The inspiring story of an assistant football coach at Cortland trying to bring his school a national championship.
While the product on the field is the one that ultimately proves paramount, the coaches behind the scenes help guide your favorite Red Dragon players to a winning result week in and out. When it comes to the 13th nationally ranked Cortland football team, there are multiple moving parts. The staff consists of eleven coaches involved that work to ensure the team is put in the best position to succeed.
This week we are going to focus on one coach who has one of the most impressive resumes you will see.
Cornerbacks coach Dylan Dubuque enters his first season on staff, but brings five years of Red Dragon playing experience.
Dubuque was recruited late into his senior year of high school, and joined the team for the latter half of training camp in his freshman season. Like most freshmen, Dubuque fought to see the field, but was limited to mostly scout team repetitions. While the team keeps all players through the fall, spring cuts are made to make room for the incoming recruiting class. Unfortunately, for the East Greenbush native, he was one of them.
Still wanting to be involved with the team, he opted to join the team of managers. As camp in the 2018 season rolled on, starting kicker Nick Mongelli suffered an injury. Without a capable kicker behind Mongelli, tenured head coach Dan MacNeill was in desperate search for a replacement. Dubuque showed off his leg well enough to earn his jersey back, and he never looked back.
Eventually he was able to work his way back onto the field as a Sam linebacker. In thirty career games Dubuque notched totals of 160 tackles, 30 quarterback hurries, and six blocked kicks. Throughout Cortland’s historic 2021 season, he won Empire 8 defensive player of the year honors, while also being named a second team All-American.
After the season, Dubuque went on to graduate last year in 2021. Due to his play on the football field Dubuque garnered attention from a gridiron football team in Spain, the Badalona Dracs. While making strides overseas, Dubuque eventually returned back to Cortland in an attempt to further learn the game.
As the 2022 season has rolled on, Dubuque has coached his corners to 61 total tackles, 7 turnovers, and 4 defensive touchdowns. Senior cornerback Josh Cordero was also named Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Week after his 3 interception game vs The College of New Jersey (TCNJ).
While being an incredibly humble player and coach, he leans on fundamentals and techniques to improve him and his player’s skill sets.
When asked for a note on his position group’s success this season, the former defensive player of the year echoed a quote of humility: “Be who you are and do what you do.”