Former NFL assistant coach Kennan guides Incarnate Word in first season
Larry Kennan never liked to wear his Super Bowl ring. He would keep it locked away safely, along with the rest of his memories from a coaching career that he gave up in 1997.
The ring never saw the light of day. That is, until he accepted the job as the head coach at Incarnate Word. Back on the sidelines after a 15-year hiatus, now he lets the hardware shine in the hopes that it will instill a coaching credibility among recruits that he spent 30 years developing.
Trying to build a Cardinals program as it transitions to the Division I level this season, he often draws on reputation to persuade student-athletes.
“When I was first hired, I couldn’t visit players, because it was one of those dead periods. But I could call them,” Kennan said. “I called a number of guys, and I said, ‘What you need to do is Google me, and see who I’ve coached and what I’ve done.’”
The list of what Kennan has done is long. An assistant for six NFL teams and three college football teams, as well as a head coach for Lamar and for the London Monarchs, the 69-year-old knows just about everyone and has seen just about everything.
When he quit after being demoted by the New England Patriots in 1997, Kennan left the game to head up the creation of the NFL Coaches Association, where he was the executive director for 13 years. He spent every single one of his days around coaches, but by every measure, his career as one was over — at least to everyone except him.
“I did the coaches association thing because it was the right thing to do,” Kennan said. “But what I am is a football coach.”
His journey to becoming the head coach at Incarnate Word — a program in San Antonio that is spending its first year in Division I football this season as a Football Championship Subdivision competitor as it transitions to the Southlandference — started when his son Kyle became the third coach the school hired in 2007.
In 2011, when the position of head coach opened up, Kennan did everything he could to get his son the job.
“I became involved in trying to get my son the head coaching job, but it became apparent he didn’t have enough experience,” Kennan said. “So I threw my name in and got hired.
“This was one of those things where the son gets the dad the job rather than the dad getting the son the job. I feel grateful to him.”
When Kennan first took over, he needed a refresher. He said he was a little bit behind the curve in some of the aspects of the game of football, and acknowledged that he relied heavily on his coaching staff.
“He didn’t say, ‘I’m the new head coach and this is what I’m going to do,’” senior captain Matt Bass said. “He didn’t fire everyone like he could have. I think him respecting the roles and the things we had going on there, and slowly changing things, made the transition a whole lot easier.”
It’s been a year into the rebuilding process, and Kennan has already made huge strides. Last season the Cardinals were 2-9 in Division II. This season, they’re 5-4 after bumping up to the FCS level. Kyle Kennan, who has been with the team since the program started, said the move has helped because it was extremely challenging to recruit good athletes at a private Division II university where tuition is $37,000.
“It was really difficult in starting a program at a private Division II school because you had to use those scholarships, and break them up,” the younger Kennan said. “Our pool of student athletes was kind of small. We needed high-academic guys.”
Even though Kyle Kennan said that the day-to-day work used to be difficult in the program’s infancy, things are starting to feel at home in San Antonio.
“It’s kind of an exciting time to be here, because there’s so much going on,” he said. “The name UIW is really getting out there. I have friends all over the country, and they see us on ESPN or see an article on Yahoo. Things have kind of clicked all at once.”
Larry Kennan shares that sentiment. It’s been 46 years since he took his first job at Garden Grove (Calif.) High School, and since then he’s held just about every different position imaginable. For Kennan though, nothing tops this.
“This is my dream job. This is my favorite job of all time,” Kennan said. “The London job, that was a great year. Winning the Super Bowl, that was a great year. Winning a high school championship years ago, that was great. But this is the deal, because I can take my experience and be able to help young athletes, not only with how to play football, but how to live life.”
