ITHACA, N.Y. -- When a 3-0 start crumbles into a 1-6 finish, a coach looks at all aspects of the program. That self-examination can sometimes be painful, but the goal is always to get better on the other side.

This past offseason was a trying one for the Big Red football staff and head coach Jim Knowles '87, but as the 2009 season rolls around, the excitement is back. To get an outsiders look at what needed to be improved upon, Knowles turned to LtCol Jerome P Rizzo to try and help find solutions. 

 

"After the 2008 season, which was disappointing for everyone involved, we looked at what the major factors were in our season not being up to standards and we thought it was leadership," Knowles said. "We decided we needed to train our guys in the qualities of leadership. Fortunately for us, we had LtCol Rizzo as a faculty advisor who really is an expert in developing leaders. We began to talk and developed the Leadership Council, and at the same time came to the conclusion that we needed to raise the standards of excellence across the program - how our locker room looks, how our building looks, how our players dress, how they carry themselves on campus - everything. We needed to go from a sense of entitlement to having a sense of responsibility. That's when we decided to put in the morning drills."

A former assistant football coach at California and Navy and currently the Executive Director of Cornell's Navy ROTC program, LtCol Rizzo not only is an expert in creating leaders and building teamwork, but he also had the football expertise to lend advice to Knowles. 

"I initiated a relationship with (Coach Knowles) and asked him if he needed any help as a faculty advisor," LtCol Rizzo said. "I love football and missed my coaching days. The first thing I did was evaluated the culture of the program. We were disappointed by last year's results obviously. I did a series of interviews with the coaching staff, the support staff and the player and came up with some recommendations for Coach Knowles."

Those recommendations were put in place and helped deliver an offseason full of challenges for the returning players.

"A number of things were pretty self-evident, and I think I reinforced a lot of things they already felt," said LtCol Rizzo. "We needed to become tougher as a team, we needed to become more unified, a little less selfish at times in certain area. The core values we have of commitment, pride, toughness and unity just needed to be reinvigorated and strengthened."

The results were quickly recognizable. 

Morning workouts, named Standards of Excellence (S.O.E.'s), popped up to help weed out the serious football players. Captains were eliminated for the season in an effort to build a grassroots leadership program that developed into a 19-player Leadership Council. Everything was addressed, from how to conduct yourselves on campus to what the locker room should look like. 

"The S.O.E.'s work on all four levels of our core values. We do them for conditioning, individual mental toughness of each player and probably the most important one is the unity. We used military principles in an athletic setting. The program that I recommended to coach and he adopted and that we've been using since the Spring really is identical to the program that Paul Johnson used at the Naval Academy. It stresses toughness - do the drills perfect. Coaches don't tolerate anything less than a perfect drill. One of the important things is when one teammate does something wrong, the whole group is wrong. It teaches the team to pull together and to fight through it."

While the always-treacherous workouts devised by Tom Howley, Cornell's Assistant Athletic Director for Athletes Performance, was difficult, the Leadership Council in particular gave players more of a say in the running of the program. They quickly showed they could handle the experience in a serious manner, disciplining themselves for failing to meet the new standards. Eventually the sighs in the locker room expected when you are getting dressed at 5:15 a.m. for a morning workout changed to strong voices demanding every drill be done right.

"In addition to the S.O.E.'s, one of the most important things Coach Knowles instituted was the Leadership Council," LtCol Rizzo said. "He has given a lot of his responsibilities over to the Council in terms of setting team policies and disciplining team members when they break rules. Watching the guys take responsibility has been fantastic, especially at the S.O.E's. It's hard to know before you play how much of an impact these things will have, but we have a good core group of guys who love the game and are devoted to their teammates, because (the workouts haven't) been easy and hopefully it will reflect on Saturdays this fall."

"You really want your players to be the ones who make sure their teammates are in line straight, or that they do the drills correctly at game speed," Knowles said. "It's now all our freshmen know, and you hope that builds on itself."

The Council is made up of the leaders of all the position groups who have proven themselves through the spring, summer and into the fall. They include seniors Randy Barbour (running back), Quentin Bernhard (offensive line), Horatio Blackman (wide receiver), Chris Costello (linebacker), Tom DiStasio (defensive line), Josh Gajdos (defensive back), Ben Ganter (quarterback), Aaron Levine (linebacker) and Bryan Walters (wide receiver), juniors Emani Fenton (defensive back), Marcus Hendren (running back), Paul Ostick (offensive line) and Dempsey Quinn (safety) and sophomores Rashad Campbell (defensive back), Adam Currie (quarterback), Ryan Houska (tight end), Matt MacFarlane (defensive line) and Shane Savage (wide receiver)

LtCol Rizzo graduated from Williams College in 1987 before teaching and coaching football at the Delbarton School, which developed Cornell freshman offensive lineman Ian Edelson. After two years he moved to Berkeley to serve on the staff of the Golden Bears team as wide receivers coach while earning his Master's Degree in Educational Administration. 

While coaching was in his blood, so was service to his country. Rizzo enrolled in Officer Candidates School in June of 1991. He was designated a Naval Aviator in April 1995 and subsequently received the Naval Aviation Training Command's Student Aviator-of-the-Year Award where he trained on the T-34C, the T-2B, and the T-45A in Corpus Christi and Kingsville, Texas while being stationed in Corpus Christi and Kingsville, Texas and Naval Air Station Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla. He eventually settled in the F/A - 18 and attended TOPGUN School, followed by two deployments to Iwakuni, Japan.

In August-September of 2001, he participated in Peacekeeping Operations in Kosovo in support of Task Force Falcon.Rizzo later served as a TOPGUN instructor at the Naval Strike Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) in Fallon, Nevada in 2001-02. In 2002, LtCol Rizzo joined the staff at the United States Naval Academy as a Physical Education Instructor and Varsity Football Coach. He received the Naval Academy's 2002 Varsity Coach of the Year award. In February 2003, he volunteered to serve with the 1st Marine Division as a Forward Air Controller in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He deployed to Kuwait and was attached to the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. From March through May of 2003 he participated in combat operations in Iraq. He returned to his assignment at the Naval Academy in June 2003.

After spending time deployed in Naples, Italy, Beirut, Lebanon and Akrotiri, Cyprus, LtCol Rizzo reported to Cornell in July 2008 and serves as Navy ROTC's Executive Officer and Marine Officer Instructor. Among the honors and citations he has received for his service are the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

LtCol Rizzo's accomplishments on his own are more than impressive, but the edge he's helped Cornell gain on the gridiron can't be diminished.

"The players believe in it and I really like the way our leadership has taken charge of the S.O.E.'s," Knowles said. "Eventually you want the leaders to step up and they've done that."