SWJCFC MEDIA DAY | Cisco’s Rizzio, an unlikely leader for underdog Wranglers

TYLER – Stop us when you’ve heard it before: Cisco has a new head football coach, their third in as many years.

The Wranglers recently promoted defensive coordinator Charlie Rizzio to head coach after Stephen Lee left after just one year for Tarleton State, an assistant coach’s position (tight ends) there.

The Wranglers went 4-4 last year, 3-4 in the conference, and Rizzio knows his program has a bit of an uphill climb against the Kilgore Colleges of the JUCO world.

Rizzio, a self-described “northeasterner” from Seymour, Conn., has coached all over, including Nevada, West Texas A&M and even Yale. He’s a former Missouri Western State linebackers coach, but while there, he coached Evan Chohon to a Harlon Hill Trophy nomination. The Harlon Hill Trophy is comparable to the Heisman Trophy at the Division III level.

Rizzio described how he got the job Thursday at Southwest Junior College Football Conference Media Day, at Hollytree Country Club in Tyler.

“Coach Lee brought me here,” he began, “a little more than a year and a half ago. You can’t complain about the jobs you don’t get, and not take the one that is the job you have the opportunity for. I came up short on a number of defensive coordinator jobs, and coach Lee is a dude I worked for in a job 10 years ago.”

After talking with Lee about the benefits of coaching in Texas, he told Lee to “send me an address, I’ll pack my stuff, and let’s go.”

“Not even a year later, he had a great opportunity and he had to leave,” he said. “…He called me and said, ‘Well, I’m taking this job. You’ve got a good ride ahead of you. Maybe on the way down here, think about what you do if you’re the (new Cisco) head coach, and on the way back, think about what you do if you’re NOT the head coach.’ And I said, ‘Welp, OK! Thanks, Coach! Cool! I’m outta here! Looking forward to football!’”

The room filled with laughter as Rizzio changed his tone.

“It’s been a whirlwind, ok?,” he explained. “When I say this, though, I truly mean it, right? Cisco is a special place. There’s some guys in this room that have been there. It takes a certain type of person to be able to be successful in that town, in that community, and on that campus. And it’s not just the players; it’s the coaches. I’m very lucky to have learned under coach Lee and to continue the vision of what we built together in that short amount of time.”

Rizzio said he loves his staff and is enthusiastic about things the Wranglers have a chance to do this season.

“We’re excited about what we have and we have expectations, but our expectations are far from wins and losses,” he said. “I’m not trying to sound cliché. Right? Our expectations are: you show up for weights in the morning. We had 115 kids all summer. We had close to 90 percent attendance. …You have to have a certain mindset, and end up getting tested whether you love football or not when you wake up every day in that town. And that’s not a bad thing.

“So we have to make sure we recruit to that. To be honest with you, I kind of scare guys away. We tell them, ‘If you need a reflective visor, 15 wristbands and glow-in-the-dark cleats, hang up the phone, man. This ain’t the place for you.’ …There’s nothing flashy about our program, there’s nothing flashy about our kids. All the flashy kids: they’ve been told, ‘See you later.’ We’ve had to remove some really talented young men who don’t really understand what it takes to be successful here.”

As far as wins?

“Are we gonna be competitive? Are we gonna put together the best plan we can?,” he said, and then looked up, with his head and his eyes. “It’ll probably be like THIS. We lost our game against Kilgore last year, and our guys were like ‘Hi, Kilgore!’”

The crowd laughed, as Rizzio continued.

“We’re not that,” he said, laughing. “…That’s kind of the mindset we have, and the personality that we’re growing on the team. But at the end of the day, if we can develop kids that go on to a four-year – and I don’t give a dang whether it’s Power Five, NAIA or anything in between – and they can go there, and be successful, and get on the field… and he has a great experience and get to play, that’s great. But it doesn’t matter the logo you’ve got on your shirt: if you’re on the sidelines making Gatorade, you’re on the sidelines making Gatorade.”

Rizzio said he wouldn’t name names, or he’d leave people out.

“Top to bottom, positionally, offensively we’ve got a transfer in at quarterback,” he said. “We’re excited about him. We’ve got two young freshmen that we’re excited about. We’ve got a couple of guys coming back. They’re in the mix, as well.

“Wide receiver room, we’ve trimmed some fat, some distractions. That goes away, all of a sudden productivity goes up, there’s less talking and there’s more action.

“Offensive line we’re never going to be as big or a strong from a depth standpoint. We do have a couple of bookend tackles that look the part. We’ve got some tough interior guys that are pretty strong. We had a kid do 475 for 12 reps on the squat rack, I think Tuesday.”

He continued.

“Running back, we’ve got that,” he said. “Picked up a transfer from Texas State. We have a running joke: when we have team meetings, he’s always on time. Anybody that shows up after him is essentially late. He keeps his mouth shut, he works his butt off, and hopefully he can get some physical yards, extend some drives and maybe put a little stress and wear on a defense.

“Tight end, we’ve got some freaky athletic kids,” he said. “I joke around with our staff that we’re about a redshirt year away from maybe being comparable when we get off the bus. We’ve got some tall, lanky kids, but they’ve got to eat and they’ve got to get bigger, because we’re not in the position of luxury to be able to redshirt guys. They’ve got to be out there on the field, they’re gonna figure it out, and sink or swim, and there’s gonna be some growing pains.”

Defensively – his background – Rizzio said he coaches linebackers. “The strategy is there,” he said. He said his defensive line coach is “about as Cisco as Cisco gets.”

“We stacked the secondary with guys that are very high level, mature,” he said.

The Wranglers open the season on Aug. 24 at home against the TWA Battlecats, a club team.

They’re off a week (Aug. 31), then are back in action, also at home, against Coffeyville (Kan.). Then, it’s into conference play at home against Trinity Valley.

So Cisco has its first three games at home before heading to Kilgore to face defending conference champion Kilgore College on Sept. 28.

The Wranglers visit Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO) on Oct. 5, host New Mexico Military on Oct. 12, at play at Tyler Junior College Oct. 19.

They split their last two games. They’re at home against Navarro on Oct. 26, have another open date, a late-season open date, on Nov. 2 before ending the regular year on Nov. 9 on the road at Blinn in Brenham.

The conference playoffs begin the following week (Saturday, Nov. 16) for the teams that finish in the top four in the conference standings.

“I’m really excited about what we have,” he said. “I, myself, and our coaching staff have to keep each other in check. I can sleep at night knowing we’re doing it the right way.”

He closed with a story about one of his former players calling him from a four-year program, somewhat surprised that he was ahead of the curve.

“He said, ‘It’s all the same stuff YOU did on defense!,’”, Rizzio said. “….And so I said, ‘What, did you not believe me?” The crowd laughed. “Did you think we were not doing real football? And the kid goes, ‘I’m the 2 after OTAs, because I know more than some of the guys that have been here. And that’s really what it’s all about.”