler got into coaching on the high school level, guiding Redan High of Stone Mountain, GA, to the state 3-A championship in 1979 before becoming defensive line coach at The Citadel the following year.

He also coached at Western Kentucky before coming to ECU initially in 1987. He left after the 11-1 Peach Bowl champion season to go with former ECU head coach Bill Lewis to Georgia Tech and was on the Yellow Jackets staff through 1994 serving as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator.

Shankweiler returned to the prep ranks before coming back to ECU to revitalize the O-line in 1998. He has been at ECU for 10 seasons, including the last five in a row.
 

“I really get excited about a plan coming together when thoughts and ideas are expressed on the field. It’s the same thing with kids when they get here. There’s a plan and something evolves. I enjoy seeing something productive with both Xs and Os and with young people.”
 

“An education administrator.”
 

Wife, Patti; son, Kort, a freshman quarterback in the ECU program; daughter, Lori Gibbs, who has a 7-year old son and lives in Engelhard; and daughter, Jennifer, who is working on a second degree at ECU in nursing.
 

Favorite movie: Caddyshack.

If they ever made a movie of my life, _____ would play me: “Tom Berenger.”

Favorite book: Moby Dick.

Hobbies: “I like to work out, run and I do a lot of yard work.”

Ideal vacation: “Somewhere in the Caribbean.”
 

Keys for 2002:  “Probably the biggest thing is that we’ve got to identify who we are and what we do well. We have a lot of returning players but the chemistry and abilities of teams changes from year to year. Figuring that out and doing what we do best is key. Offensively, we’re diverse enough to do different things. Figuring out each year what those things are is obviously a challenge.”

Strengths of the offensive line: “Probably there’s a pretty mature sense among the kids and they’re able to adjust on the run pretty quick and fast. They understand football better than they did a year ago and are probably able to do more things than they did a year ago. They’re a bright group of guys, football-wise.”

Concerns with offensive line: “Lack of depth. We’re in a situation where we don’t have numbers of quality players. The freshmen class is probably above average but there’s a depth concern between them and the present junior class.”

Who should be the favored in Conference-USA: Southern Miss.

Goal for ECU for the season: Win the conference.