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New faces join Panthers coaching staff By Ryan Anderson
At his introductory press conference, head coach Ron Rivera emphasized the need for coaches that were strong teachers on and off the field. As the Panthers enter 2012, following a season that saw the team triple their win total from 2010, two new teachers will be part of the coaching staff. A college teammate of Rivera’s who played an integral role in one of the most exciting plays in college football history, Richard Rodgers will serve as assistant special teams coach after spending seven seasons at Holy Cross. A starting quarterback at West Charlotte (N.C.) High School in the 1980s with ties to the city and the Carolinas, Steven Wilks joins the Panthers as Secondary/Passing Defense Coordinator following three seasons with the San Diego Chargers.
Richard Rodgers: “The Play” Even 30 years after the fact, Richard Rodgers still thinks about “The Play” – the improbable five-lateral kickoff return for a touchdown that allowed Rodgers’ California Golden Bears to defeat the John Elway-led Stanford Cardinal on the final play of the game between the two rivals in 1982. In addition to featuring five laterals, The Play also included an appearance by members of the Stanford band, who thinking the play had been blown dead, entered the field of play midway through the return. Cal radio play-by-play announcer Joe Starkey called the return “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending...exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football.” “I agree wholeheartedly and as adamantly as he put it during that time,” said Rodgers, who was the second and fourth player to handle the ball on the return. “That feeling will never leave. It’s been 30 years and I see it all the time.” The Play was set up after Stanford took a 20-19 lead behind a 35-yard field goal on the previous drive. On that drive, Elway helped Stanford overcome a 4th-and-17 on its own 13-yard line and move down the field against a Cal defense that featured Panthers head coach Ron Rivera at linebacker. 8 / www.panthers.com
The drive left the Bears with four seconds to score a touchdown. As Starkey said that day, “Only a miracle could save the Bears…” As special teams captain, Rodgers called The Play in the huddle. “It was probably as chaotic a moment as there was,” recalled Rodgers. “I said keep the ball alive and if you’re going to get tackled just pitch it. It was all spontaneity after that.” What happened next is hard to describe. Stanford kicker Mark Harmon squib kicked the ball to the Cal 45-yard line inside the left hash mark where the ball was recovered by Cal’s Kevin Moen. Moen quickly lateraled the ball off to his left to Rodgers. “At this point, it’s like the ball is in suspended time,” said Rodgers. Rodgers gained one yard before quickly lateraling the ball to Dwight Garner. Garner received the ball near the Cal 44-yard line and ran straight ahead before being wrapped up by a gang of Stanford players at midfield. Garner appeared to hit the ground and end the play as members of the Stanford band and other Cardinal players began streaming on to the field in celebration. The play had continued, however, as Garner
Rodgers and Rivera were teammates at Cal for one of college’s most famous plays; now they are reunited with the Panthers as coaches.
was able to lateral the ball behind him back to Rodgers before being called down.
up and the cannon goes boom and it was like the world turned blue and gold after that.”
“As I started running toward the Stanford sideline there were Stanford players that had to turn around and run off the field because they weren’t supposed to be on the field,” said Rodgers. “Once I had the ball I knew where the end zone was, but I couldn’t tell who the players were that were playing and who wasn’t.”
One of the most unlikely plays in football history – The Play – had given Cal a 25-20 win and cost Stanford an invitation to a bowl game, leaving Elway, a senior, without a postseason appearance during his college career.
Rodgers ran to the middle of the field and noticing blue jerseys to his right, lateraled to teammate Mariet Ford at the Stanford 45. Ford took the ball up field outside of the right hash mark to the Stanford 25-yard line close to where all 144-members of the Stanford band had started to gather. “[Ford] took the ball as far as he could go and he pitched it over his head, blindly, backwards to Kevin Moen who started the whole thing, who went right through the band and over the trombone player into the end zone,” said Rodgers. Moen had reached the end zone, but had Cal won the game? The Cal players were celebrating, but the officials had not signaled a touchdown and the cannon at California Memorial Stadium, which usually sounds when the Bears score, was silent. “I knew we had gotten into the end zone and all I could think in my mind was ‘that’s a touchdown.’ There’s just no way that I saw that it wasn’t.” said Rodgers. “We were elated and jumping in the end zone, but…the cannon hadn’t gone off and the officials are standing in the middle of the field because there were some flags on the field. The referee steps out of the group, puts his hands
“Being part of it is kind of surreal in the moment and then now 30 years later, it’s like ‘Wow that really happened,’” said Rodgers. Rodgers played one more season at Cal and played for three seasons in the Arena Football League (1987-88, 1992) before entering coaching in 1989. In his 23 years of coaching, “The Play” has served Rodgers well. “Since then I’ve been able to call on The Play as a tool of learning for players that I coach – never give up, never quit, you never know when you’re going to make history,” said Rodgers. “I certainly didn’t know that Saturday morning The Play was going to happen. That’s why you keep playing.” With the Panthers, Rodgers will work with special teams coordinator Brian Murphy. “We want effort. We want guys to care,” said Rodgers. “When you’re running down on a kickoff or you’re returning a kick or you’re blocking for the returners, if it makes a difference to you then it shows…We want to establish special teams as a role on this team and let them understand and know that it’s important and it’s going to make a difference in winning or losing, hopefully, a Super Bowl.” CAROLINA PANTHERS V.13.7/ 9
Members of the Stanford band celebrate on the field at the end of the Cal-Stanford game, thinking they had won. Little did they know that Cal’s Kevin Moen weaved his way through the band to score a touchdown as time ran out, giving Cal a 25-20 win.
All right, here we go with the kickoff. Harmon will probably try to squib it and he does. The ball comes loose and the Bears have to get out of bounds. Rodgers is along the sideline, another one…they’re still in deep trouble at midfield, they tried to do a couple of...the ball is still loose as they get it to Rodgers! They get it back now to the 30, they’re down to the 20…Oh, the band is out on the
field! He’s gonna go into the end zone! He got into the end zone!...Will it count? The Bears have scored, but the bands are out on the field!...AND THE BEARS!! THE BEARS HAVE WON! The Bears have won! Oh, my God! The most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending...exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football! California has won the Big Game over Stanford! - Joe Starkey, University of California play-by-play announcer
Steven Wilks: Coming Home When Steven Wilks was hired to coach the Panthers secondary in January, it was a homecoming for the Charlotte native. In the 1980s Wilks starred at quarterback for West Charlotte and played collegiately at Appalachian State before spending one season with the Charlotte Rage of the Arena Football League in 1993. He began his coaching career at Johnson C. Smith University in 1995. “A lot of family and friends are still here,” said Wilks. “Most of my family is still here in Charlotte; extended family as well. A lot of my college buddies from Appalachian live here in Charlotte and of course all of my high school guys. It’s been great to come back…The phone calls haven’t stopped yet.” At West Charlotte, Wilks played quarterback for legendary coach Bruce Hardin, now the head coach at Providence Day. As a senior in 1986, Wilks helped lead the Lions to a 4-A state championship appearance, narrowly falling to Fayetteville 71st. “We had a pretty good football team my 10 / www.panthers.com
senior year; really my whole career there we were pretty good,” said Wilks. “I had a great experience there and there was a lot of pride within the community with the West Charlotte alumni so it is still a very special and dear part of my life.” After graduating from West Charlotte, Wilks committed to play football at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Wilks spent his first two seasons in Boone, including a redshirt season in 1987, playing for head coach Sparky Woods before Jerry Moore took the helm. “I went in as a receiver and redshirted my first year and then in spring they moved me over to DB,” recalled Wilks. “It was a transition for me, not really ever playing on defense, but…it took me just the spring to really feel like that was my home and I really enjoyed it.” In Wilks’ four seasons playing at Appalachian, the Mountaineers compiled a 29-16-1 record and won the Southern Conference in 1991, his senior year. That season, Wilks blocked a field goal in the third overtime against Furman to help the
Mountaineers win the first overtime game in Southern Conference history. “[My experience at Appalachian State] was unbelievable when you look at the school itself and just the camaraderie we had between my teammates and the friends that I created up there,” said Wilks. “We still stay in contact to this day and we talk about the old times and the memories that we had…I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
Following college, Wilks’ earned a free agent tryout with the Seattle Seahawks in 1992, but he was unable to make the team. He returned to Charlotte, and after a stint working as a teacher assistant at Olympic High School, decided to play one season with the Charlotte Rage arena football team in 1993. “I thought it was something to try to keep me active and possibly have another opportunity to get a shot at coming back [to the NFL],” said Wilks. After spending one year in the management program at a North Carolinabased bank, Wilks turned his attention to coaching. “I just wanted to be around the game, interacting with guys, being a teacher, having an influence on young men,” said Wilks. “When I started getting that urge and itch that’s when I started picking up the phone and calling a lot of coaches that I knew – Sparky Woods, Jerry Moore, Ruffin McNeil – trying to see exactly what I needed to do to get back in.” McNeil, an assistant at Appalachian State when Wilks was in school and currently the head coach at East Carolina University, helped connect Wilks with his cousin Daryl McNeil, who was about to accept the head coaching job at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte. “We sat down and we talked ball and he interviewed me and he said we have a job
for you,” recalled Wilks. “So I left the bank and started working at Johnson C. Smith.” Wilks was named defensive coordinator at Johnson C. Smith in 1995 and coached there for two seasons before following Daryl McNeil to Savannah State. He returned briefly to North Carolina in 2001 as an assistant coach at Appalachian State for one season. Wilks credits his experiences at Appalachian State and Johnson C. Smith as integral parts of his development as a coach. “My experience at Appalachian was unbelievable and I think it propelled me to where I am today,” said Wilks. “It gave me the opportunity to be here. I also think where I started at Johnson C. Smith… the guys that I worked for, we never looked for excuses. When I look back on it, I think that was a great experience for me and how I came into this profession because it was a grind, but I appreciate the grind and it just made me work harder.” Following 11 years coaching on the college level, Wilks entered the NFL coaching ranks in 2006 when he joined Panthers head coach Ron Rivera in Chicago. With Rivera serving as defensive coordinator and Wilks leading the Bears secondary, Chicago won the NFC Championship and advanced to Super Bowl XLI. The two reunited in 2010 in San Diego, helping the Chargers lead the NFL in total defense and pass defense.
It was Wilks’ familiarity with Rivera and his comfort with the team – more than his connections to the Carolinas – that were the driving forces in his desire to join the Panthers staff this offseason. “I think the best thing coming back here is not so much about being here at home; that’s just a plus,” said Wilks. “The best thing about coming back is just working with Coach Rivera and seeing the commitment that Mr. Richardson and this organization have and the great coaching staff that Ron has put together because to me that’s the most important thing – when you feel you have all the pieces to the puzzle to be successful.” As Secondary/Pass Defense Coordinator, Wilks will tutor a position that has become even more critical as teams continue to emphasize the passing game on offense. “We say this all the time, particularly in the National Football League today, it’s a passing game and we’re the last line of defense,” said Wilks. “I tell the guys all the time, we have to drive the bus from the back. That’s our mentality going in and that’s the thing that I’ve already started talking about…I want to be great and I know just from talking to the guys and interacting with them they want to be great as well. That’s our aim this year – to try to do our part of this body of work to put ourselves in the position to be successful.”
The 1986 West Charlotte Lions. Quarterback Steven Wilks (9) helped lead the Lions to a state championship appearance versus Fayetteville 71st. Wilks went on to play defensive back at Appalachian State.
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