Dan Mulrooney couldn't make a tee time.
More importantly, Mulrooney coudn't stand the thought of not supporting the cause that held its charity fundraiser on the links while Mulrooney was at a recruiting camp for Brown University, where he is the first-year defensive coordinator.
The late Bill McGovern, who coached more than 35 years at the collegiate and NFL levels, died of cancer two years ago, and his family had organized the golf event to both honor their late patriarch and raise funds to combat cancer.
But Mulrooney, like so many in the post-pandemic era, imagined another way and came up with the LB1 Masterminds Zoom clinic.
"The whole purpose of the virtual Mastermind Clinic was to honor Bill McGovern," Mulrooney, a former NCAA head coach and AFCA 35 Under 35 honoree, told FootballScoop. "He was a special figure in my life, and in a lot of peoples' lives.
"I was talking to Luke (Kuechly), saying I wish there was something I could do, and this was the idea. It was just the perfect opportunity for the right person at the right time."
What unfolded last week on computer screens literally from coast to coast -- more than 700 coaches pre-registered for the free event, which saw viewership peak with between 400-500 coaches logged onto the Zoom at a single time -- was something that personified the coaching fraternity.
Dudes talked ball for hours. DUDES. Kuechly, a former two-time All-American, who starred under McGovern at Boston College, and fellow College Football Hall of Famer LaVar Arrington, of Penn State, dotted the star-studded lineup.
So, too, did Notre Dame defensive run game coordinator/defensive line coach Al Washington. Former Temple and Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins, too.
On and on. Coaches spoke. Coaches listened. Former players spoke. Coaches listened. The event stretched nearly five hours.
Arrington shed insight on his signature "LaVar Leap" maneuver, noting he had far more nuance than sheer athletic ability.
"Here's what I studied: I studied the shoulders and the head of the running back," Arrington told the audience, as shared in the clip. "If I came on a blitz, if I was able to get a one-on-one and I cleared the tackle and I'm headed towards that back, if the back dropped his head and then his shoulder went with him, he's going down. He is going down.
"So, I'm going to make him a believer that he needs to go down."
Kuechly delivered not only his pre-snap keys but also focused on how he trained to make sure his body reacted quickly to execute what his mind processed.
"My goal pre-snap and pre-game was to understand, out of all these looks that they're going to run and out of all these formations, how do we match up on our defense, and then who's going to come block me in the run game, specifically," Kuechly said. "Because everybody knows, in the run game it's one guy who's really assigned to block you. So if you understand where he's coming from, his angle to you and his relation to the football, now things really, really slow down. Then after that, it's how fast can I process. So, boom, I can tell you everything, I know everything, I know our defense like the back of my hand, but then when that backside guard pulls, how quickly can I tell myself, 'Boom, that was a B-gap player, now he pulls, now I'm the A-gap run-through player off the double-team.'
"That's where I started trying to get to as I got older playing football. Who's going to block me and how do I beat him to get to the football?"
Mulrooney helped moderate the event. Mostly, he asked questions and listened.
"For me as a coach, keeping the name alive in the industry and having something named after you in your honor is, I think, something one day all coaches would like," he said. "We just wanted to make sure we honored Coach McGovern and can continue to honor his legacy.
"We want to make this an annual thing, around the end of July right before the season when coaches are hungry for information, they're getting back into camp, right before NFL training camps. We're going to keep it going and just super prideful and grateful for the response we got in the first year."
The mission, Mulrooney declared, won't ever change.
"We'll always keep the philosophy the same: raise money in memory of Coach McGovern, keep it free and talk football at the highest level," he said.