Tracking proCanes - Frank Costa - Part II

Part II: Frank’s thoughts on the current state of the program, favorite things, word associations and more! Click here to read Part I.

proCanes: What do you think about the current state of the hurricane football program, and why do you think it went down the way did, and how can it get back up to where it was when you were there?
Frank Costa: If you talk to any of the ex-canes that were there when we were there winning National Championships obviously we are not happy with where we are. Looking at a team like Florida winning two titles in the last three years, that used to be us and now it’s Florida. That’s not a warm and fuzzy feeling that I have in my stomach. You don’t like to see our team play in a bowl game that in my opinion is a very minor bowl. When I was there we played on New Year’s Day every year and that was just a given. We were going to play in one of the four or five major bowls and that was it. I’m not happy with where we are and if you ask Randy he will say the same thing. There is too much talent at their disposal to not win at least 10 games every year in my opinion.

Now, the reason it got that way? From everyone I talked to, after Butch left Coker took over because the core group of guys that were returning and real successful the year before wanted Coker as a head coach. So they kind of forced the hand a little bit and got him to be the head coach. Larry, as much as I know him, love him to death, what a nice guy he was, he really was a nice guy, I am not so sure that he was in the long-term the best guy to take over after Butch was the coach. He did a good job running the offense and had great years with Kenny Dorsey and those guys and they were very dominant at that time but I think recruiting slacked off a little bit and just replenishing the talent was lagging behind and the team started to lose their luster. Right after the Ohio State game I think that is where the program started to turn. You now have to dig yourself out of that hole. You have to get the talent back in. Randy did a great job last year in recruiting. A lot of those guys played and he obviously did a good job. If he keeps recruiting and getting the players in there he can get them back up. It doesn’t take 4 5 years to get back on top. Butch took us back up after Erickson left and we were on probation. We had some down years there because of the probation but Butch got the program right where it was a few years prior. It can be done, and I think it will be done. You just have to get the players there and coach them up.

pC: What's a crazy Story from your days back then?
FC: There were some crazy guys down there that I played with. Some crazy dudes man. I don’t know. Everyday was crazy. Something different would happen. Unbelievable. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that you could actually put on your website.

pC: Donnell Bennett is now a head coach of a HS team down here. Would you ever think about going into coaching yourself?
FC: Not at this point. I don’t have the time to make a living coaching. If I were to get into coaching, I would have to start at a lower level and my income would not be there. My wife is a stay-at-home mom and for me to support three other people and probably have to pick up and move, I just couldn’t do it. If I was a single guy, maybe, but at this stage of the game, I am 36-years old and been at my company for nine years and I manage a lot of people’s money and thankfully my business has done very well. I couldn’t just toss it out the window. With my competitive nature I would love to do it. I don’t have the time to do that and it wouldn’t be fair to my family to just take my income and get rid of it and take a severe pay cut and be a GA somewhere. As much as I think I would enjoy doing it and this point there is no way.

pC:I say a word and you tell me the first thing that pops in your head:
Randy Shannon: Dedicated
Coker: Good guy
The Orange Bowl: Crazy
Dolphins Stadium: It’s the Dolphins’ stadium
The Ibis: John Routh
Art Kehoe: That’s my man
Erickson: No comment
Coral Gables: Beautiful
Fiesta Bowl: Nightmare

pC: Do you pull for the Eagles as your NFL Team?
FC: I had a personally dealing with them that didn’t go so well. Long story short, one thing was said and another thing was done which kind of gave me a sour taste. I don’t really have an NFL team. I watch the NFL very closely, actually more closely than the college game, believe it or not. I am very much in tune to what is going on in the NFL. I don’t have a particular team I watch, but there are particular players that I love watching play, obviously quarterbacks.

pC: Who’s your favorite QB playing now?
FC: My favorite QB that I like watching play is Peyton. The way he prepares for a game. The mental part that he has going into games and the way he is so in tune to with what is going on, mentally. He is not the most physically gifted quarterback. He is real good at just going to the right place with the ball, making good decisions, getting his team into the right play, making adjustments. I do love watching him. Obviously Brady, hopefully he comes back healthy, because he is such a great competitor. He is so accurate and tough as nails. Kurt Warner, say what you want, if you keep that guy upright he can throw the football as good as anyone who has played the game. Warner throws a beautiful ball. He has a quick release. He doesn’t have a canon for an arm but man can he throw it. I like watching Ben and a lot of these guys but I can watch Brady and Peyton play all day long. They are just so damn good. My favorite of all-time though is Montana. As much as I love Danny [Marino]. Marino is my boy. When I was down there I got a chance to play some golf with him and meet with him. I like Dan personally and no offense to Dan because he could deliver the rock, but Montana in my opinion is a little bit above everyone else.

pC: Do you follow the NBA or Major League Baseball?
FC: I follow baseball more closely than the NBA. I used to be a huge NBA fan but to be honest with you, the way the game gets played now. I don’t love watching the NBA until the playoffs come. I used to watch it religiously but not anymore. I’m a Phillies fan. We finally had a very nice year winning the title and that was great. We had a great ride here with that.

pC: I was pulling for the Phillies because of Pat Burrell.
FC: Pat! He’s not there anymore and down in Tampa now. I pulled for him though. He had ups and downs when he was here. He took a lot of heat. Some of it was warranted. He was very streaky. When he was good, he was real good and when he was bad, he was embarrassingly bad. He would have plate appearances where you would cringe. Trust me, you are talking to probably his number one fan. I would literally almost get into fistfights when people would come down on him. I would back him to the hills. He was here for about 9 years. He had a nice run and his last at-bat was a monster at-bat in World Series. He almost hit it out of there and it ended up being the winning run of the World Series. They really took care of him when they did the parade. He was at the very front of the parade. The fans gave him standing ovation after standing ovation. They kind of knew he was on his way out and they really showed him a lot of appreciation. To be honest with you, as tough as the Philadelphia fans are, they really gave him a free pass for most of the time he was here. They didn’t kill him. I have seen them kill Mike Schmidt and he is arguably the best 3rd baseman to play the game and they would just kill him. They killed everybody. They hate everybody. They took it easy on Burrell. I don’t know why? You always have people with their opinions, but they weren’t tough on him. They didn’t sit and boo him. Here and again they would. For the most part they gave him a free pass. Even people in the media were like why is he getting a free pass? Why aren’t the fans murdering this guy. They really didn’t. Whenever he did something right they always jumped on his back and got behind him. Kind of funny. You don’t hear that about Philadelphia fans. They are brutal. They want Andy Reid and McNabb out of town.

pC: Favorite Food?
FC: Crabs with spaghetti. My wife is an excellent cook. She is Italian as well and she can cook her butt off. She makes a crab sauce with spaghetti that is out of this world. That’s my favorite dish.

pC: Favorite Band or Group?
FC: It’s funny. Being the old man I am at 36, I listen to the financial channel when I am in my car because it is what I do. I try to keep up on things. I listen to a lot of sports radio because I am obviously a sports fan. That consumes most of my radio time. When I am listening to music, I am usually listening to the old bands. Led Zepplin is probably a band I will sit and enjoy the most.

pC: Movie you could watch over and over?
FC: The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

pC: TV Show other than Dancing with the Stars?
FC: [Laughter] The Office

pC: What do you do in your spare time?
FC: My spare time, when I have it, I love being with boys and my wife. I am very fortunate to have a healthy and happy family. We’re close, so if I’m not at work or with my clients I am with the kids and my wife just watching the kids grow. I can have the worst day in the world and when I walk in that front door and see my kids’ face, I forget about it.

pC: Websites you check daily?
FC: Obviously I go on my company’s website and the financial websites and check that boring stuff out, nothing that would be too interesting. I always check out ESPN.com and your news channels and things like that. YouTube is a great site! They’ve got some funny stuff on there.

pC: Back to your college days for one more question.Is there one play that sticks out? One you reminisce about or one you remember as one of your best plays?
FC: One of my best plays? Oh, I don’t know. To be honest with you, it’s funny. This conversation we are having right now is probably the most football I’ve talked about myself in ten years. I really don’t talk football a lot about myself. I don’t talk about my own career hardly at all. Not with my wife, not with my friends. Because, although there are good memories and it was a great experience and I had the opportunity to play with guys that are future Hall of Famers and got a chance to be on national TV and the front cover of magazines, there was also some unfulfilled dreams of playing in the NFL and my experience in Miami wasn’t all good. I never watch any of my old games. They’re on tape, my parents taped them. It’s hard, it’s not easy for me to go and watch my old games. I would rather just live in the now. Not the past. To be honest with you, I don’t think about my own career or talk about it at all. Sometimes it can be a little bit depressing. I had expectations of going on and playing in the NFL, having success and I felt like a lot of those things were taken from me for whatever reason. The opportunities to pursue I felt were taken away from me and it was a hard pill for me to swallow. It was a very tough transition for me after I had decided that football was over, to move on. I know it is for a lot of athletes. I know I am not the only one in that boat but it was tough to pick myself up and figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I have gotten past it and thankfully I have a great job and have been successful and moved but it’s something I don’t think about it anymore.

Click here to read Part I

We at proCanes.com would like to thank Frank Costa for giving us his time to do be the first interviewee for our new feature "Tracking proCanes." Stay tuned to next week when we will have an interview with another former QB from the U who not only won a national championship but had a long career in the NFL.