First-year coach brings emotion to team
Being ranked No. 56 in total defense in NCAA football may seem like an average, run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road kind of statistic for Utah State.
Not so high, not so low.
But last year, the Aggies finished the season ranked 111 out of 117 teams. Jumping 55 spots higher after eight games represents a big step forward for Utah State’s defensive squad.
Defensive coordinator David Kotulski, in his first year with Utah State, is a big part of the change.
Last Saturday, the Aggie defense played its best game of the year, shutting out Arkansas State 49-0 and forcing seven turnovers.
Kotulski said the shutout is a boost to the team’s confidence but wasn’t the most important thing about the game.
“The biggest thing is to get a win, to get that feeling and that confidence,” he said. “Is the shutout nice? Yeah, it’s nice for the stats, but you don’t play for the stats. You play for wins and losses and the love of competing and playing.”
While the stats may not be what Kotulski focuses on, a comparison of last year’s defensive statistics shows improvements across the board.
Utah State Head Coach Mick Dennehy said when he decided to make a change at the defensive coordinator position during the offseason, he didn’t know Kotulski from Adam. But after meeting him and checking his references, the decision to hire him was an easy one.
“There was no decision,” Dennehy said. “It was ‘this is the guy,’ pure and simple.”
Kotulski brings an intense, fiery coaching style to the team.
“Football is a game of emotion,” Kotulski said. “It’s one of the few places left where you can get excited, you can jump up and down, you can hit somebody. You can do those kinds of things. It’s a rare venue in this day and age. That’s one of the things you want to instill in the kids, is to play with a lot of heart and have fun doing it.”
Kotulski brought a new look to the Aggie defense, changing the scheme from a defense with four linemen on the line of scrimmage to a three-man front.
Aggie linebacker Nate Putnam said the new look gives the defense more options.
“It allows us a lot more flexibility as a defense to kind of throw different looks at people,” Putnam said.
Dennehy says Kotulski has brought many qualities to the coaching staff.
“He’s got a firm belief in what he’s doing, he’s a great teacher and I think the kids understand what he’s trying to teach,” he said. “He’s a hard-working guy, he’s a dedicated guy, he’s a loyal guy, and he’s a fiery competitive son-of-a-gun.”
Putnam and defensive lineman John Chick agree.
“[Kotulski] is a good person,” Putnam said. “He is a man that I respect. He’s interested in people and treating them right.
Chick said, “I think everyone loves playing for him. He’s got a good scheme and he gets people to play hard. All he talks about is effort and running to the ball.”
Kotulski graduated from New Mexico State, where he played linebacker and center, in 1975. Because he was not extremely gifted as an athlete, Kotulski said he came to believe in the importance of playing with heart and emotion.
“There’s the old Vince Lombardi quote, ‘If you’ve got a guy that’s an athlete, you have a good player. If you have a guy that can think and has great athletic ability, you have a very good player. But if you have a guy that plays with his heart, his mind and his body you’ve got a great player,'” Kotulski said.
After graduation, Kotulski said he chose coaching as a profession in part because he had a great deal of respect for his father, who had been involved in coaching, and in part because he couldn’t see himself in a desk job.
“I was very good in math, but I couldn’t see myself sitting behind a desk all day doing accounting or things like that,” he said. “I wanted something that was challenging, yet rewarding.”
One of the challenges of coaching has been the long hours and the travel, Kotulski said.
“You second guess yourself because of the trials and tribulations you put your wife and your family through with all the hours you put in,” he said.
Kotulski met his wife, Cissy, while attending New Mexico State and has a son, Davey, 16, and a daughter, Carey, 15.
But Kotulski said his career has also been rewarding through the people he has worked with and the places he has gone.
Being around the game he loves doesn’t hurt either.
“You love the opportunity you have to be involved with [football],” he said
Coming to Utah State is a kind of homecoming to Kotulski, who began his college coaching career as a defensive line coach and linebackers coach at the University of Utah from 1978 to 1989. His new job as an Aggie has given him a chance to reconnect with people who played for him at Utah.
“That’s one of the neat things about being back here at Utah State, seeing that those guys are doing well in their lives after they played ball, that they’re successful, that they’re giving back to the community and they’re great people,” he said.
Kotulski spent the last eight years at Bucknell, a Division I-AA university in Lewisburg, Pa. He served as defensive coordinator until last year, when he was asked to serve as interim head coach in place of Bison Head Coach Tom Gadd, who was fighting brain cancer. Kotulski said it was a tough situation, both professionally and personally, to see one of his best friends fight cancer.
“To see things coming apart, from his life to the tradition of success that we had built, it was difficult for all of us,” he said.
Gadd passed away in March, not long after Kotulski had made the decision to come to Logan.
Kotulski said his family is adapting well to Logan and is enjoying living here, making new friends and getting involved.
After the announcement that Utah State and New Mexico State will join the Western Athletic Conference, Kotulski said he’s happy that his alma mater will join the conference with USU, but he knows where his loyalties lie.
“I’m a Utah State Aggie right now, but I’m glad for them to find a home just like us,” he said.
-royburton@cc.usu.edu