Latina realizes dream with Irish

By ROB TODOR

VINDICATOR SPORTS EDITOR

TEMPE, Ariz. — John Latina grew up in New Castle, Pa., while following the Notre Dame football program. It took him a lot of years, but earlier this year he realized his long dream and joined the Fighting Irish football program as an assistant coach.

Latina is assistant head coach (offense) and offensive line coach at Notre Dame. He is one of two staff members who has area ties. Quarterbacks coach Peter Vaas was head coach at Allegheny College for four years (1986-89).

"Notre Dame has always been a special place in my mind," said Latina, who has coached 26 years at seven colleges. "I've journeyed around, like a lot of coaches, but I always said if I had a chance [to coach at Notre Dame] I would do everything I could."

The only regret for Latina was that, just 10 days before the offer from new head coach Charlie Weis came, he had joined Steve Spurrier's staff at South Carolina.

"You don't ever want to go away from your commitment," said Latina. "It was an honor that Coach Spurrier offered me a job. But the chance to go to Notre Dame and be with Coach Weis, I knew this was the right thing for me and my family.

"Coach Spurrier understood and since he had an OK feeling about it, I felt it was the right thing to do."

Background

From 2000-04, Latina was offensive coordinator and line coach at Mississippi, where he worked with Eli Manning. Following the 2004 season, though, the entire staff was fired.

Latina has also coached at Virginia Tech (his alma mater), Pittsburgh, Temple, Kansas State and Clemson.

His foundation came at New Castle High, where he played for legendary coach Lindy Lauro.

"Playing for Coach Lauro really made you feel prepared for college," said Latina. "That's a scary feeling when you're a 17-year-old kid leaving New Castle to go to Virginia Tech, but you just knew you were prepared because he worked you so hard you were going to survive that."

Shortly after being hired at Notre Dame, Latina and the rest of the assistants received Weis' playbook.

"He was still in the playoffs when he threw us the playbook and told us to learn it," said Latina. "We all had to learn a new system and that's what we wanted, because, obviously, that system is so successful at the highest level that that's what you want to learn."

Appreciated the challenge

Latina said the playbook is complicated, but he appreciated the challenge of learning it.

"That was a thing that was real encouraging to me to come be a part of this because you had a chance to learn the system that everybody wants to learn," said Latina. "It's the best system in the NFL, it's been productive, a lot of people in the NFL use this system and so it was a great opportunity for me to learn this system.

"Most college systems may have 20 percent or 30 percent of what [Weis] does. We feel it's been great because at Notre Dame we've got smart kids that can really retain and remember all that stuff and go out execute it. We feel it's a great advantage for us because we have so much offense that we can pull from different parts to formulate a game plan."

Still, Latina doesn't take for granted that the offense is one that can't be stopped.

"You can't ever take anything for granted, especially in bowl games," said Latina. "[Ohio State] had a month to prepare and devise some different things you've never seen. So you have to be flexible and do a great job of adjusting during the game."

Latina said he's impressed with the Buckeyes.

"They're very tough and physical up front, which you expect an Ohio State defense to be like," he said. "Their linebackers, whatever they get attention-wise, they deserve and more. We've seen some really good players and played against some really good teams, and this defense is really, really special."

Peter Vaas

Vaas has tutored Brady Quinn to a special season, one in which he's thrown for more than 3,000 yards and 32 touchdowns.

"He's done a great job, obviously — how's that for an understatement?" said Vaas.

"He's matured — he sees things better every single day. But probably the most impressive part about Brady is how hard he works at it. He has an awful lot of pride in what he does and how he performs and that's the reason he's good. He cares about what he does."

Vaas, who graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1974, began his coaching career as an assistant at Allegheny. He went to New Hampshire for seven seasons before returning to Allegheny as head coach in 1986. He built the Gators into a Division III power — they won the national championship in 1990, the season after Vaas left for his first stint at Notre Dame.

Vaas coached the Fighting Irish running backs and quarterbacks from 1990-91, the returned to Holy Cross as head coach for four seasons.

Coached in the pros

Vaas then entered the pro coaching ranks, serving as offensive coordinator with Montreal of the Canadian Football League and with the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe. He spent six seasons as a head coach with Berlin and Cologne in NFL Europe before returning to South Bend.

"I'm an extremely fortunate guy," said Vaas. "I've enjoyed every place I've been. You accept different roles at different times and you try to find the positive in that role.

"My experience in Europe was an absolutely fabulous one. I loved being a head coach, but you miss the relationships with the players when they can let their guard down and relax a little."

Vaas appreciates the opportunity to work for Weis.

"Charlie is a no-frills guy, a hard-working guy who is going to be open and communicate with everybody," said Vaas.

"You also see Charlie's love for the game and his intensity come forth in the way the players play.

"We work together on a daily basis, and yet Charlie has a great balance of controlling things and letting you coach within your own personality. I have never felt as if I had to look over my shoulder to make sure I was doing things right."

todor@vindy.com