Read tomorrow’s Eagle (and the Star, too) for my story on Kansas State’s new quarterbacks coach, Warren Ruggiero. There was some leftover information I didn’t use, and I’ll share it here:
- Ruggiero was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Elon College. The first quarterback he mentored was Wes Pope, who had the following recollection of Ruggiero:
“He was always in the back of my head, calling me ‘The Iceman.’ It was always about mental toughness. He told me to be cool, to practice like it’s a game. Every play we had in practice, we’d act like the game was on the line because in the games, it’d be like practice. Your body becomes accustomed to it… You’re cool as ice. Nothing fazes you. It helped calm me down, to relax and be myself… He’d call me ‘The Iceman.’”
- Here’s Ruggiero on his borderline obsession with developing quarterbacks:
“One of my faults is that I’m a very focused person about what I’m doing. My wife tells me that all of the time, that I need to broaden myself a bit. Whatever my job is, I probably sink a little too much of my energy into that. I probably couldn’t name one Division I quarterback, if you ask me. Probably a little exagerration, but…”
I tossed out Crocs-wearing Tim Tebow – you know, the Heisman Trophy winner – and he admitted, yeah, he’d heard of him.
- He loves the word “confirmed” almost as much as my pal Ron Prince, which should be K-State’s slogan this year.