Florida State University Athletics
One-on-One With Ron Dugans
2/20/2019 1:12:00 PM | Football
WATCH: One-on-one with FSU receivers coach Ron Dugans
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ron Dugans, a Tallahassee native and former Florida State receiver, returned to his alma mater last month to serve as the Seminoles’ wide receivers coach. Dugans recently sat down with Seminoles.com to offer his perspective on coming back to FSU and share his thoughts on the Seminoles’ current receivers. Here is the conversation in full:
Seminoles.com: Being back in Tallahassee with Florida State, what’s it like returning to your hometown and alma mater as a coach?
Ron Dugans: It’s a little different. A lot different, I’ll say that. It really hasn’t slowed down for me yet. I’ve been going, getting calls, getting texts, emails. It’s been amazing, the support of me coming back home – myself and my family. Everybody’s reaching out to you. (You’re) seeing familiar faces you haven’t seen in a long time.
But it is a little different, because on the third floor, when I used to go in those staff rooms, usually I was facing toward the stadium. Now my back sits where I can look out the back of the stadium. A place that I like to call home. A place that I helped build. Just having an office where you can overlook the stadium and knowing for years, ‘Maybe what if?’ Just seeing a lot of those older coaches that have been here for a long time. Just seeing their office and actually sitting in their office. My office is right next to Coach Bowden’s old office. So it’s been unreal, man.
Why was this the right time to make the move back to Florida State?
Well I prayed about it. And for myself, I’ve had some opportunities to go different places. And every decision that I make, I pray about it. No matter if I want to leave. No matter if I want to stay. I just pray about every decision that I make. And just the timing right now, my prayers told me, “Hey, you’ve got to go. You’ve got to take your family back home, and you’ve got to go back and make a difference in Tallahassee. Not only with the football team and the university, but in the community.” So I felt it was time and made that decision, myself and my wife, to come back home.
You’ll be working with a new offensive coordinator in Kendal Briles. How does what you do with your receivers work with his offensive philosophies?
It’s a little different. My first full-time job, I was with Chris Hatcher. It was at Georgia Southern. (Note: Hatcher is now at Samford; his team played at Florida State last season.) He ran a tempo-style offense at the time. So I’ve been involved with the tempo that Coach Taggart wants and, Coach Briles, that he brings to the table.
I’m versatile. Whatever you want coached, I can get it coached. Attacking technique and playing fast and all that stuff, playing with good pad level, getting in and out of breaks, I’m fine with that. That’s what Coach Briles teaches his guys. That’s the type of offense he’s been around. And I’m just excited, and I’m glad we’ve got the chance to get to work.
What are your initial impressions of your receivers?
Just seeing the depth chart, and then watching those guys work (at the “The Chase”), they can run. And I didn’t know they could run that well. So they give you a lot to work with. The kids, they want to be coached. They want to be taught. And just seeing those guys move around, whether straight ahead or side-to-side. … And the biggest thing, I got a chance to see guys compete. Seeing them compete, that was the biggest thing that I wanted to see – how well they competed. And do they finish? We’ve got to teach them to finish. It’s been breathtaking to see the entire group of guys work the way they work.
And then I want us to work together. I broke it down – I think last week was the first time they let me break the group down – I broke it down on togetherness. Because we can’t be a full unit if we’re not together. That’s what we used to break down on when I played here. We’ve got to have each other’s back. We’ve got to compete and we’ve got to help each other. We’ve got to motivate each other. Because it’s one group. But it’s been really pleasing to see those guys move around.
What are your first priorities for spring practice?
Things that I’ve seen, just off of film, one of the biggest points is perimeter blocking. I feel like that’s a need. I feel like, also, catching the football (is a priority). But most importantly, just learning how to play fast, and how “The Chase” carries over to the football field. The things that they learned in “The Chase” – pad level, competing, the details in the assignment. That’s the biggest thing that I think “The Chase” teaches you. As a player, when you’re going through “The Chase,” it teaches you to carry over, help the guys carry over the small details in the assignments. The discipline of finishing runs, blocking on the perimeter.
So there are different things I want to accomplish this spring. First of all, learning the playbook. That should’ve been No. 1, so they can play fast. I’m just looking for a physical mentality. Having that mindset of, “Yeah, I play receiver at Florida State, but we’re not prima donnas.” We’re going to be tough, also.
Is there anything you learned from Coach Bowden as a player that you’ve now taken as a coach and used as well?
The biggest thing that I learned from Coach Bowden, because he was a man of integrity and a man of prayer, when I first got to Florida State as a player, it was, “Don’t worry about what you can’t control.” And I took that heart and it carried out through my life.
As a coach and as a player, but as a coach most importantly, you’re going to go through adversity. You’ve got to learn to persevere. And the thing I learned from Coach Bowden: You don’t pray for a lighter load, pray for a stronger back. Because the load is going to always come. You’re going to face adversity. It could be on a play where you’re faced with adversity. Just pray that the Lord gets you through it – “Hey Lord, let’s go get this first down.” That’s the biggest thing that I learned.
He always said, “If you want another job, be good at the one you have.” I never worry about other places. It’s always about being loyal to the guy that you work for and the school that you work for. I’m not worried about what everybody else is doing. Who’s going, who’s coming. Coach Bowden taught us that. Be happy with what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and just make sure you’re doing it for the right reason – and that’s for these kids.
That’s why I got into coaching, to give back to the kids, because a lot of kids might have grown up the way I grew up. Some kids grow up without moms and dads, so it’s bigger than football. You’ve got to give back to that kid for the rest of his life, not for three or four or five years. So you’ve got to invest in these kids and give back. Invite them over to your house, do different things to show them you care about them. Because once they leave you, there are a lot of people who don’t care about them. So the biggest thing is Coach Bowden showed us love. And (so did) the rest of (his) coaching staff.
What do you think it’s going to be like running out of the tunnel at Doak Campbell Stadium again?
Well I walked out of it already. I didn’t run out. But when I walked out, the war chant was going. There’s just something about the war chant, man, that gets your blood going and your heart pumping, gets your heart rate up.
But the first time to run out of the tunnel, who knows? I may be in tears. I just never thought it’d be a possibility, this year or last year, that I‘d be able to come back home and run out of the tunnel again. It was twice when I was on the other end on the other sideline (Dugans coached at Doak Campbell Stadium with South Florida in 2015 and with Miami in 2017) and I’d never been on the other sideline before, or (in) the other locker room. It didn’t feel the same. So getting the chance to come out of the locker room, run out of the tunnel and be on the right sideline is going to be great.