For many chief executive officers of Fortune 1000 companies, retirement consists of relaxing in a big house with a view of an ocean or hitting the golf course on a daily basis.
Not for Joe Moglia.
Moglia served as CEO of TD Ameritrade from 2001-2008, where the company earned a 500% return on investment. Prior to his stint with the Omaha, Neb.-based company, Moglia worked for Merrill Lynch for 17 years.
However, Moglia’s career path has brought him back to where it began — coaching football. He is in his second season as the head coach at Coastal Carolina University, and will bring his Chanticleers to Elon University this Saturday Sept. 28 with a 4-0 record and a No. 11 national ranking in FCS polls.
Moglia, who spent 16 years coaching at the high school and college ranks before turning to business, returned to the sideline in 2011. That year, he led the Omaha Nighthawks of the now-defunct United Football League, who played their home games at Omaha’s TD Ameritrade Park.
What seemed like a publicity stunt for a startup professional league led to interest from Coastal Carolina, and on Dec. 19, 2011, Moglia was named head coach of the Chanticleers.
Coastal Carolina had just completed its ninth season in program history, and was struggling to establish itself as a regional, much less national power. The Chanticleers had only qualified for the NCAA playoffs twice under former head coach David Bennett, so a change was made.
Bringing in the former CEO has quickly paid dividends for Coastal Carolina.
In Moglia’s first year, the Chanticleers were co-Big South Conference champions, earning the third NCAA Division I FCS playoff berth in school history. With a victory over Bethune-Cookman College on Nov. 24, 2012, the Chanticleers had earned their school’s first playoff win.
The momentum under Moglia has not decreased in 2013. Coastal Carolina is off to a 4-0 start, the best in the history of the young program. Moglia has guided the Chanticleers through a starting quarterback change and has emerged with wins against quality FCS teams — a 35-28 triumph over Furman University of the Southern Conference and a 51-32 road win over Eastern Kentucky University out of the Ohio Valley Conference. The start has the Chanticleers ranked at No. 12 in the latest Sports Network FCS Top 25 poll and No. 11 in this week’s FCS coaches’ poll.
Critics of Coastal Carolina might choose to point out the Big South is among the weakest of the scholarship-offering FCS conferences. However, the Big South only has six current members, so Moglia and his staff have the ability to define their season by scheduling tough non-conference games against other FCS teams.
Coastal Carolina took a gamble on hiring Joe Moglia. After all, he had never been a head coach at the collegiate level and had not worked among college athletes since the early 1980s. With a win over Elon on Saturday, the Chanticleers will likely crack the top 10 of the FCS polls.
It looks like Coastal Carolina is getting a good return on its investment.