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| Brian Foos didn't coach a game in his first head coaching job, where he was the first head coach of a new program at Madonna University, an NAIA school. Capital athletics photo |
Capital introduced a new coach on Wednesday, Dec. 9, as Brian Foos, an alumnus of crosstown rival Otterbein, will come in to lead the Crusaders when they next take the field.
Foos replaces Chad Rogosheske, who left the job nearly a full year after his last game, a 51-14 loss to Muskingum on Nov. 16, 2019. The Crusaders finished 0-10 last season, including back-to-back-to-back midseason losses of 90-0, 66-0 and 49-0 to John Carroll, Mount Union and Ohio Northern.
Foos, a native of Tiffin, Ohio, will return to Central Ohio and the Ohio Athletic Conference for a second time after spending the past two years building the football program at Madonna, an NAIA program in Michigan. Since 2019, Foos built that school's program to more than 120 student-athletes and was prepared to take the field for the first time in school history prior to the impacts of COVID-19.
“I have had my eye on this job, so to see it come to fruition is a dream come true,” said Foos. “The Columbus area was home to me for a long time and I'm so glad to be coming home.”
Foos will take his post as head coach on Monday, Dec. 14.
“The OAC is the best conference in NCAA Division III and creates a challenge that I am ready for,” said Foos. “We have work to do and it will take the entire Capital family to get it done. I look forward to bringing pride back to Capital football.”
The Crusaders last made the playoffs in 2007, the last in a string of three consecutive postseason appearances which included a three-point loss at Mount Union in the national quarterfinals. The Crusaders have had one winning season since then.
“As long as I can ask questions and be able to have a conversation, that’s the type of support that’s needed, and that is there," Foos said in his introductory news conference.
“It doesn’t take one person to build a program; it takes everybody. We’re going to need everybody on campus, from the current roster of players, to our (physical) plant department, to our professors to our president – everyone is involved with that transformation.”
In addition to playing in the Ohio Athletic Conference, Food has coached in the conference as well, including under Jim Hilvert at Baldwin Wallace. In two seasons as the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach, Foos helped take a team that had finished 3-7 in 2016 to a three-game improvement in his first year. BW’s offensive numbers rose each season Foos called the plays and led the offensive line, and the Yellow Jackets saw their per-game points (38.8), total yards (456.6), passing yards (277.9), and rushing yards (178.7) numbers hit heights not seen since 2011.
In 2018, the Yellow Jackets were receiving votes in the D3football.com Top 25 and finished with their first eight-win season in seven years. That season, Foos guided Jake Hudson to a record-setting year and a second team All-OAC accolade after setting the program’s single-season passing and total offensive yards gained records.
Prior to his time at Baldwin Wallace, Foos spent 13 years of his career building two football programs from the ground, up. Following a stint at Ohio Wesleyan as its defensive line coach in 2003, Foos made waves in Columbus by helping start up the Ohio Dominican program, which debuted in 2004. In five seasons, the Panthers went from a startup, winless team to being ranked nationally behind a 12-1 overall record and competing in the 2007 NAIA playoffs. He began as the team’s tight end coach in 2004 and ascended to become its offensive coordinator by 2008. Combined, the Panthers went 28-25 over its first five seasons and 26-7 (.787) in three seasons between 2006 and 2008.
Foos then moved on to his next challenge prior to the 2009 season: building another program, this time at Lindsey Wilson, an NAIA school in Kentucky. As the Blue Raiders’ offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator under head coach Chris Oliver, Foos built another championship team within five years of the program’s inception. In year one (2010), Lindsey Wilson won five games and the following season had a winning record. In 2013, Foos and the Blue Raiders earned its first win over a nationally ranked opponent, a 35-26 victory over then-No. 25 University of Pikeville. The 2014 season was magical after Foos and the Blue Raiders won the Mid-South Conference championship, marking the first of three consecutive seasons in which Lindsey Wilson qualified for the NAIA football playoffs.
Foos’ college football origins began in the OAC. He calls Otterbein his alma mater, a place he started 39 of 40 games on the offensive line during years the Cardinals were coached by the late A. Wallace (Wally) Hood. From 1998 to 2001, the Cardinals accumulated 19 wins, including a 7-3 campaign in 1999 in which Foos blocked for quarterback Matt D’Orazio and three-time all-conference running back Shane Rannebarger.
"When I did the first Zoom interview, we talked about one of the games that we played and it was when the beautiful stadium was being built and Capital was playing over at Whitehall. We played in an absolute downpour, and there was a lightning delay. To be honest, we (Otterbein) had a better football team but the rain made the difference. I think the only points that we scored that day as Otterbein was a fumble recovery for a touchdown by a guy that I actually went to high school with. That was a vivid memory for me of a bad loss to Capital but it's going to be fun to be on the other side."
That was in 2000, when Capital beat Otterbein 12-9, with Otterbein returning a Capital fumble for a touchdown and later scoring as Catpital took an intentional safety rather than punt from its own end zone.
Foos stayed on with Otterbein to coach the offensive line in 2002 while finishing his degree and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor's in sport management. He earned an MBA from Ohio Dominican in 2007. He and his wife, Sara, have a daughter, Leah (6).