University of Massachusets Athletics
VIDEO: In the Bunker with Mark Michaels
March 27, 2015 | Football
By Cody Chrusciel - UMass Sports Network
Some of Mark Michaels' fondest memories on the gridiron come from UMass' 1998 1-AA National Championship run.
"As the season progressed and the coaching of coach [Mark] Whipple and coach [Don] Brown, the defensive coordinator at the time, and all the coaches on the staff, I think it just started to sink in with the players. And then it became obvious that we could be a very good team and they started to believe."
Whipple and his staff inherited a 2-9 squad and immediately turned them into champions. Michaels had followed Whipple from Brown University to serve as the Minutemen's linebackers coach. That season, he mentored arguably the best linebacking duo in program history - All-American Khari Samuel and Kole Ayi, who that year set the program's single-season tackle record.
"To coach two NFL players in one year is something you don't often get to do at the college level, so that was very rewarding."
Following the championship season at UMass, Michaels would move on to the NFL in 1999, beginning an eight-year run at football's highest level with the Cleveland Browns, Seattle Seahawks, and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Michaels' return to Amherst in 2015 has reunited him with some familiar faces. The Long Island native enters his fourth stint working under Whipple, and in 2007 at Fordham, he won a Patriot League title along side current UMass defensive coordinator and former Rams head coach Tom Masella.
Following a standout playing career at UConn in which Michaels was accustomed to lining up against the Minutemen in the Yankee Conference as a defensive lineman (he still holds the Huskies career sacks record), his 25-year coaching journey has taken him not only around the country, but around the world.
"I was actually the head coach of a football club in Finland [in 1991], and they were named the Helsinki Roosters. A storied franchise like the Boston Celtics and New York Yankees, you had the Helsinki Roosters. I had a real good season over there and enjoyed the football."
After spending the past five seasons as a successful high school coach at Ridgeview High School in Florida, Michaels was eager to get back to the college ranks, and saw the chance to reunite with Whipple in Amherst as the perfect opportunity.
"I discussed it with my wife and my family and they all basically kicked me out the door and said `Go dad. You're ready to do this.'"
