Marist alum Pat Coogan provides spark in Notre Dame’s push to national championship game

Pat Coogan has seen the videos. He doesn’t search for them, but sometimes they show up on his social media feed.

Each time he listens to a video, he cringes. Not because of the content. He just doesn’t like the way his voice sounds over the phone.

“I think it’s just because I hear myself screaming and it’s my voice on the phone,” Coogan said. “But it’s a passionate part of pregame, so I’m OK with it.”

Search “Pat Coogan” on most social media platforms and you won’t have to scroll long to find one of these videos. There’s one from before Notre Dame’s first round playoff game against Indiana. Others pop up from the Irish’s Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl appearances.

No matter where they’re from, the theme is the same.

Coogan’s fellow Notre Dame offensive linemen are huddled around him as he gives a passionate pregame speech. There are guaranteed to be a few swear words and the speech is never planned. It’s all from the heart in the heat of the moment.

Those videos have gone viral over social media as Notre Dame continues its push for a national championship. The Fighting Irish will play Ohio State on Monday in Atlanta for their first national title since 1988.

But Coogan never intended to go viral. He just wanted to find a spark during a season filled with constant obstacles.

“It’s kind of just a moment with the guys before we all run out there,” Coogan, a 2021 Marist alumnus, said. “So it’s really never meant to get clicks or whatever. It’s cool that people have kind of rallied around it. But it really is just like a tight, quick moment with the guys that I care about.”

Coogan and the Irish have been through a lot to get to this moment. A season that started with an impressive win on the road against Texas A&M was followed up by a home loss to Northern Illinois the following week.

Notre Dame won 13 straight games to reach Monday’s championship, including commanding wins over Indiana and Georgia in the College Football Playoff’s first two rounds. The Irish snuck past Penn State, 27-24, in the semifinals.

Coogan also had to overcome his personal obstacles. He started all 13 games last season for Notre Dame at left guard and was a member of an offensive line that was a Joe Moore Award semifinalist. But he started the season as a backup and played on special teams the first two games.

He faced a challenge Coogan he said he had never faced before.

Coogan relied on a positive mindset and conversations with his family to overcome those obstacles. He didn’t doubt that he did all he could and continued to do so.

“I kept at the forefront of my head, just in my mind knowing that I’m still an important part of this team,” Coogan said. “Someday, whenever that day came, I knew I was going to have to step up and play a huge role for that, for this team, and that’s what I just had to keep believing. It really paid off to believe that.”

It paid off after Notre Dame’s offensive line started to be ravaged with injuries. The Irish lost two starting tackles, a starting left guard, a starting center and a starting right guard during their run to the championship game.

Coogan, who started the season as the backup left tackle, became the starting center, making his first start against Miami (Ohio) in Week 4.

Those pregame speeches played a role, however small, in helping motivate each week’s group of linemen. The unit had a tradition of huddling up since Coogan was a freshman and he took over as the main speaker at the start of the season.

For a brief moment, Coogan found a way to bring the linemen together and get in the right headspace to what lay ahead.

“[Coogan] is an unbelievable leader,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman told reporters in a press conference during Notre Dame’s playoff run. “He’s passionate about this place and he’s passionate about that position. … He didn’t complain, he just worked. Now he’s in the position he’s in where he’s our starting center and he’s just battling, doing a great job. He’s leading the group and he’s a mature individual. There’s some young guys on that offensive line that he is leading and he’s having a major impact on that room and also on offense.”

Former Marist coach Ron Dawczak has seen the videos and wasn’t surprised by them. Although Dawczak said Coogan’s grown his vocabulary since his days with the RedHawks, Coogan always found an effective and respectful way to communicate with his teammates, something Coogan credits his parents.

Dawczak first witnessed Coogan’s leadership skills early in his junior season during a practice. The RedHawks had a sluggish practice and coaches felt like the players weren’t trying as hard as they could. Before the coaches could say something, Coogan addressed the team and resolved the issue.

That continued for the next two seasons.

“He would just say whatever he felt was necessary to try to reach his teammates, to get the best out of them,” Dawczak said. “He was a tremendous competitor, and he wanted to make sure that his teammates knew he was giving everything he had for them and that was what he expected out of them as well.”

Coogan doesn’t know what he’ll say to his teammates before Monday’s game. He’s not too worried about it considering he’s got bigger things to think about.

Maybe he’ll mention that playing in the national title for Notre Dame has always been Coogan’s dream since he was 4 or 5 years old. Or all that the Irish had been through over the past year.

“It’s taken a ton of work, and we’ve had to overcome a ton of adversity, but we get this one last opportunity to go out there and give it everything we got,” Coogan said. “So really special, really proud of my teammates and the coaching staff for just battling all year and just fighting through whatever, whatever is doing our way throughout the year. So really excited for this group and really excited for this last opportunity.”

Whatever he ends up saying, it’ll come from the heart and likely end up going viral.