After months of planning and a careful national search, Steve R. Englehart II is the man who will helm the Panthers’ new football program.
And he says he’s ready to go. He was named to his post on June 15, 2011 and was introduced through a press conference two days later.
“I’m very excited to have this opportunity,” said Englehart, the former head football coach at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind. “It’s a rare privilege to be invited to literally build a program from the ground up. The Panthers have a proud athletic tradition, and fielding football is the next logical step—working together, there’s nothing we cannot accomplish.”
Englehart’s successful leadership of Rose-Hulman’s Fightin’ Engineers—he had the highest winning percentage in school history—was only one accolade that caught the attention of Florida Tech leaders.
“I’m very impressed by Coach Englehart’s philosophy of coaching,” said Florida Tech President Anthony J. Catanese. “He knows that our student-athletes are students first—and balancing success on the football field as well as in the classroom is key.”
“Coach Englehart understands that Florida Tech’s accent on student success is the primary focus,” added T. Dwayne McCay, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “We’re confident that he can achieve on the football field while also helping our students to do well in their studies and become successful graduates.”
Englehart, who played quarterback at Indiana State University from 1996-99, went on to serve Rose-Hulman as assistant coach for quarterbacks and offensive coordinator before being named head coach in 2006. His all-time record there was 26-14, where he had the highest winning percentage in school history (.650). Since 2010, Englehart has served as offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Indiana State University in Terre Haute.
"He's young, he's progressive, he's enthusiastic," said John Thomas, Florida Tech director of football operations. “He's a coach who is going to be carefully involved with his players on and off the field. He sees the importance of community involvement, he sees the importance of academics.”
In Englehart’s first year as an offensive coordinator at Indiana State University, he inherited an offense that set all-time lows. Over the course of the 2010 season, the Sycamore offense scored a school-record 351 points and 48 touchdowns, another program mark.
Indiana State averaged 411.8 yards of offense per game, good for fourth in the league and 17th nationally. Individually, Sycamore running back Darrius Gates averaged 10.6 points per game, which led the Missouri Valley Football Conference and was second in the nation.
“This is an exciting time for Florida Tech Athletics,” added Bill Jurgens, Florida Tech athletic director. “I’m equally excited for Coach Englehart who has the opportunity to build a football program at our university. I know he will do an excellent job.”
What they are saying about Florida Tech inaugural head football coach Steve Englehart
Derek Eitel
Former Quarterback, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
On Coach Englehart as a person:
“He’s the best. In my four years at Rose-Hulman, he was like a brother to me. He was younger, so he could relate to an 18-22 year-old in a way that some coaches can’t. He’s a first-class person, he’s a family man. First and foremost, I respect the way he lives his life and goes about things. You can’t say enough about his character.”
On Coach Englehart as a football coach:
“He’s a player’s coach. He demanded a lot of his players, but at the same time he gave his players a lot of freedom on the football field. As a freshman quarterback, he gave me freedom to audible. In my first few starts, I made mistakes and at times changed the play to a wrong play. Despite my inexperience, he never took my confidence away. In my freshman season, I think he really molded me into the quarterback I ended up being.”
On the qualities Coach Englehart will bring to the Florida Tech football program:
“He’s a very intense coach when he needs to be. He can be laid back off the field at times, but when you get him in front of the white board and he starts drawing up plays, his eyes light up. That intensity is projected to the players. He has a great offensive mind. At Rose-Hulman, we were undermanned at times and a little bit smaller, but he made us think that we were going to go out and take the opposing team down every game. That confidence and intensity that he instills will make men out of any players that come through his program.”
Jeff Jenkins
Athletic Director, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
On Coach Englehart as a person:
“He’s a family man. He’s very dedicated to his family and his wife, and is a classy individual. He is an outstanding head coach. I was glad to see him become Florida Tech’s head coach because I think he will do a remarkable job.”
On Coach Englehart as a football coach and the qualities he will bring to the Florida Tech football program:
“I think he’s definitely a player’s coach, but he will be firm with his players. He will make his players respect him and he will have discipline. Although he is still a young man, he will make them do the things that they need to do to be successful in the classroom and on the football field.
I certainly wish Steve a great deal of luck, and I will be following him. He went to Indiana State and helped turn around the program with (head coach) Trent Miles. I look for him to continue his success at Florida Tech.”
Mike Simmonds
Offensive Line Coach, University of North Texas
On Coach Englehart as a person:
“Steve Englehart is a great family man and a great person in general. He has great morals and does things the right way. He has three great children and a great wife, Carrie. His number one priority in life is taking care of his family. He also treats his coworkers as family.”
On Coach Englehart as a football coach:
“He is one of the best coaches I’ve been around. He’s very detail and goal orientated. He’s very organized. He listens to his coworkers. I saw him take an offense that was the worst in school history at Indiana State and turn it around in one season to the point that we scored the most points in school history, 351. I think that kind of sums up the one year I had a chance to coach with him, and his ability as a football coach. He’s a great fit for the Florida Tech football program.”
On the qualities Coach Englehart will bring to the Florida Tech football program:
“He’s been dreaming about being a head coach again. He’s going to demand a lot from his players on the academic and on the athletic end of things. He’ll want to develop a total student-athlete that will be a contributor on the football field and graduate. He’s going to build that program the right way with energy and enthusiasm. You’re getting a great man, a great leader, a great person, a great football coach in Steve Englehart.”
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