Play the Jesuit-Plant connection game

Posted Aug 30, 2011 by Katherine Smith

Updated Sep 2, 2011 at 02:36 PM

It’s been nearly 20 years since Jesuit and Plant have faced off on the football field. A lot has changed for both programs.

When the two teams last met in 1994, Plant head coach Robert Weiner was an assistant coach at Jesuit, as were several of Weiner’s Plant assistants, including co-defensive coordinator John Few.
Plant’s wide receivers coach T.J. Lane and special teams coach Matty Walker were standout players for the Tigers in that game. Jesuit offensive line coach Brian McNulty was a Division I prospect playing alongside Lane and Walker.

In former Plant coach Roland Acosta’s final game, Jesuit defeated Plant 23-14 on Nov. 4, 1994. Jesuit, then led by current Berkeley coach Dominick Ciao, was one of the most successful teams in Hillsborough County in the 90’s. Plant, not so much.

Now Plant is one of the top programs in the state, with three state championships in the past five years. Jesuit is enjoying a resurgence under head coach James Harrell, in his second season at the Tigers helm.

Harrell was Plant’s co-defensive coordinator during the Panthers 2006 and ’08 state runs. So were Jesuit assistant coaches McNulty, offensive coordinator Ty Alvarez and Scott DeCamp.

Confused yet? Here’s more connections. Weiner, Few, Lane, Walker, tight ends coach Jeff Murphy and defensive assistant Kirk Willet all graduated from Jesuit. Panthers’ defensive backs coach Bo Puckett got his first break in coaching at Jesuit before joining Weiner at Plant.

And Plant defensive line coach Billy Minahan, who played for the Panthers, shares a special connection to Jesuit. His father Wild Bill Minahan was the Tigers head coach for several years, including 1968 when Jesuit won its only state championship.