Lackawanna College: The forgotten ones

“You don’t want to come to Scranton, Pennsylvania … you need to come to Scranton, Pennsylvania.”

That may sound like the mantra of Michael Scott from the NBC hit show The Office, but in reality, it’s one of the many recruiting pitches used by one of the more successful junior college football head coaches in the nation, Mark Duda of the Lackawanna College Falcons.

Duda, who played at the University of Maryland before spending six years in the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals, has built a dynasty with the Lackawanna Football program. Since the 6-foot-3 former NFL defensive tackle took over the program as head coach in 1994, he has sent 380 players to Division I-level programs while guiding teams to three undefeated seasons and nine bowl games. He’s also seen 15 of his players sign with NFL teams and is currently second among active coaches in NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) in wins, and at 16th all-time.

The junior college path to major college football is something you hear in passing when discussing talent, yet is often overlooked. Not every high school football player has the chance to proclaim where they will play college football in an elaborate reveal during ESPN’s marathon broadcast on National Signing Day. Some standout high school football players are on the brink of that dream, and to reach it, they need to grow and develop at the lower junior college level. One of the best destinations to help a young man carve a path to the highest levels of amateur football happens to be in the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, an area where residents past and present are known for rigorous work ethic. 

But this football factory almost never came to be. Some talented football players throughout the years may not have been afforded amazing opportunities to succeed; it was a process.

After six years as a player in the NFL, Duda returned to college football as a coach. Duda joined Lackawanna as the defensive coordinator during its inaugural season in 1993, becoming the head coach just one year later. At the time, there was very little to suggest this new gridiron venture by the school would turn into the hotbed that it is today.

“Essentially, when I took over as head coach in 1994, there was no program; it was terrible,” Duda told FanSided. “The reason the program was initially created for the school was strictly for financial purposes. The school was really on the brink of not existing, so they decided to have a football program.”

The Lackawanna Football program began under the direction of then-head coach Wally Chambers, with a team of just 65 kids. In a region that values high school football on a Friday Night Lights-level, this fledgling program needed to succeed in order to survive. The initial outlook was less than ideal.

“That first year could not have gone any worse,” Duda said. “We had 65 players but we had no housing; they were all in apartments across the city and there was no meal plan. Also, we had students that were brought in who were not only questionable from an academic standpoint, but from a personal one as well. The town didn’t want this team because of the players that were brought in; we had shootings and kids not wanting to go to class.”

After a disastrous initial season, the school turned to the 31-year-old Duda to take over the reins of the program. Duda was hesitant to take on the responsibility. He ultimately did, but under his own terms and vision. An overhaul was needed, and he was ready to put his plan into action.

“If I was to take the job, I was allowed to remove any student I wish before I start my tenure,” Duda said. “One-by-one, I evaluated every player that we had. By the time that I was done with that process, I had kept five players and eliminated 60.”

The results of his plan were immediate, with a 9-2 season their first year under the direction of Duda. But a stigma still surrounded this young program from the previous regime. The key was bringing in players who would be quality on the field and off it.

“My first year as head coach, we end up going 9-2 and playing in a bowl game in Chicago. We were a nationally-ranked team my first year,” the Lackawanna coach proudly remembers. “But we needed to be more collegiate, because things started incredibly bad. We started to recruit young men who were not only good players, but good people as well.”

With the assistance of school president Ray Angeli, who wanted to provide any aid that he could in building this program, Duda’s vision began to take shape. Housing for the players came to fruition and meal plans were approved. The little things were provided to help the program grow into a contender and a program where college football players could hone their skills. Players under his tutelage were beginning to leave Scranton for bigger programs, such as West Virginia, Maryland, Syracuse and Connecticut.

After a few years of work, Duda landed Bryant McKinnie, his most famous alum to date. McKinnie, a New Jersey native, spent two years with Duda, building his skills up to a level that would make him one of the most sought after recruits in the nation. That recruiting war ended with McKinnie signing with the Miami Hurricanes. During his two eligible years in Coral Gables, he established himself as one of the most dominant offensive linemen in the history of college football, helping lead Miami to the 2001 National Championship in the process. McKinnie became the seventh overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, a fitting end to a journey that began under Duda in Scranton.

McKinnie is a great example of Duda’s coaching prowess in action. This veteran NFL offensive lineman was not an offensive lineman at all when he made his way to Scranton. It was there where he made the transition from defensive tacklel, and it paid dividends in the end.

He was a player, however, who did possess all the tools to eventually get him to a true blue-blood program like Miami. The same can even be said for a more recent Lackawanna alum and Duda protege, Chicago Bears wide receiver Kevin White. He, too, was a seventh overall draft pick following two year stints at Lackawanna and West Virginia, respectively.

The ability to get a player ready for the highest levels of football on the amateur and professional stage is what makes a program like Lackawanna successful. Sometimes, this process involves essentially starting from scratch.

Take the current starting guard for the Seattle Seahawks, Mark Glowinski. Drafted in the fourth round by the Seahawks in 2015, Glowinski had little to any hope of a professional career when he joined the Lackawanna College program. From nearby Wilkes Barre — the same area as Duda — it was clear from the initial meeting that some work would need to be done to turn this raw talent into a success.

“Mark Glowinski walks into our office in August and says, ‘I would like to play football here,'” Duda remembers. “He was 6-foot-4 and 253 pounds — not All-State, not all-anything. We watched him on film and didn’t really see anything that stood out.”

The one thing Glowinski possessed as an offensive linemen was solid movement, enough for Duda to take a chance and work with him. After two years in the system, life drastically changed for Glowinski.

“Two years after he sat in my office here, he was a 311-pound, 50-offer, five-star recruit,” the Lackawanna head coach proudly said.

Glowinski knew that Lackawanna College with Coach Duda was the place that could help him chase his dreams, and he was more than willing to put in the work that came along with that.

“Coach Duda prepared us and worked us harder than when I got to West Virginia or wherever it was gonna be,” Glowinski told FanSided. “The workouts, the early AM workouts, the workouts that we have after games, the classes, the study halls — he made sure that we all did all the same stuff.”

Glowinski’s comments embody the sentiment his head coach was driving home and building his program on.

“We take guys at all different levels who are physically not ready, mentally not ready, and we make them 100 percenters,” Duda proclaimed.

“What that means is, we all do everything at the same time. If you miss class, you’re gonna miss a game. For example, if the culture is that everyone lifts and you don’t on a particular day, then you’re frowned upon by your peers. If you miss class and have to miss the game, then you’re frowned upon by your peers who are working just as hard as you to get to where they need to be, if not harder.”

This mentality is what differentiates Lackawanna from other programs, even the biggest.

“That might be different at a bigger school. The one-on-one work they get here on the field and in the classroom is so much greater. Ninety percent don’t make it at the Division I level not because they’re not intelligent enough, not because they’re not good enough … it’s because they’ve been so good for so long that everyone has left them alone. When some get to these bigger schools right out of high school, the self-motivation isn’t there to work for your spot. They treat a kid like he’s a 10-year vet, when the reality is he’s exactly what he is — an 18-year-old kid. I create a competitive environment here where if they slip, someone will play over them. The motivation is so extreme that they’ll be ready to take that head-on when they get to a place like an Oklahoma, or Texas A&M or West Virginia.”

This is definitely a process that had Glowinski ready to head off to Morgantown, West Virginia when his time working in Scranton had come to a close.

“Oh I was definitely prepared,” Glowinski said. “We got into conditioning drills and such when I had got to West Virginia, and I felt that I was able to push the guys that were there already to their limits because I was already prepared, physically and mentally.”

McKinnie and Glowinski are just two examples of the many success stories that formed at Lackawanna College under the direction of Duda. This sort of player development is why he does what he does as he continues this Lackawanna Football legacy. He prides himself on helping out the players that he aptly names, “The Forgotten Ones.”

“Anyone can help the five-star,” Duda proclaimed. “Any guidance counselor can write a letter for someone for Harvard; it’s easy. How about you remember the forgotten ones? I’m gonna help the ones that everyone forgot.”

While building the program at Lackawanna, Duda has established relationships with some of the top college football coaches in the country — such as Bob Stoops from Oklahoma and Dana Holgorsen of the Big 12. These coaches, and others, use Duda and Lackawanna for what’s known as a “direct referral.”

“Picture West Virginia University and Dana Holgorsen, for example,” Duda said. “There’s five players from Lackawanna currently at West Virginia. Now Dana will go and recruit the whole country, and they’ll see a player from Pittsburgh and see a player they want who doesn’t quite have the grades he needs. They’ll call us. They want to place him here at Lackawanna because they know his grades will be excellent, he’ll be coached and he’ll be immediately ready to step onto the field. It’s a player who’s had a long road of recruitment, and they trust us enough to get that player ready to help them win football games. That’s a direct referral.”

Duda’s program has become so successful in churning out top talent he believes it’s better-known in top college football towns than it is in Scranton. 

“We’re known better in Gainesville, Florida than we are right here in the area. People in Norman, Oklahoma will know more about this program than people in the valley. The relationships that we’ve formed has allowed us to build entry to these kids.”

Looking back to the 1994 season when Duda took over makes one wonder what could have been had he not taken the position.

After 23 years, though, with all the wins and successful development, you might wonder whether it’s time to for Duda to move on to bigger and better things.

“Tons have asked me to leave,” Duda revealed. “I’m gonna stay here for the time being, but if a job opens up that I really want, I’m gonna take it.

“I’d interview for jobs and talk, and ultimately say no. As the years went on, I just decided that I’m gonna make this the best program that it could possibly be, because if I do leave, then I know the cupboards are full for the next coach.”

Duda added, “I have a lot more freedom being the head coach here than I do being on someone else’s staff. I’m 56 now, and ‘no’ is a possibility and ‘yes’ is a possibility. With my daughter grown and in college now, I listen a lot harder than I used to listen.

“If I were to leave, though, I would know that I left Lackawanna better than I found it. To me, that’s all I really need to know.”

At this point, it seems there may come a time soon where Lackawanna College football will not be able to tout Duda as their fearless leader.

For now, though, he still sits inside his office inside the Student Union building on Jefferson Ave. in Scranton, flanked by pictures of players he’s sent on to bigger and better things. He’s content at the moment continuing to help out the players he affectionately refers to as “The Forgotten Ones,” so that one day we can all remember who they were.