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By
Ron Cherubini
©2009 Bonesville.net
(Photos not otherwise attributed are
courtesy of ECU Athletic Media Relations.)
Of all of former East
Carolina coach Steve Logan’s protégés,
none seems more similar to the coach himself than Dan Gonzalez.
Cerebral… patient… quiet… hard working… a consummate leader. Save for a logjam at quarterback, Gonzalez might have gone down as another of ECU’s
prolific signal callers. Regardless, he took with him in life the
foundation elements for success and has applied them adroitly in the years
following football.
Though Gonzalez only fully had the reigns of the ECU
offense for a season, his command of Logan’s philosophies and his
ability to execute the scheme as designed makes you
wonder what might have been had the quarterback from Neptune,
NJ, had two or three years under center.
Despite spending his senior season behind a youthful
and inexperienced offensive line, he piled up passing yards and proved
that was as good as they come. His efforts yielded him a season in the
NFL (starting with the Cowboys and culminating with a playoff game with
the Dolphins and a season on allocation to NFL Europe), a couple more in
the CFL (with Montreal) and an understanding of what it takes to be
successful not only in football, but more so in life. Today, a
successful commercial banker by day, Gonzalez dedicates the balance of
his available time imparting – much like his former coach – all the
knowledge he can about playing football and being an effective
quarterback to his offensive players at Indian River High School in
Chesapeake, VA.
“You know, originally, I was going to go into
education,” Gonzalez said, “and now, I guess I am sort of doing that
anyways.”
Indeed, when he chose the Pirates, he was intent on
becoming a teacher. Instead, he chose to pursue an education in
business, knocking out his undergraduate degree in three years and
polishing off his MBA over the next two. And he flexes that education
every day at work, working for Monarch Bank in Chesapeake. But it was
the other education he received, the one he gained from being immersed
in ECU’s offense under Logan, that he still uses today on the football
field working with young kids, many of whom have the same dreams he had
growing up on military bases around the country and while at Neptune
High School in New Jersey.
“Work is great and I work for a great organization
and get to deal with and help a lot of people,” Gonzalez said. “But,
coaching at Indian River – where I have been for five years now – is
something that I absolutely love. It is a blast and I wouldn’t trade
being a part of that coaching staff for anything.
“For me, the biggest role I get to play in football
is to connect with the players, which is what I experienced as a player
in college. Indian River is located in a tough, tough community and a
lot of these kids need support in life, not just football. I try to keep
that in mind and be that type of person, not just coach, for these guys,
so I guess I am trying in some ways to educate.”
It makes sense that Gonzalez would gravitate back to
football as it had been part of his life from his earliest venture into
sports.
Always a Quarterback
Unlike many athletes who go on to play college and
pro football, Gonzalez didn’t sort of eventually meander to a position on
the football field. Starting in Pop Warner football when his father
Gilberto was stationed in Augusta, GA, he was always the quarterback.
“I started playing football when I was seven years
old, so I guess I started pretty early in childhood,” Gonzalez said. “My
father was in the ... Army and we moved around some. At the time,
we were in Georgia, and my older brother (Gilberto, Jr.), who is five
years older than me, had been playing football already and, of course,
if he was playing, I wanted to play. That is where I first took interest
in playing football and just kept on it.”
Though his father didn’t play football growing up, he
had a strong appreciation for organized athletics and was the biggest
influence in the Gonzalez boys’ sports lives, which made it easier for
Gonzalez to pour himself into the game.
“Sports weren’t my father’s thing,” Gonzalez recalled
of the man he calls his greatest influence. “But he was always there
for me; he came out to everything and encouraged me.”
His father and mother, Irma, were also very much
academics-first in their encouragement for their two boys.
So, Gonzalez started early on honing the two biggest
requirements for becoming a good quarterback: the ability to learn and
the athleticism to execute what you have learned. Gonzalez' skills,
apparent early on in his
development, were leveraged by a large does of fierce competitiveness,
firming up a solid foundation pretty quickly.
“I have always been a really competitive person, so
sports were always an outlet to experience that part of life,” Gonzalez
said. “I played baseball, too, but football took the majority of my
time.”
By the time his family moved to New Jersey, Gonzalez
had gotten to be pretty good at his position and was validated as such
when, as a sophomore, he took the helm of the varsity offense at Neptune
High School.
“Neptune has always had a really good football
tradition,” he said. “I really didn’t know what to expect going into
high school. Growing up, one thing you learn quickly about playing
quarterback is that you have to be able to throw the football and you
have to be smart, and I kind of felt like I had those two things going
for me.
“I got in there and was somewhat successful at it but
I would never have been considered the star at Neptune.”
No, that designation fell to a running back one year
Gonzalez’s junior. In what turned out to be a stroke of luck for East
Carolina and a rare opportunity for Gonzalez, his backfield mate at
Neptune, Scott Harley, ended up being his backfield mate throughout
nearly his entire football career.
“Scott, not doubt, kind of stole the show there as he
was a really talented guy early,” Gonzalez said. “I started for the
varsity as a sophomore and we had a really good season and got to the
playoffs. We lost in the first round but to get there was a big
accomplishment for me as a sophomore and a first-year starter. I guess
it was that point when I started thinking, ‘Hey, if I keep at this and
get better at it over the next two years, I may have a chance to do this
in (college).’”
As good leaders do, Gonzalez quickly points out that
it is others that deserve the credit for his team's and even partly his
own successes as part of the team.
“I was lucky enough to play in the same backfield
with (Harley),” Gonzalez. “That was a special thing having started out
together with Scott and then finishing up together down at East
Carolina.”
Ultimately, it was Gonzalez who opened up ECU’s
channel to signing Harley, who at the time was one of those players that
in the past would not have bothered to return a call from ECU. But, with
a friend in Gonzalez, the Pirates got access to Harley and his visit to
Greenville sealed the deal.
Though Harley was a bonafide blue chipper at Neptune
and there were games when the team didn’t attempt a pass at all,
Gonzalez was no slouch.
“There were occasions when we needed to win throwing
the ball and I was able to do that,” he said. He led Neptune to playoff
appearances as a sophomore and senior and was receiving good
attention from reputable football programs.
“My senior year, there were a lot of schools on the
East Coast that were recruiting me, some Division I and some Division
1-AA schools like William & Mary,” he said. “Maryland, Rutgers, East
Carolina, Boston University… schools like that were expressing interest.
“Being from New Jersey, my first choice was Rutgers… I
wanted to stay in-state. They had a very good school and the football
program was up-and-coming. I had good grades in high school and I wanted
to go to a good school where I could get a good education.”
Still, he was well aware of East Carolina and was
curious.
“My exposure to ECU was the summer my senior year,”
Gonzalez recounted. “One of the graduate assistants there at the time
got me on the phone and said, ‘Hey, we are interested in you from what
we have seen on film and are going to keep our eye on you. We hope you
are interested in ECU.’ That was the year that I think Jeff (Blake) was
a senior and I was seeing them on ESPN all the time, so I definitely
wanted to hear what ECU had to say for sure.”
ECU followed up on that interest later, sending a
coach to Neptune for a visit.
“I think it was the linebackers’ coach who had the
New Jersey area,” Gonzalez said. “‘Hey, we really like you and would
like you to come on a visit.’ At the time, I was still very interested
in Rutgers.”
Rutgers was interested in Gonzalez, too, and had him
pegged as their No. 2 desired quarterback.
“Rutgers was recruiting another quarterback and they
told me, ‘We’re looking at another quarterback and are going to offer
him first and want to see what he says.’ I said, ‘Ok… that’s fine, but I
am going to go down to Greenville on a visit.’
“So, I visited and really kind of fell in love with
the coaches and the school. I was excited about the program and what
they were doing and as a quarterback you want to go somewhere where they
are throwing the ball around and they were doing a lot of that and
really well. It was very attractive to me and they were playing really,
really good competition at the time and were on television quite a bit,
pretty much playing a Big East schedule.”
Academically, ECU made equal sense to Gonzalez.
“At the time I was thinking about going into
education so it seemed like
a good fit all the way around,” he said. “So that is how it happened. I
accepted the scholarship offer on my visit and a week later Rutgers came
crawling back and said, ‘No… we really want you to come to school here.’
It was too late and I never looked back.
By the time Coach Logan arrived at his house, he was
already committed to the Pirates and Logan’s charm and approach to
recruiting only made things that much more comfortable for the Gonzalez
family.
Quarterback in Wait
 One of the very things that endeared Gonzalez to his
new coach also somewhat sealed his fate at ECU and shaped his
understanding of what a coach should be.
“East Carolina is one of the best decisions I ever
made,” he said. “When you are in high school having to choose where you
are going to go, it is hard to make that decision because you really
don’t know these coaches until a couple of years have gone by, but I felt
very comfortable with Coach Logan. Playing quarterback for Logan means
he is also your position coach and the coach you spend most of your time
with.
“Getting to be around him and spend a lot of time with him, you take in
his coaching style and philosophy. For me, being around him for five
years was really a blessing. Steve cares a lot about his players and he
puts so much time into his quarterbacks and will give you as much as you
can absorb. He is so respected really at all levels of football as an
offensive mind and is very supportive of his quarterbacks. He wanted his
quarterbacks to work through tough times, too, so as a backup, if the
starter is struggling, you still might not get to play.”
That kind of relationship can also have its downside,
particularly when there is another quarterback there like Marcus
Crandell.
“Yeah, for me, that really kinda sucked,” Gonzalez
laughed. “Marcus being there... Marc and I were really close, but he made
getting on the field pretty tough because he was so good.”
Gonzalez said that Logan earned his pay in the way he
mentally prepared his quarterbacks to be primed and
even-keeled even when the likelihood they would play was remote.
“Starting quarterbacks get a lot of work, so I only
really got work in spring just in case something was to happen down the
road,” he said. “So, I got what I could and my preparation was mostly
mental. Up to that point, learning from watching and taking in
everything you could handle from Steve, so when my turn came I was ready
to start learning on the job.”
Since it took a couple of years for a quarterback to really get Logan’s
offense fully, Gonzalez expected and was quite frankly relieved to have
a redshirt season. He knew he could settle in and learn the offense. He
almost found himself pressed into the active roster that first season in
1993.
“I was a backup that year because Marc broke his
leg,” he said. “But I was able to use the redshirt that season so my
first active roster season was in 1994. Marc also was injured in 1996,
which led to me getting my first start.”
For a young quarterback with little game experience,
his first start was truly a test under fire. On a snowy and icy November
night in Blacksburg, VA, Gonzalez stepped into the starting role in
place of the injured Crandell, and made a name for himself among the
Pirate fateful. The Pirates were not supposed to be in that game, but
thanks to a 74-yard hookup with Larry Shannon that cut the Hokies lead
to 14-7 going into half-time, the Pirates stunned a national television
audience. Though the Hokies scored two late touchdowns in the fourth
quarter to win 35-14, Gonzalez played very well and served notice that
the future of the position was in good hands. On that night, in his debut,
Gonzalez threw for a pair of touchdowns and 268 yards against the
eventual Big East Champions.
“I remember they were ranked, it was an ESPN game and
we get off the bus and it is snowing… the field was white… and I was like,
‘Are you kidding me?” Gonzalez said. “It was a tough place to play but I
eventually settled down.”
 Gonzalez
finished out the 1996 season with three wins, culminating in a complete
thrashing of rival North Carolina State (50-29) in Charlotte. Along the
way, in just his second start, Gonzalez carved up Ohio University for
383 yards, etching his name in the ECU record books with currently the
4th best single-game passing total in Pirates history. And he did it again
the following week against Memphis when he notched the 11th best single-game
mark.
More than validating to himself that he could start
for the Pirates, his polishing off the 8-3 campaign in his junior year
erased any doubts in anyone’s mind who the starting quarterback would be
in 1997.
Though he would have scripted a different season in
1997 – the Pirates managed a 5-6 record behind a green offensive line
and against a schedule that included games against West Virginia, Wake
Forest, South Carolina, Southern Miss, and N.C. State – there was no
question that Gonzalez was a quality quarterback.
“Going into my senior year there was not a question
who the starting quarterback would be after getting the chance to fill
in for Marc, and I welcomed that situation,” Gonzalez said. “It was a lot
of fun playing with the guys I came in with (recruiting class). It was a
blast. We had a lot of high expectations following Scott’s 1,800-yard
season in ’96, but it was clear right away that he wouldn’t be able to
do it again… we had such a young offensive line – guys who went on to be
very good linemen – and were inexperienced. It made things tough for
Scott, who took a lot (of criticism). He was running hard; there just
weren’t any holes there. We ended up having to the throw the ball a lot
more than we really wanted to that season.”
By the end of his senior season, he had passed for a
career total 3,868 yards with a near 57% completion rate with 23
touchdowns.
“I guess it did surprise me that I had the passing
success I had there,” Gonzalez said. “I pretty much sat the bench till
my fourth year and you really don’t know until you get there how things
are going to go. I got to play with a lot of talent my junior year and
there was no pressure on me that season.
“And my senior season also worked out well for me. I
was fortunate to get a chance to play with and benefited from having
really good receivers, guys like Larry Shannon, Mitchell Galloway, Jason
Nichols, Troy Smith, Linwood Debrew… I could go on and on. It made it
easy on me because all I had to do was get the ball close to any of
those guys and they would make the play. It kind of makes the (passing
numbers) a bonus (in his career).”
Ready
for the Future
Chief among Gonzalez’s skills was intelligence. With
the same vigor he pursued understanding Logan’s offense; he likewise
attacked the academic opportunities at ECU.
“Football is full-time and most players are on campus
in the summers and Coach Logan knew how very, very important my
education was for (me) so he was very supportive (of how aggressive Gonzalez
was in the classroom),” he said. “I was fortunate enough to get my
undergraduate degree in three years and was able to complete my graduate
degree when I was a senior on the football field.”
He had all the academic credentials needed to sail
right into corporate America so Gonzalez felt less pressure to make
football a career. Still, with the success he had as a senior at ECU, he
wanted to give it a shot.
“Going into my senior year, I knew there might be
some interest and opportunities to play at the next level,” he said. “Of
course, I wish my senior year had gone a little better (record-wise) but
things happen for a reason and I made the most of it. I was fortunate
enough to go to camp with the Dallas Cowboys in 1998 and that was a
dream come true… you grow up dreaming of the NFL and I had a real chance.
In Dallas, I didn’t make the best of it but did get another opportunity
that year in Miami (with the Dolphins.)”
Though his career in the NFL would last only a
partial season with the Dolphins – where he got to dress for a playoff
game against the Denver Broncos – and a season in Amsterdam in the NFL
Europe league, where he was allocated by the Dolphins, it was an experience he
relishes.
“It was really nice to be a part of that… to be on an
NFL roster,” he said. “It didn’t last as long as I would like but I had
the opportunity and it was a lot of fun.”
In 1999, he had not given up on hopes of a return to
the NFL and figured his best shot to do so would be through the Canadian
Football League.
“I knew to make it back into the NFL, I needed to be
playing,” he explained. “Marc has been up there and was having success,
so I went there and played. I didn’t want to have any regrets so I gave
it all I could and did my best, playing two seasons in Montreal.”
Gonzalez could have continued to bounce around, but
he always intended to put his degrees to work.
“I had given it a shot and had fun with it,” he said.
“Traveling back and forth during the season is tough and the business
side of things can make playing ball not as fun as it could be. I was
fortunate to have the time that I did.”
It didn’t take long for Gonzalez to start his new
life. In fact, it was an ECU alumnus and fan of his that approached him.
“A man named Neal Crawford, who was in the Hampton
Roads area working for BB&T at the time, said to me, ‘Hey, I know a
little bit about you and I know you have your MBA. (Banking) is
something you should consider when you are done playing because I think
you would be a good fit for it,’” Gonzalez recalled. “So, that got
things started and I liked what he was describing to me. I didn’t know
at the time because I didn’t have the experience and then got introduced
into the world of commercial banking, which is what I do now at Monarch
and have been doing it for about six years now.”
Highly successful at his work, Gonzalez still relies
on football to fully fulfill himself. He is a big Pirates football fan and
is up on the program.
“I absolutely follow ECU,” he said. “Two guys I
played with are on the staff (Junior Smith and Dwayne Ledford). Coach
(Steve) Shank(weiler) is in charge of recruiting in this area and I talk
to him about some of our players. I have been down to ECU quite a few
times. They are doing a great job there.”
Dan Gonzalez is still on the field coaching
football at
Indian River High School in Virginia. (Submitted photo)
But you won’t see him at too many Pirates games. Not
because he doesn’t want to be there, but because he is so dedicated to
his own team at Indian River that he has to settle for catching the
Pirates on television.
“It is so tough to get down there during (prep)
football season,” he said. “We have games and then review film and
preparation… it takes up all the time. But I do manage to get down to ECU
for a game when I can. My years at ECU were great years for me.”
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