Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Billie Weiss
2020 Spring Practice: Dailey Goes From Groundbreaking Player to Evolutionary Coach
February 27, 2020 | Football, #ForBoston Files
BC's new wide receivers coach always stood at the forefront of offense's revolution
The modern college football game changed the concept of "eye-popping numbers" forever. New, fast-paced styles of play continuously shattered the record book, and the game shifted into a previously-undiscovered gear in an attempt to harness the newfound speed. It rewrote quarterback play at the college level, and records once considered untouchable faded into the past.
The changing tides made those statistics more commonplace, making the players who produced them easily overlooked. For someone like Joe Dailey, it can then be easy to forget or overlook how he rewrote what it meant to play quarterback for Nebraska. Now on staff as the wide receivers coach at Boston College, Dailey is an asset for riding the forefront of the offensive revolution, a player who parlayed ahead-of-his-time experience into a trailblazing coaching career.
"We have a young staff with a lot of juice and energy," Dailey said. "Coach Hafley talked about a number of things about building a staff. Youth wasn't going to be the primary criteria, but once he started mentioning certain names, we all had certain, similar characteristics. We had excitement, energy, juice and competence."
BC gives a full-circle feel to Dailey's career. He was a dual-threat prospect from New Jersey at a time before run-pass quarterbacks became commonplace. He earned three stars as a recruit in the early-2000s, and his unique skill set earned him an offer to play in the Big 12 for a Nebraska team coming off its most recent heights in the Big 12.
Head coach Bill Callahan named him starting quarterback for his sophomore season, and he rewarded Nebraska with a groundbreaking performance. He became the quarterback in program history to throw for 300 yards when he burned Baylor for 342 yards and five touchdowns. It was part of a larger, 2,205-yard season, third-best in Nebraska history at the time.
Dailey's career finished after a transfer to North Carolina, where he started at quarterback in 2006 before transitioning to wide receiver. It made him the perfect candidate to transition to coaching, especially because offenses began evolving to a more fluid, flexible, spread-based attack.
It didn't take him long to find a foothold. In 2008, Liberty University named him quarterbacks coach, and Dailey helped turn the Flames into an offensive science experiment. Quarterbacks Josh Woodrum and Buckshot Calvert exploded onto the national scene under Dailey's tutelage, which transitioned from just quarterbacks into the offensive coordinator's position in 2014. Woodrum, a rare FCS invite to the NFL Combine, went undrafted in 2016 but remains a backup quarterback in the league with Washington.
Overall, Liberty's offense averaged over 400 yards with a balanced attack. His final season in Lynchburg produced an offense with over 33 points per game, one of the best in the FCS, and earned him an invite to New Mexico as the Lobos' offensive coordinator.Â
"There are just new ways to advance the football down the field," Dailey said. "There has to be a convergence of an illusion of the run opposite the rhythm (of the offense). The jet sweep, for example, is a big part of the game because of split flow. One party is going one way, and another is going another. There are big plays that come out of those plays with designed split flow."
Dailey is a well-traveled player and coach, but BC represents a homecoming for a Northeast, New Jersey guy. It's a new challenge; BC is his first time in a power conference since serving as recruiting coordinator for Kansas in 2010, but he takes over a position loaded with experience working within an offense. Dailey transitioned from quarterback to wideout in his last year in Chapel Hill, and he produced a 1,000-yard receiver at Liberty in Antonio Gandy-Golden.
"We want to be fundamentally sound," Dailey said. "We have to have great fundamentals - fast, physical and discipline - and we have to catch the football. We don't want guys to catch and fall down because then the play ends. We want the play to start when we catch the football. We want to catch and run. Those are the guys that we're looking for and recruiting and developing right now."
It will likely be a big help to BC's passing game, which flashed glimpses last year with three different, unique options. Kobay White remained in Chestnut Hill after testing the transfer portal waters, but the leading BC receiver from last season will likely be paired once again with Zay Flowers as primary options.
Flowers exploded onto the national scene early last season with deep bomb, explosive potential, and his agility-based speed game is the perfect complement to the overall balance of White. Later in the season, Ethon Williams' burst into the scene, giving BC three legitimate utilizations at wide receiver.Â
There's an individual sparkle to each of those receivers, and Dailey's job is about enhancing the shine of the passing game. By doing so, he will develop the image of a room rebuilt into a vision shared within the new BC coaching staff, a greater part of a new offense under Frank Cignetti, Jr.
"When you're recruiting fans, players and coaches to be part of this program, they see criteria of being affiliated with BC football and the ACC," Dailey said. "Recruiting a certain type of athlete is what people get excited about. That's what we talk about - the NFL and coaching the best prospects out there. It's not under one umbrella."
The changing tides made those statistics more commonplace, making the players who produced them easily overlooked. For someone like Joe Dailey, it can then be easy to forget or overlook how he rewrote what it meant to play quarterback for Nebraska. Now on staff as the wide receivers coach at Boston College, Dailey is an asset for riding the forefront of the offensive revolution, a player who parlayed ahead-of-his-time experience into a trailblazing coaching career.
"We have a young staff with a lot of juice and energy," Dailey said. "Coach Hafley talked about a number of things about building a staff. Youth wasn't going to be the primary criteria, but once he started mentioning certain names, we all had certain, similar characteristics. We had excitement, energy, juice and competence."
BC gives a full-circle feel to Dailey's career. He was a dual-threat prospect from New Jersey at a time before run-pass quarterbacks became commonplace. He earned three stars as a recruit in the early-2000s, and his unique skill set earned him an offer to play in the Big 12 for a Nebraska team coming off its most recent heights in the Big 12.
Head coach Bill Callahan named him starting quarterback for his sophomore season, and he rewarded Nebraska with a groundbreaking performance. He became the quarterback in program history to throw for 300 yards when he burned Baylor for 342 yards and five touchdowns. It was part of a larger, 2,205-yard season, third-best in Nebraska history at the time.
Dailey's career finished after a transfer to North Carolina, where he started at quarterback in 2006 before transitioning to wide receiver. It made him the perfect candidate to transition to coaching, especially because offenses began evolving to a more fluid, flexible, spread-based attack.
It didn't take him long to find a foothold. In 2008, Liberty University named him quarterbacks coach, and Dailey helped turn the Flames into an offensive science experiment. Quarterbacks Josh Woodrum and Buckshot Calvert exploded onto the national scene under Dailey's tutelage, which transitioned from just quarterbacks into the offensive coordinator's position in 2014. Woodrum, a rare FCS invite to the NFL Combine, went undrafted in 2016 but remains a backup quarterback in the league with Washington.
Overall, Liberty's offense averaged over 400 yards with a balanced attack. His final season in Lynchburg produced an offense with over 33 points per game, one of the best in the FCS, and earned him an invite to New Mexico as the Lobos' offensive coordinator.Â
"There are just new ways to advance the football down the field," Dailey said. "There has to be a convergence of an illusion of the run opposite the rhythm (of the offense). The jet sweep, for example, is a big part of the game because of split flow. One party is going one way, and another is going another. There are big plays that come out of those plays with designed split flow."
Dailey is a well-traveled player and coach, but BC represents a homecoming for a Northeast, New Jersey guy. It's a new challenge; BC is his first time in a power conference since serving as recruiting coordinator for Kansas in 2010, but he takes over a position loaded with experience working within an offense. Dailey transitioned from quarterback to wideout in his last year in Chapel Hill, and he produced a 1,000-yard receiver at Liberty in Antonio Gandy-Golden.
"We want to be fundamentally sound," Dailey said. "We have to have great fundamentals - fast, physical and discipline - and we have to catch the football. We don't want guys to catch and fall down because then the play ends. We want the play to start when we catch the football. We want to catch and run. Those are the guys that we're looking for and recruiting and developing right now."
It will likely be a big help to BC's passing game, which flashed glimpses last year with three different, unique options. Kobay White remained in Chestnut Hill after testing the transfer portal waters, but the leading BC receiver from last season will likely be paired once again with Zay Flowers as primary options.
Flowers exploded onto the national scene early last season with deep bomb, explosive potential, and his agility-based speed game is the perfect complement to the overall balance of White. Later in the season, Ethon Williams' burst into the scene, giving BC three legitimate utilizations at wide receiver.Â
There's an individual sparkle to each of those receivers, and Dailey's job is about enhancing the shine of the passing game. By doing so, he will develop the image of a room rebuilt into a vision shared within the new BC coaching staff, a greater part of a new offense under Frank Cignetti, Jr.
"When you're recruiting fans, players and coaches to be part of this program, they see criteria of being affiliated with BC football and the ACC," Dailey said. "Recruiting a certain type of athlete is what people get excited about. That's what we talk about - the NFL and coaching the best prospects out there. It's not under one umbrella."
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