[Sly Fox]

Good read from the W-S fishwrap:

Thursday, September 28, 2006
Crossed Paths: Rocco, head coach of Liberty, has links to Wake Forest that go back 20 years

By Dan Collins
JOURNAL REPORTER

As one who played and coached football at Wake Forest, Danny Rocco is as excited as the next ex-Deacon to see this year's team bolt to its 4-0 record.

"I'm hopeful that this will be a season that Wake can really put together a good year and be a bowl team and get the name back out there nationally with its football program," Rocco said.

But unlike most of his fellow alumni, Rocco doesn't see why Wake Forest has to be 5-0 going into its Oct. 7 game against Clemson. As the head coach of Liberty University, the team the Deacons will face Saturday at Groves Stadium, Rocco feels 4-1 should suffice.

"I just said I wanted them to be bowl eligible," Rocco said. "I didn't say they had to be undefeated."

Rocco transferred from Penn State to play defensive back for the Deacons in 1982 and 1983, serving as a captain as a senior. He remained three more years, two as a graduate assistant and one as a defensive-line coach.

He lost his job when Coach Al Groh resigned but hardly came away from his time in Winston-Salem empty-handed. It was here that he met his wife, the former Julie Mills, who was a student at Salem College.

They've remained together the 20 years since, raising two children, David (14) and Amy (13), while migrating to and from coaching jobs at Colorado, Tulsa, Boston College, Texas, Maryland, the New York Jets (where he was reunited with Groh) and Virginia.

During his five years at Virginia, Rocco was promoted from recruiting coordinator to associate head coach. He finally got the opportunity to run his own show this season when he accepted the job at Liberty, a Division I-AA program that is a member of the Big South Conference.

From near and far, Rocco could see that Wake Forest was a program distinguished by distinct cycles. But whereas he played during one of the many times the program was rebuilding - the Deacons finished 3-8 in 1982 and 4-7 in 1983 - he will coach against Wake Forest at a time the program appears to have been, at least for now, rebuilt.

The Deacons are among only 16 undefeated teams in Division I-A and rank 11th in the nation in scoring defense, 14th in sacks and 28th in total defense.

"No one has done a better job than Coach Grobe, with what he's been doing since he's been there," Rocco said. "I can remember when we went to Virginia, and we had the opportunity to compete there,

"I just have a lot of admiration for Coach Grobe and what he is doing, what he has accomplished. And you just always know you're going to get his best.

"Someone asked me earlier in the week, 'Do you think his team will be ready to play?' I know he's got Clemson next. I know all these things. But that's not the way Coach Grobe has operated.

"He'll have his football team ready to go. I'm going to have my football team ready to go. And we're looking forward to giving our best effort."

Assessing the performance of a coach comes easier for Rocco than most, because he has known so many of them so well. His father, Frank, was an assistant at Penn State and, as recently as 2001, the director of football operations at Liberty. One brother, Frank, Jr. was an assistant coach at Liberty who is now the coach at Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg. Another brother, Dave, is the coach at Staunton River High School in Moneta, Va.

While Rocco was at Wake Forest, the Deacons' staff included Bob Pruett, Gary Darnell, Bill Faircloth and Bill Urbanik. Pruett was the coach for nine years at Marshall, where he won 94 games. Darnell, who was the coach for eight years at Western Michigan, is now the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. Faircloth, since 1983, has been an assistant director of athletics in charge of football at Wake Forest. And Urbanik, who has coached for the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders of the NFL, is now an analyst for the ISP broadcasts of Wake Forest football.

So when the opportunity opened to become a head coach, Rocco couldn't resist. The Flames finished 1-10 last season but are 3-1 this season with victories over St. Paul's (27-0), Glenville State (31-7) and Savannah State (28-0) and a loss to Towson (10-3).

Liberty is an independent, fundamentalist university founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell, a world-known televangelist.

"We're all foot soldiers, and I've considered myself my entire career, for 22 years, a foot soldier in this business," Rocco said. "And this has been a lot of fun for me to come in here and kind of put my own personal stamp on things.

"Dr. Falwell has truly made a commitment. This man absolutely, positively loves football and athletics. We just completed an $8 million football-only facility, and we have just put the brand-new FieldTurf in our stadium."

• Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.

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