Coastal Carolina's Head Football Coach Followed an Unconventional Path

Today at 1:00PM, my South Carolina Gamecocks host the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. However, the most interesting story of this game doesn't involve a player. It involves the head coach for Coastal Carolina. His name is Joe Mogila, and he's followed an unconventional path to end up coaching college football.

Coastal Carolina's Head Football Coach: Joe Moglia

After being a defensive coordinator for Dartmouth for two years (1981-1983) Moglia took a job with Merrill Lynch, and ended up working his way up through the ranks of the investment bank over the next seventeen years.

In 2001, Mogila left Merrill Lynch to be the CEO of Ameritrade (now TD Ameritrade). In his seven years at the head of Ameritrade, he grew the company through a series of record earnings and mergers and acquisitions. However, being a high-flying wall street banker isn't what he wanted to do.

He wanted to coach college football.

Accordingly, in 2008, he stepped down from the top post at TD Ameritrade and took an unpaid internship with the Nebraska Cornhuskers under head coach Bo Pelini. He then coached some semi pro teams for a few years, before taking the head coaching job with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.

In his first year leading the Chants, Moglia guided the team to an 8-5 record, and a share of the conference championship. This year, the former Wall Street CEO has the Chants sitting on a 10-1 record, already clinching a share of the conference championship yet again.

In discussing his approach to the game, Moglia is more analytical than emotional, comparing the game of football to chess.

We have to be able to compete at the national level. We’re not quite ready to do that, but we’re making good progress. I’ve never been a wild football fan, but I’ve always loved the strategy of the game. To me, it’s advanced chess with 22 people functioning at once with a lot at stake. The game has changed, but it’s still about having a well-executed plan. Hopefully, one day we’ll win a national championship.”

Now his team comes into Williams-Brice stadium for what is undoubtedly their biggest test of the year. We'll see how well Moglia can match moves with Spurrier across the chessboard.