How student manager Zach Van Arsdale earned Kyle McCord’s trust, full-time coaching job
Zach Van Arsdale played a behind-the-scenes role in Syracuse’s 2024 offensive success, helping him earn a full-time coaching job. Collage by Cole Ross | Digital Design Director, Photographs by Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor
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Before Kyle McCord began a private workout with an NFL team, the coaches asked the surrounding players what positions they played.
“Tight end,” Oronde Gadsden II began.
“Running back,” LeQuint Allen Jr. followed.
The coaches then turned to Zach Van Arsdale, a 5-foot-9 senior with slicked-back ginger hair. He said he was a student manager and coach.
“Really?” McCord recalls the coaches’ response.
“I guess their expectations aren’t that high for him … but I know what he’s going to do, so it’s funny seeing their reaction,” McCord said.
Behind the scenes, McCord says Van Arsdale — Syracuse’s head offensive student manager and a student assistant coach in 2024 — helped propel the Orange’s offensive success. Before each game and practice, Van Arsdale warmed up McCord, now a top quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft after leading the nation with 4,779 passing yards in 2024.
Van Arsdale was also one of four offensive personnel who spent games working in the booth alongside offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon, quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile and former offensive analyst Phill Guard. In the booth, his main responsibility was charting play calls and helping the coaches identify opposing defensive coverages.
Though he’ll graduate from SU in May, Van Arsdale became its youngest offensive staff member as Syracuse’s offensive quality control coach for tight ends in February. Before working his way up SU’s manager totem pole, which stemmed from being rejected to becoming a basketball manager, Van Arsdale had no football experience. Now, he’s working his first job in what he hopes is a prolonged football coaching career.
“It’s a crazy opportunity that I’m so beyond blessed to have because so many people struggle to get in this industry and get their foot in the door,” Van Arsdale said.
Zach Van Arsdale is amid his final semester as a Syracuse student while working full-time as an offensive quality control coach for tight ends. Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor
A sports analytics major, Van Arsdale joined the Orange during the second semester of his freshman year in 2022 as a special teams manager. Two years later, he was promoted to head offensive student manager and began working with the quarterbacks during spring training camp, coinciding with McCord’s transfer from Ohio State.
With McCord (St. Joseph’s Prep) and Van Arsdale (Holy Ghost Prep) going to rival high schools in Pennsylvania, Van Arsdale explained he didn’t know McCord personally before SU, but they shared a mutual friend. After building that initial connection, Van Arsdale realized McCord didn’t have a throwing partner because the other quarterbacks on the roster — Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and Braden Davis — threw with each other.
So, after offering to throw with him at one of the Orange’s first spring practices, Van Arsdale became his throwing partner. Their relationship quickly blossomed. From there, Van Arsdale noted McCord was one of the first players’ brains he began to pick, helping him think about football differently and enhancing his knowledge.
McCord credits Van Arsdale with quickly catching on to his routine. But the signal caller added he was even more impressed by how seriously Van Arsdale took his job, frequently sitting in on meetings, asking good questions and always being engaged.
“He didn’t play football growing up, but he’s super knowledgeable about the game, understands the game and was hungry to learn the deeper details of it,” McCord said.
While Van Arsdale’s football experience was rooted in playing Madden growing up, his baseball experience helped him prepare McCord for everything he faced at SU. After putting on his helmet and finding Van Arsdale, McCord developed a sweat before working on different throws, first from five yards before continuously progressing to deep balls.
Van Arsdale was up to every challenge McCord threw his way. The max velocity catches. The 40-yard darts. And adapting to whatever McCord needed.
“He’s got some talent,” McCord said. “I always tell him, ‘Shoot, if I’m ever the head coach of a beer league team down the line, he’d be my first draft pick.’”
By the time Syracuse opened its season against Ohio on Aug. 31, 2024, the routine was automatic. No discussion. Just business. That remained the entire campaign, helping SU win 10 games for the third time this century.
“The last thing you want to do is worry about the guy that you’re warming up with and tell him, ‘Okay, I need you to do this or that,’” McCord said. “You just want to be focused on the game. I didn’t even have to think about it, which was really nice.”
“I just knew when you saw 6, it was time to get ready to throw,” Van Arsdale said.
Kyle McCord is beginning to get loose pic.twitter.com/RblYa3efFT
— Justin Girshon (@JustinGirshon) December 27, 2024
Beyond warming up McCord — who said it’s not too common for quarterbacks to go through their pre-game routine with the same person — Van Arsdale worked closely with Campanile to ensure all quarterback drills ran smoothly during practice and warmups. As a student assistant, Van Arsdale also sat in offensive meetings every day beginning around 7 a.m., which he credits for helping develop his football knowledge.
With the combination of his positions, Van Arsdale was tasked with charting all of the Orange’s offensive play calls live during games, tracking the result of the play and putting it into Excel. Originally, he said he was supposed to do that from the sidelines.
But SU didn’t have enough headsets for an intrasquad scrimmage two weeks before its season opener, so he sat next to Nixon in the booth to hear play calls. He then worked in the booth for the rest of the season.
As the season progressed, Van Arsdale also got tasked with helping the coaches identify defensive coverages during games. Leading up to gameday, he’d study opposing teams’ signals — which are pre-snap cues to indicate what coverage they drop into — and relay information to the coaches in-game.
“It was surprising how valuable he was to us,” McCord said.
Around the season’s halfway point, Van Arsdale realized he wanted to pursue coaching in the future. Typically, most college football coaches played college football — a trend that rings true for most assistant coaches, too. Among the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 17 head coaches, only Duke’s Manny Diaz didn’t. While rare, people with no collegiate playing experience can break through.
Van Arsdale returned to SU’s campus once the football season ended for his final semester of school. He said he did some things to finish his tenure as a manager, but otherwise began looking into jobs both in and outside of coaching.
Cole Ross | Digital Design Director
However, because of the relationships Van Arsdale built with Nixon and Campanile, he said they vouched for him, offering to have him be on the coaching staff around mid-February. The next day, he began working. Regarding moving to work with the tight ends, Van Arsdale mentioned it was all Nixon’s idea, saying it was where Van Arsdale could best develop as a coach under Michael Johnson Sr. and Dennis Thomas.
“I know he’s passionate about being a coach, so I think he’s gonna do well,” senior tight end Dan Villari said.
“It’s inspiring for everybody,” junior tight end David Clement added of Van Arsdale’s rise.
Now working in a full-time role with a new position group, Van Arsdale’s responsibilities are more hands-on. He sets up and helps run daily position meetings, prepares and breaks down film, charts play calls and blocking assignments and helps out with recruiting. Van Arsdale said he expects his in-game role to remain in the booth charting plays, but his assignment is to be determined.
“As the manager, you just show up, they ask for four footballs, you make sure your coach has four footballs. Whereas a coach, you’re really able to be involved in everything that we do at practice,” Van Arsdale said.
What “remains the question of the day” in Van Arsdale’s mind is who will warm up the Orange’s new starting quarterback. Like he did with McCord last year, Van Arsdale warmed up starting quarterback Jakhari Williams before the spring game on April 12.
While Van Arsdale doesn’t know if he’ll continue warming up SU’s 2025 starter, what is certain is McCord’s trust in him from his work in that role. After McCord declared for the NFL Draft in January, he said teams would travel to Syracuse to watch him work out.
So, he’d hit up Van Arsdale before some of the workouts, saying, “Bro, can you come catch for me?” Van Arsdale obliged, mostly helping with spot catching and warmups.
McCord said there was one particular drill where Van Arsdale had to move around. Not to the quarterback’s surprise — though likely the surrounding coaches’ — he said Van Arsdale caught every ball and was moving around well, noting he got in and out of the breaks well and showed off some speed.
As McCord’s NFL journey is set to begin this weekend upon getting drafted, Van Arsdale is two months into the first step of his career. Though he never played football and didn’t envision himself ever working in the sport, Van Arsdale has broken into coaching.
At the first step of his career, Van Arsdale is curious to see what’s in store for his future, and says he doesn’t yet have an ultimate end goal. But McCord knows his former throwing partner will succeed in his next endeavor.
“He’s beyond smart enough to do it,” McCord said. “So now it’s just about getting experience. And I’m sure that, if he puts his mind to it, that he’s going to be in a great position down the line.”
