Peters Township’s Jason Makrinos finds fit on North Carolina A&T staff, comes home to face Robert Morris

By the point he was 12 years outdated, Jason Makrinos made up his thoughts what he wished to do for a dwelling: be the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Is smart. Throughout Makrinos’ youth, Invoice Cowher and Co. had been common contenders for the Vince Lombardi Trophy, so, for a child from Western Pennsylvania, his was not an uncommon dream.

Although he stays a long way from attaining that objective, the Peters Township grad is continuous to work his manner by way of the teaching ranks. And whereas he won’t be working for the Steelers, he’s working with a few ex-Steelers.

Makrinos, who performed offensive and line of defense at Westminster, is in his first season because the defensive backs coach at North Carolina A&T. The Aggies are coached by former Steelers DB Sam Washington, and former Steelers defensive lineman Keith Willis is also on the workers on the Greensboro, N.C., college.

On Saturday, Makrinos — to not point out Washington and Willis — can have a homecoming of types when North Carolina A&T (3-3, 1-0 Large South) visits Robert Morris (0-6, 0-2). Kickoff at Joe Walton Stadium is scheduled for midday.

Moreover the family and friends who will present as much as assist Makrinos, he’ll see a whole lot of acquainted faces on the Colonials sideline.

Makrinos is acquainted with RMU coach Bernard Clark and defensive coordinator Dave Plungas. Line of defense coach Darius Davis coached the linemen underneath Makrinos when he was the defensive coordinator at Division II Findlay. Safeties coach Bart Tanski was a grad assistant when Makrinos was at Findlay, and he employed Robert Morris tight ends coach Delbert Tyler as a GA at Findlay.

“That’s sort of cool in itself,” Makrinos mentioned.

The pleasantries, nevertheless, will probably be reserved for pre- and postgame. The Aggies have their sights set on buttressing their hopes of constructing the FCS playoffs.

It’s a place Makrinos by no means envisioned he could be in a yr in the past.

The lifetime of a coach is transient. It comes with the territory. So does a scarcity of job safety.

After teaching the Kent State safeties final season, Makrinos anticipated to be again with the Golden Flash. In spite of everything, Kent State led the MAC East in takeaways and interceptions, gained the division and went to a bowl sport.

However Makrinos was relieved of his duties when the teaching workers was reorganized.

“In all of the completely different eventualities I talked about with my spouse, it wasn’t like, ‘Hey, we’re going to go right here and win a MAC East championship, go and play in a bowl sport for less than just like the fifth time in Kent State historical past and get fired,’” he mentioned. “It’s an unlucky a part of the occupation, nevertheless it’s yr by yr.”

Fortuitously for Makrinos, the teaching fraternity is comparatively small, and he had a connection at North Carolina A&T. Aggies defensive coordinator Thomas Howard had labored with Makrinos at Slippery Rock and knowledgeable him in regards to the opening on the workers. (By the way, A&T has three coaches who labored underneath legendary Slippery Rock coach George Mihalik: Makrinos, Howard and Willis.)

However going that distant from the consolation of household and pals was daunting.

His spouse, Jessica, hails from Canton, Ohio, and all of Makrinos’ teaching stops had been in Pennsylvania or Ohio: Slippery Rock, Kent State, Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne and Findlay, situated 120 miles west of Cleveland.

“I did my homework on A&T,” Makrinos mentioned. “I wasn’t going to maneuver my household down right here for simply any job. It’s a top-tier FCS program. They gained 4 Celebration Bowls (the de facto nationwide championship for Traditionally Black Schools and Universities). They’ve crushed a number of FBS groups, guys enjoying within the NFL, transferring to the (Colonial Athletic Affiliation) subsequent yr, which is among the high three conferences in FCS soccer.

“Deion Sanders has made it much more engaging to go to HBCUs now. He’s serving to everybody out. And, I’ll be trustworthy, that’s a part of what I checked out when taking the job. I used to be like, heck, if there was ever a time to educate at an HBCU, now could be the time.”

In fact, having the prospect to work underneath Washington was a part of the draw.

Makrinos figured being a defensive backs coach underneath somebody who performed the place on the highest stage may put him within the highlight a bit greater than the opposite assistants. Nonetheless, the chance was too good to let slide.

“You’re speaking a couple of man who, when he performed within the NFL, his place coach was Tony Dungy,” Makrinos mentioned. “If I’m going to get scrutinized by a man and study underneath a man, I wish to study from a man who has discovered from the very best.”

Washington has been happy with what Makrinos has contributed.

“He’s becoming proper in, preaching fundamentals and strategies with our gamers and including his personal experience to what we do,” mentioned Washington by way of the N.C. A&T sports activities data workplace. “The secondary is the place my coronary heart beats, and I feel we discovered the very best defensive backs coach on the market.”

As enthusiastic as Washington was to have Makrinos on board, for among the gamers, there was, understandably, trepidation. That was notably true for Amir McNeill.

In a really younger defensive backs room, McNeill is by far the elder statesman: a fifth-year senior. Accustomed to doing issues a sure manner for 4 years, McNeill was watching Makrinos carefully.

“My first impression of him … I ain’t gonna lie. I used to be like, ‘Rattling, this man talks rather a lot,’ ” McNeill mentioned. “Some coaches, they arrive in, they present you one aspect, after which it’s like, ‘That’s not who we met.’ He’s actually the identical individual.

“All the time enthusiastic. When he talks, his voice will get excessive. What you see from the beginning is what you get.”

What actually received McNeill’s consideration was the issues Makrinos mentioned that had nothing to do with soccer.

“After we first had our conferences, a whole lot of occasions we by no means talked about soccer,” McNeill mentioned. “He talked about life, about being disciplined, about having a constructive perspective. For weeks straight he tried to put in being a greater individual first earlier than soccer. Exterior of soccer, it’s important to work on your self so it would switch onto the sector.”

On the sector, Makrinos’ emphasis has been on takeaways. Moreover contributing to Kent State’s success final season, Makrinos mentioned his defenses at Findlay had been constantly among the many high 10 or 15 in Division II in takeaways.

The flexibility to wrest the soccer from the offense, Makrinos believes, is a matter of the correct mentality. He mentioned he does rather a lot to advertise takeaways, together with ending each defensive backs assembly by having his gamers exclaim, “The ball is ours!”

McNeill mentioned Makrinos even named the DBs’ group textual content “The ball is ours.” However what appeared a bit of foolish at first has change into a rallying cry for the secondary.

“He principally simply wished us to put in in our mind that anytime the ball is within the air, we’ve received to come back down with it,” McNeill mentioned. “Yeah, at first we did assume it was a bit of corny. However after some time, in your unconscious, you simply begin believing it.”

Perception has become actuality. The Aggies enter the Robert Morris sport with eight interceptions by way of six video games — that they had seven all final season — and 10 complete takeaways.

They lead the Large South in complete protection (272 yards per sport) and are second in cross protection — behind Robert Morris — at 182 ypg. The protection has 13 cross breakups.

Makrinos hopes the Aggies protection can have one other robust efficiency towards Robert Morris and make him 2-0 towards the Colonials. The final time he confronted Robert Morris was in 2014 as co-defensive coordinator at Duquesne, and the Dukes gained 22-0.

Furthermore, a win Saturday would give A&T its first street victory of the season, and to get it in Pittsburgh, Makrinos mentioned, could be particular.

Makrinos is assured the Aggies can proceed to construct towards a championship. That would additional burnish his resume for what he hopes is the subsequent logical step: changing into a head coach.

When that occurs is anybody’s guess. For now, Makrinos is content material in Greensboro and at peace with the choice to take the job at A&T.

“It’s been every part that I assumed it was,” he mentioned. “It is a nationwide product we will promote right here at this college: No. 1 HBCU within the U.S. from a dimension standpoint, tutorial fame standpoint, so the long run is as vivid as might be right here.”