Brian Polian, John Carroll University’s new athletic director, might have received his greatest lesson in leadership after the 2016 college football season when he was hired as special teams coordinator for the University of Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish had won only four games in 2016. Head Coach Brian Kelly faced criticism, but instead of turning defensive, he sat down with his older players and asked them how he had fallen short. As a result of those conversations, Kelly built stronger relationships with his players, and he identified and nurtured leaders among them.
The new approach paid off. Notre Dame went 55-9 over the next five years and made the college football playoffs twice. Kelly had realized that his Generation Z players were different, that he needed to connect with them personally before making demands of them on the field.
“I watched one of the winningest active coaches completely reinvent himself and have the humility to do that,” Polian says. “He recognized that our student athletes were changing, and their needs were changing, and that he had to evolve.”
Polian certainly played a role in Notre Dame’s football success when he was there from 2017 through 2022. His special teams squad consistently ranked in the top 20 among all college teams. Some of the players he recruited to Notre Dame ended up in the National Football League.
After Notre Dame, Polian followed Kelly to Louisiana State University, where he was both special teams coordinator, then associate athletic director and general manager of football.
So why would Polian leave the spotlight of Division I football at Notre Dame and LSU and accept the athletic director position at John Carroll, with its Division III sports programs, in University Heights? For one thing, Polian is a 1997 John Carroll graduate. He played for the Blue Streaks football team.
“I always knew I’d be back here at some point, but I didn’t know when or in what capacity,” says Polian, 48. “I love that John Carroll is a private, liberal arts, faith-based school.”
Polian adds that John Carroll’s athletes and 24 varsity sports teams are underrated. The Blue Streaks have won seven straight Ohio Athletic Conference Men’s All-Sports Trophies.
“There’s a misconception,” Polian says. “People might think we have just a robust version of intramurals here, but that’s not what John Carroll is. The young people who come here play to compete.
“Maybe we don’t have the God-given physical abilities to compete against The Ohio State University, but that doesn’t mean these kids don’t value the competition and get amped up for it,” Polian says.
John Carroll might also serve as a steppingstone someday for Polian into NFL coaching or upper management. Over the years, dozens of former Blue Streaks players and coaches have made the leap to the NFL as coaches, general managers, scouts, front office personnel, medical staffers and communications specialists and media.
Polian says he hasn’t ruled out that possibility, although he’s now focused on John Carroll and, with his wife Laura, raising two children — Aidan, 14, and Charlotte, 10 — in a relatively stable community.
Football Family
Polian, a Buffalo native, grew up around football. His father, Bill Polian, is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, having rebuilt the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts. Those teams appeared in five Super Bowls.
“While other kids were working at Putt-Putt or mowing lawns, I was ball boy and equipment assistant for the Buffalo Bills, standing next to (head coach) Marv Levy, (quarterback) Jim Kelly and (running back) Thurman Thomas at practice,” Polian says. “I also learned that life doesn’t always go the way you want it to. We lost three Super Bowls, and I watched my dad’s heart break and saw what it did to the city.”
Polian knew as a high schooler that he wanted a career in coaching. At John Carroll, he initially was a linebacker, but then a young man named London Fletcher showed up to play the same position. Fletcher would go on to play for the St. Louis Rams, Bills and Washington Commanders (formerly Redskins).
“I’m the son of a Hall of Fame personnel evaluator, so it didn’t take me long to realize that London was a whole lot better than I was,” Polian says. “So, I became a special teams player and took a ton of pride in that.”
Two weeks after graduating from John Carroll, Polian landed a job as graduate assistant football coach at Michigan State University under Nick Saban, now head football coach at the University of Alabama. Then came stints at the University of South Florida and the University at Buffalo.
Polian’s first experience at Notre Dame came as a staffer and recruiter from 2005 through 2009. ESPN and Rivals, which cover all college sports, named Polian one of the top player recruiters in the United States.
From 2010 to 2012, Polian was special teams coordinator at both Stanford and Texas A&M universities. He was also recruiting coordinator and safeties coach at Stanford and tight ends coach at Texas A&M.
“Special teams coordinator was a great training ground for leadership and head coaching,” Polian says. “It’s not dealing with one side of the ball or position group. You’re involved in coaching the entire team. It taught me to see the big picture.”
Before heading back to Notre Dame, Polian was head coach of the Nevada Wolf Pack from 2013 to 2017. He led the team to two bowl games, winning one of them. He mentored future NFL players, including Browns guard Joel Bitonio.
“I would love to tell you that I had a ton to do with Joel’s development, but he was pretty much the finished product,” Polian says. “He was a joy to be around.”
The Pipeline
It remains to be seen whether Polian will enter John Carroll’s NFL “pipeline” — what the university calls its uncanny tendency to send alumni, along with former Blue Streaks football players and coaches, to NFL jobs — but it wouldn’t be surprising. Even Polian’s brother, Chris, is a 1993 graduate of John Carroll and former general manager of the Indianapolis Colts and current director of pro personnel for the Washington Commanders.
Seven John Carroll alumni and one former coach went on to coach in the NFL. They included Hall of Famer Don Shula, a 1951 graduate who was head coach of the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins and won two Super Bowls with the Dolphins.
Today, 11 John Carroll alumni and six former coaches are coaching in the NFL, including graduate Josh McDaniels, head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, and Brandon Staley, former Blue Streaks defensive coordinator and now head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
In addition, 10 John Carroll grads and three former coaches are general managers, scouts and executives with nine NFL teams, including the Browns, where alumni Scott DiBenedetto is scouting assistant and coaching analyst and Joe Dever is Mid-Atlantic area scout. Meanwhile, John Carroll grads Tom Telesco, Nick Caserio and David Ziegler are general managers of the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans and Los Vegas Raiders, respectively.
Finally, 14 John Carroll graduates have NFL jobs as front-office personnel, medical staffers, communications and media specialists and certified agents. Allison Likar is executive assistant with the Browns.
John Carroll associate business professor Andy Welki, an expert on John Carroll’s NFL pipeline, says the university has other underpublicized pipelines to other professions.
“We get a great bunch of hardworking people here who tend to check their egos at the door,” Welki says.
Polian says John Carroll sets a high standard, similar to the NFL.
“If you enter the NFL and you came from John Carroll, there is an expectation you will meet that standard,” he adds.
