Paul Pasqualoni: Miami Dolphins Coach Comes Full Circle

When you fall off a horse, you have to get back on.  Paul Pasqualoni exemplifies the old saying like no other.

In the “what have you done for me lately?” world of college football, Pasqualoni, after amassing a 107-59-1 record over his 14-year career with Syracuse University as their head football coach, was unceremoniously dismissed following the 2004 season by the school’s new athletic director Daryl Glass.

Pasqualoni's teams finished in the Top 25 seven times and he had a 6-3 record in bowl games.

Following his termination, he would receive a call that would put him on track to the position he is in now, defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.
 
His name was Bill Parcells.

In college, he was known as a head coach that would intervene on offense, defense, and even special teams, however Parcells offered an opportunity for Pasqualoni to join an NFL ball club as a coach. He would sign on as a tight ends coach in 2006, where he would further the development of Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten, and a year later Parcells would offer Pasqualoni with a chance to get back to his roots.

A former letterman at linebacker for Joe Paterno at Penn State, he accepted the title of linebacker coach and was given the responsibility to coach star linebacker DeMarcus Ware and veteran Greg Ellis. What resulted was a 26.5 sack season between the two and a Pro Bowl appearance for Ware.

In 2008, Parcells took his show to Miami, where he would take over as the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins. He would name his assistant head coach in Dallas, Tony Sparano head coach. For Sparano, his choice for defensive coordinator was easy.

However, also being offered a pay raise by the Dallas Cowboys, the decision to take the promotion or the raise was not an easy one for Pasqualoni.

He would accept Sparano’s offer and would become the new defensive coordinator for the new era of Miami Dolphins football.

What Pasqualoni promised to bring was a more simplified version of the 3-4 defense already in place. He would allow roles to be more defined, which would allow players to be more effective in their responsibilities on the field.

Joey Porter, who many believed was on the downside of his career, would re-emerge as one of the NFL’s most feared pass rushers under Pasqualoni, setting a career high in sacks with 17.5. He returned to the Pro Bowl for the fourth time and was named an NFL All-Pro for the first time.

In the 2008-09 NFL offseason, Pasqualoni’s name would float around the NFL as a possible candidate for the vacant Kansas City Chiefs job. The opportunity to come full circle at 59-years-old for the Cheshire, Connecticut native would be business as usual for a man that many former recruits as Syracuse would call a no-nonsense guy.
 
Former Syracuse and Miami Dolphin running back Rob Konrad once said of Pasqualoni “he has no used car salesman in him.”

It is that same approach he has taken with him to the NFL, where he has become one the hottest coordinators in league and is being projected as a future head coach in either the NFL or back to his throne as the king of the castle in college.