Dante Scarnecchia (born February 14, 1948) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

offensive line In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

coach and assistant head coach. He worked for the New England Patriots of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for 34 years. Scarnecchia has spent the majority of his professional coaching career with the Patriots, joining them in 1982, only leaving in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

to coach with the Indianapolis Colts, before returning to the Patriots two years later. He remained with the team as a coach until his retirement following the 2013 season. He was rehired as the offensive line coach on February 16, 2016.

Playing career

Scarnecchia attended Taft Junior College before transferring to

California Western University Alliant International University, often called Alliant, is a private for-profit university with its main campus in San Diego and other campuses in California. It offers programs in six California campuses – in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Ang ...

in 1966, where he played football as an offensive lineman and earned a degree in

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

, while also serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

Coaching career

College

Scarnecchia began his coaching career in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

with his alma mater California Western University as their offensive line coach, a position he held through

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

. From

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

to 1974, Scarnecchia was the assistant offensive line and assistant defensive backfield coach for

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

. In

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, he began a two-year stint with

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

, first as a graduate assistant before being promoted to offensive line coach upon the hiring of head coach

Ron Meyer Ronald Shaw Meyer (February 17, 1941 – December 5, 2017) was an American college and professional football coach. He is best known for having been the head coach of Southern Methodist University, the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts ...

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

. From

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

through 1978, Scarnecchia served as offensive line coach for the University of the Pacific before spending a year at Northern Arizona University in the same capacity. He returned to Southern Methodist in 1980 as offensive line coach, spending two seasons there before following head coach Ron Meyer to the Patriots.

NFL

Scarnecchia joined the Patriots in 1982 as a

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

and

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Lik ...

coach. From 1989 to 1990, he served on Meyer's Indianapolis Colts' staff as their offensive line coach. Scarnecchia returned to the Patriots in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, where he spent two seasons under Dick MacPherson again as a special teams and offensive line coach. In 1992, Scarnecchia held the responsibilities of head coach while MacPherson was ill for the final eight games of the season. Under head coach

Bill Parcells Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells (born August 22, 1941) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons. He rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, Scarnecchia was reassigned as a special assistant. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, Scarnecchia was again reassigned, this time to a defensive assistant. Once Parcells left the team after the

1996 New England Patriots season The 1996 New England Patriots season was the franchise's 27th season in the National Football League (NFL) and the 37th overall. They finished with a record of eleven wins and five losses, and finished first in the AFC East division. After a di ...

, and

Pete Carroll Peter Clay Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American football coach who is the head coach and executive vice president for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head football coach at USC from ...

was hired as head coach, Scarnecchia became the team's special teams coach again. In Carroll's final season with the Patriots, Scarnecchia was reassigned to offensive line coach. New head coach

Bill Belichick William Stephen Belichick (; born April 16, 1952) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). Additionally, he exercises extensive authority over the Patri ...

additionally appointed Scarnecchia as the team's assistant head coach in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

. Scarnecchia retired after the 2013 season, and was replaced by

Dave DeGuglielmo Dave DeGuglielmo ( ; born July 15, 1968) is an American football coach who is the offensive line coach for the Boston College Eagles. He has previously been offensive line coach for the NFL's New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, I ...

. Even after retiring as a coach, Scarnecchia still worked with the team; for example, he had private workouts with the two offensive linemen the Patriots drafted in 2014,

Bryan Stork Bryan Stork (born November 15, 1990) is a former American football center. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida State. In the span of 13 months, Stork was ...

and

Cameron Fleming Cameron Jarrod Fleming (born September 3, 1992) is an American football offensive tackle for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He playe ...

. After the Patriots parted ways with DeGuglielmo after the 2015 season, the Patriots and Scarnecchia expressed mutual interest in having Scarnecchia return to coach the offensive line in 2016. Scarnecchia subsequently rejoined the Patriots staff prior to the 2016 season, overseeing a resurgent offensive line that only allowed 16 sacks. On February 5, 2017, Scarnecchia was part of the Patriots coaching staff that won

Super Bowl LI Super Bowl LI was an American football game played at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on February 5, 2017, to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2016 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New ...

. In the game, the Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 34–28 in overtime. His son Steve is the New York Jets' Chief of Staff.

References

External links

New England Patriots bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarnecchia, Dante 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Los Angeles American football offensive linemen Indianapolis Colts coaches Iowa State Cyclones football coaches SMU Mustangs football coaches Pacific Tigers football coaches Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football coaches New England Patriots coaches Alliant International University alumni Coaches of American football from California