If they ever made a Hall of Fame for career assistant coaches, Dante Scarnecchia would be a first ballot induction. In fact, they may name the entire thing after him.
Scarnecchia played his college ball as an offensive lineman at California Western in the mid 1960's and now, more than half a century later, he's still studying and teaching the position. His first coaching job came at his alma mater in 1970 and, after the nomadic journey required of every coaching lifer, Scarnecchia assumed his second stint as a New England Patriots assistant in 1991 and never left. He arrived as a tight ends and special teams coach and assumed offensive line duties in 1999. Scarnecchia retired in 2013 and returned before last season, helping the Pats win their fifth Super Bowl.
This is a man who's forgotten more about offensive line play than most of us have ever known.
So when he says something that runs counter to popular teaching, it's worth listening.
"I've heard it described in so many ways, 'Hey, you have to be passive in pass protection. You can't be that aggressive in pass protection.' I don't believe any of that," he says in the video below. "I really believe you have to be as physical in pass protection as you want them to be in the run game."
Dante Scarnecchia : You have to be as physical in pass protection as you want them to be in the run game pic.twitter.com/S8J5hsVKk8
— GipsySafety (@GipsySafety) May 23, 2017
If anyone knows where we can acquire a longer video of this talk, please let us know.