A little over a year ago, Craig Candeto and wife Maribeth prayed and thought hard about a job change. Candeto had finished his third season as head coach at Division III Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, but felt drawn to coaching at the Division I level. Convinced they needed to make a move, he took a job at Georgia Tech as the assistant director for football operations, an off-the-field job.
“It wasn’t an easy decision leaving my guys,” Candeto said. “It’s never easy to say, ‘Hey, I’m out of here’ to the kids you’ve recruited.”
Candeto was hopeful that, after a year, perhaps a job on the coaching staff would open up, but was under no illusion that one would. If not, he figured he would look for a coaching job elsewhere. Monday, Candeto’s hopes will be officially realized, when he conducts his first practice as Tech’s quarterbacks and B-backs coach as the replacement for Bryan Cook, now the offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern.
“It’s a little more natural for me to be on that (coaching) side more so than the operations side,” Candeto said. “Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I’m excited to be back on the field coaching.”
Candeto, 35, was an easy choice for Johnson after Cook was hired by Georgia Southern Dec. 9. He was Johnson’s first quarterback at Navy in 2002, flew fighter jets in the Navy before he was medically discharged because of a thyroid condition, served one season as a graduate assistant for Johnson at Tech, went to the Citadel as a position coach for two years and then took the Capital job.
While his interest was presumable, Candeto made sure to inform Johnson he wanted to be considered shortly after Cook’s departure was announced. The conversation continued during Tech’s preparations for the TaxSlayer Bowl. Candeto said Johnson called him shortly after New Year’s to ask him to come into the office, where he informed Candeto that the job was his.
“From that point on, that afternoon, I switched my office over and got rolling,” Candeto said.
It has the makings of a smooth transition for a critical position on Johnson’s staff. The two know each other well, have worked together and Candeto knows Johnson’s offense at a deep level. Further, Candeto has been around the team for a year and is familiar with the quarterbacks and B-backs he’ll coach.
He is clear on two principles of his style – holding players to a high standard while maintaining solid relationships with them. They are part of a philosophy gleaned from the model of two coaches in his life in particular, Johnson and Candeto’s father, Larry, a former high-school coach in Florida.
“I think most guys want to be held accountable, but they don’t want there to be double standards,” Candeto said. “They want to be held to the same standard. I think that fits right in line with what I’m saying. I’ve told those guys from the beginning, I don’t care if you’re the starter or third or fourth string. Your footwork is going to be your footwork. Your drops are going to be your drops. There’s not going to be a standard for a guy that’s rushed for 1,000 yards and a guy that didn’t take a snap. Everyone’s going to be held to a standard of what is excellent.”
Soon after his hire, Candeto began meeting individually with the players in his position group, conversations that he said had less to do with football and more with players’ backgrounds, families and post-football goals. There was some football. Among other things, Candeto learned that B-back Dedrick Mills, who rushed for 771 yards and 12 touchdowns last season as a freshman, wants to be pushed.
“He’s not one of those guys that’s going to shy away from you getting onto him,” Candeto said. “He wants accountability. He wants you to push him to his limits because I think he understands how good he can be.”
He also met with the players as a group and gave them a survey, which was filled out anonymously, about their expectations for their position coach.
“I wanted to hear their thoughts,” he said. “I didn’t care who it came from, because I’m going to be coaching all of the gose guys.”
Johnson himself has acknowledged that the job is tough, because it’s his specialty and he will be involved. Candeto said that he looks forward working with Johnson, from whom Candeto learned the spread-option offense, trying to learn more about his vision for it and then trying to carry it out with his players.
Having been a head coach, even at the Division III level, has given him a different perspective on the role of an assistant. He said it will make him better able to support Johnson.
“I think a lot of times as a young assistant, you think, ‘Well, we should be doing that this way’ or ‘We should be doing that,’ but you don’t have all the answers,” Candeto said. “But once you’ve sat in the chair, you see there’s a lot more factors than maybe what I thought are going on as to why we do certain things a certain way.”
One factor for how Johnson may conduct spring practice that is completely unrelated to football – the due date for the Candetos’ first child was Sunday. The arrival (it’s a boy) may cause some changes in Candeto’s availability.
“I know Coach (Johnson), he’s a big family guy,” Candeto said. “So, heck, he may be a little excited because he may get to coach quarterbacks one day.”
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