A great read!!!
triblive.com/sports/peters-townships-jason-makrinos-finds-fit-on-north-carolina-at-staff-comes-home-to-face-robert-morris/By the time he was 12 years old, Jason Makrinos made up his mind what he wanted to do for a living: be the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Makes sense. During Makrinos’ youth, Bill Cowher and Co. were regular contenders for the Vince Lombardi Trophy, so, for a kid from Western Pennsylvania, his was not an unusual dream.
Though he remains some distance from attaining that goal, the Peters Township grad is continuing to work his way through the coaching ranks. And while he might not be working for the Steelers, he is working with a couple of ex-Steelers.
Makrinos, who played offensive and defensive line at Westminster, is in his first season as 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 also is on the staff at the Greensboro, N.C., school.
After coaching the Kent State safeties last season, Makrinos expected to be back with the Golden Flashes. After all, Kent State led the MAC East in takeaways and interceptions, won the division and went to a bowl game.
But Makrinos was relieved of his duties when the coaching staff was reorganized.
“In all the different scenarios I talked about with my wife, it wasn’t like, ‘Hey, we’re going to go here and win a MAC East championship, go and play in a bowl game for only like the fifth time in Kent State history and get fired,’” he said. “It’s an unfortunate part of the profession, but it’s year by year.”
Fortunately for Makrinos, the coaching fraternity is relatively small, and he had a connection at North Carolina A&T. Aggies defensive coordinator Thomas Howard had worked with Makrinos at Slippery Rock and informed him about the opening on the staff. (Incidentally, A&T has three coaches who worked under legendary Slippery Rock coach George Mihalik: Makrinos, Howard and Willis.)
In a very young defensive backs room, McNeill is by far the elder statesman: a fifth-year senior. Accustomed to doing things a certain way for four years, McNeill was watching Makrinos closely.
“My first impression of him … I ain’t gonna lie. I was like, ‘Damn, this man talks a lot,’ ” McNeill said. “Some coaches, they come in, they show you one side, and then it’s like, ‘That’s not who we met.’ He is literally the same person.
“Always enthusiastic. When he talks, his voice gets high. What you see from the start is what you get.”
What really got McNeill’s attention was the things Makrinos said that had nothing to do with football.
“When we first had our meetings, a lot of times we never talked about football,” McNeill said. “He talked about life, about being disciplined, about having a positive attitude. For weeks straight he tried to install being a better person first before football. Outside of football, you have to work on yourself so it will transfer onto the field.”
On the field, Makrinos’ emphasis has been on takeaways. Besides contributing to Kent State’s success last season, Makrinos said his defenses at Findlay were consistently among the top 10 or 15 in Division II in takeaways.
“He basically just wanted us to install in our brain that anytime the ball is in the air, we’ve got to come down with it,” McNeill said. “Yeah, at first we did think it was a little corny. But after a while, in your subconscious, you just start believing it.”
Belief has turned into reality. The Aggies enter the Robert Morris game with
eight interceptions through six games — they had seven all last season — and 10 total takeaways.
They lead the Big South in total defense (272 yards per game) and are
second in pass defense — behind Robert Morris — at 182 ypg. The defense has 13 pass breakups.