Steve Briggs continues to collect accolades and victories at
Susquehanna University.
Briggs, 48, who finished his 20th season as head coach of the
Susquehanna football team in 2009, has accumulated a 110-93 record
during his tenure to stand as the winningest coach in school
history.
He has earned the respect of his peers, as he has served on both
the NCAA Division III South Region Advisory Committee and as chair
of the Middle Atlantic Conference football coaches committee.
Briggs has compiled 13 non-losing seasons in 20 years from 1990 to
2009, including each of his first 11 campaigns. In addition, Briggs
has coached 203 games at Susquehanna, more than any coach in
program history, while his 20 seasons at the helm of the Crusaders
bests the 17 years coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg, Jr., from 1935
through 1954. (SU did not field a team from 1943 to 1945.)
In 1999, Briggs was honored as the MAC Commonwealth Coach of the
Year after guiding the Crusaders to their first outright
Commonwealth championship in school history.
In 2009, Susquehanna claimed the Liberty League's championship
in just its third and last year in the Liberty. Briggs and his
staff earned the league's Coaching Staff of the Year award that
season, and Liberty Mutual Group named Briggs as one of five
Division III finalists for its national Coach of the Year
award.
Briggs guided his 1991 team to the Division III South Region
championship and the program's first-ever berth in the national
semifinals before settling for an 11-2 mark, which tied the school
record for wins in a season. He followed that up with a 9-1
campaign in 1992, coming up just four points short of a perfect
season and another NCAA playoffs berth.
The team's 2009 Liberty championship put them back in the NCAA
championships.
A sign of the impact that Briggs has had on his teams is the
number of his former players who have gone on to become successful
high school coaches over the last several years.
Before becoming the 29th head coach in Susquehanna history in
1990, Briggs served as the chief defensive assistant for his
predecessor, William "Rocky" Rees. Prior to joining the Susquehanna
staff, Briggs coached the outside linebackers and strong safeties
as an assistant coach at Division I Lehigh University in 1987.
He was also a graduate assistant for two years at the Division I
University of Richmond, coaching the inside linebackers in 1985 and
the tight ends the following year.
Briggs also coached the receivers as an assistant at Division III
Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1984. He coached the
secondary of the freshman squad as an undergraduate assistant at
Springfield College in 1982.
Briggs earned a Bachelor of Science degree in health and fitness
from Springfield in 1984 and lettered in varsity football all four
years. He earned his Master of Science degree in sports management
from Richmond in 1987.
In addition to coaching, Briggs is an assistant director of
athletics at Susquehanna--a title he added in the fall of 2003.
He and his wife, Christina, reside in Selinsgrove, Pa., with their
son, Cory, and daughter, Casey. Cory was the starting quarterback
for Selinsgrove Area High School's 16-0 football team in 2009.
Selinsgrove earned the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic
Association's Class AAA championship that year and was the only
undefeated team in the state.
Nate Milne joined the coaching staff in 2008 as the offensive
coordinator. He comes from Division III SUNY Cortland, where he was
an assistant football coach from 2004 to 2007.
Milne worked with Cortland State's offensive line for three years
and running backs for one, coaching five all-New Jersey Athletic
Conference offensive linemen and one all-NJAC running back during
his tenure. In 2006 and 2007, Cortland ranked first in its
conference in scoring offense and, in 2006, was also first in
fewest sacks allowed.
In 2007, Milne was a guest coach with the Montreal Alouettes of
the Canadian Football League and spent their preseason working as
an assistant offensive line coach. He also spent one year as an
assistant coach at Division III Hamilton College, focusing on tight
ends and offensive scouting.
A 2003 graduate of Division III Hobart College with a bachelor's
degree in history, Milne was a four-year letterwinner with the
Statesmen, earning first-team all-Liberty honors as a senior and
playing on Hobart's first two Division III playoffs teams.
Brad Fordyce finished his third year as the Crusaders' defensive
coordinator in 2009 after serving in the same role at Division III
McDaniel College since 2003.
Fordyce is also Susquehanna University's strength &
conditioning coach. He is a native of Churchville, Md., and is a
1997 graduate of Springfield College with a bachelor's degree in
exercise science.
After graduating, he became a strength & conditioning intern
at the Division I U.S. Naval Academy for one year before moving on
to McDaniel in 1998 as an assistant football coach (linebackers)
and strength & conditioning coach.
After five seasons as a linebackers coach at McDaniel, Fordyce was
promoted to defensive coordinator in 2003 and helped the Green
Terror rank 26th in Division III in scoring defense. In 2004, his
unit ranked eighth in Division III in scoring defense and 13th in
total defense while allowing a total of two passing touchdowns all
season. During his time at McDaniel, Fordyce coached three
All-Americans and two Centennial Conference Players of the
Year.
In addition to his duties as defensive coordinator, Fordyce served
as McDaniel's recruiting coordinator from 2005 to 2006 and was the
director of the Green Terror Football Camp from 2004 to 2006. He
earned a master's degree in education from McDaniel in 2001.
Fordyce resides in Selinsgrove, Pa., with his wife, Allison, son,
Tate, and daughter, Graycie.
In 2009, Bob Pittello '51 completed his 18th season as an
offensive line coach at Susquehanna. That allowed Pittello to stay
active in 47 of the past 62 seasons of SU football. A starting
guard for Amos Alonzo Stagg, Jr., and Sr. at Susquehanna from 1948
to 1950, Pittello began coaching under Stagg, Jr., in 1953.
Pittello was an assistant for five different head coaches after
that, non-successively. He marked his 38th season in 2008 as a
Crusaders coach.
He was reunited with former SU head coach Jim Garrett at Columbia
University in 1985 while serving as one of Garrett's assistants.
Pittello also served three years under legendary prep coach Joe
"Jazz" Diminick at Pittello's secondary-school alma mater--Mount
Carmel Area (Pa.) High School.
Pittello has been active with Crusaders football as either a
player or a coach longer than anyone and is the only player in
program history to have his jersey number retired. The university
retired his No. 66 in a ceremony prior to its 1998 Homecoming game
against Allegheny College.
In 2001, the Crusaders locker room was formally named in his honor
with a commemorative plaque posted outside of the room.
Pittello is a member of the SU Sports Sports Hall of Fame and is a
co-founder of the Susquehanna Football Alumni Association. He
resides in Mount Carmel, Pa.
Dan Alderson finished his 10th season on the Crusaders coaching
staff when he coach the secondary in 2009 after serving as
linebackers coach for the previous two seasons.
Alderson--a former ROTC program instructor for a joint program
between Bloomsburg University, Bucknell University, Lycoming
College and Pennsylvania College of Technology along with
Susquehanna--is a retired sergeant first class from the United
States Army who served in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert
Storm. While in the military, Alderson played semi-professional
football as a tailback in Fort Lewis, Wash. He also became a
two-time European powerlifting champion in the 181-pound weight
class.
Selinsgrove, Pa., native Jack Lydic was a 2008 addition to the
coaching staff, focusing on quarterbacks.
After three years as the starting quarterback for Selinsgrove Area
High School, Lydic continued his career at Division II Bloomsburg
University, where he also started for three years. During his time
at Bloomsburg, the Huskies won four Pennsylvania State Athletic
Conference Eastern Division championships. As a senior team captain
in 2005, Lydic led the Huskies to an undefeated regular season and
a Division II playoffs appearance. He earned PSAC offensive player
of the week honors multiple times and second-team all-PSAC honors
in 2004 and 2005. He is currently ranked fourth on the all-time
passing yards list at Bloomsburg.
Lydic coached quarterbacks and receivers at Selinsgrove in 2006.
Later that year, he was invited to play professionally for the
Hamburg Blue Devils of the German Football League. He set Hamburg
team records for touchdowns in a single game (six) and touchdown
passes in a single season (35). He was also second in the league in
total offense for the season.
Lydic is currently working towards his teaching certificate and
completing his master's degree in elementary education.
Scott Knapp joined the Crusaders staff in 2008 to work with the
running backs.
Knapp graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2008 from Division I
Duquesne University, where he played football for four years. He
was a two-time all-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference quarterback
for Duquesne, the 2005 MAAC Offensive Rookie of the Year and a 2006
Don Hansen's Football Gazette Mid-Major honorable mention
All-American.
Kyle Ream joined the SU football staff in 2009 as a split ends coach.
Ream played for Division II Bloomsburg University from 2004 to 2008, serving as a team captain in his senior year.
He was a first-team all-PSAC East wide receiver and Bloomsburg's offensive MVP in 2008.
He played at Juniata (Pa.) High School in 2001 and West Perry
(Pa.) High School from 2002 to 2003.
Rob Campbell '09 continued his affiliation with the SU football team in 2009 as an assistant coach, working with tight ends.
Campbell earned two varsity letters while playing for the Crusaders from 2005 to 2008.
He played high school football for Central Bucks South (Pa.)
from 2001 to 2004, and from 2004 to 2005, he worked as a coach for
the Winning Edge Football Camp in Chalfont, Pa.
Satyen Bhakta brings a wealth of high-level football experience to SU. He served as a defensive line coach in 2009.
Bhakta played quarterback for Division I Temple University from 2001 to 2004, earning a varsity letter in 2003.
He worked as an assistant defensive coach for Temple from 2006 to 2008.
In the spring of 2006, he provided academic support for Owls
football players, including acting as a tutor in math, English and
chemistry.
John Salvatore '08 joined the Crusaders coaching staff in 2007.
Salvatore works with outside linebackers.
A three-year letterwinner on defense, Salvatore finished his
Susquehanna playing career with 97 tackles--40 of them in 2006--and
4.5 sacks.
Salvatore lettered twice in both football and track & field
and once in tennis at Allentown (Pa.) Central Catholic High School.
