Bret Ingalls said there's something cosmic about playing this Super Bowl in Miami. About 1,100 miles away, in the frosty North, people at Miami University would agree.
Six members of the New Orleans Saints' staff, including head coach Sean Payton and five of his assistants, each made it to this Super Bowl after a stopover at the Oxford, Ohio, school, dubbed the "Cradle of Coaches."
Payton said it's no accident that it worked out this way. "You have experiences at certain schools," said Payton, a RedHawks assistant in 1994 and 1995. "You pay attention to certain coaches that you felt you'd like to work with again someday. ... When you have background and you know exactly what you were getting, that's pretty valuable."
Aaron Kromer, the offensive-line coach, and Dan Dalrymple, the head strength-and-conditioning coach, both played and coached for the RedHawks, with Dalrymple enshrined in the school's Hall of Fame. Ingalls, now New Orleans' running-backs coach, was at Miami University as an offensive assistant in 2005. Strength assistant Charles Byrd was a graduate assistant at Miami in 2007, and assistant special-teams coach Mike Mallory is the son of Bill Mallory, a former RedHawks coach.
It turns out that there's a lot more to Miami's football lineage than being the school where the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger played his college ball.
"I've said this before," Payton said. "I've got a great group."
Considering that Oxford is about five miles from the Indiana state line, there's likely going to be divided loyalties this week with the Saints preparing to face the Indianapolis Colts.
Or maybe not.
"We're all pulling for the Saints," said James Carsey, Miami University's strength-and-conditioning coach, who's worked with several of the former RedHawks on the Saints' staff. "I've got one of my assistants, she's from Indiana and all about the Colts, but because of the connection we have with the Saints, we all want to see it happen."
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