Stony Brook opens season nationally ranked, eager for next step

It’s a little hard to fathom that Billy Cosh has been the head coach at Stony Brook for only 20 months. So many things have changed about the football program in such a short time, it could practically cause whiplash.

The program was in a nosedive with three straight losing seasons and had bottomed out in 2023 by going 0-10. That’s when Cosh was plucked off the Western Michigan coaching staff by Stony Brook AD Shawn Heilbron to replace Chuck Priore.

In his debut season — and with a number of returning players — the Seawolves pulled a hairpin turn and went 8-4. They will open this season on Aug. 28 at San Diego State as a nationally ranked team in the two FCS polls, No. 24 by Stats Perform and 25th by AFCA.

“It’s cool to be ranked but that can’t be a focus,” running back Roland Dempster said. “The practices have been harder this season — faster and more physical — because more is expected from us. The league thought we [wouldn’t] do anything last season and we surprised everyone with eight wins.

“We want more than eight wins this season,” he added. Cosh said. “We’re physical, we’re flying around and we’re pretty assignment-sound. The games we lost last season were ones where we could have played better and that’s what we’re hunting for now.”

Heilbron sensed a special energy in Cosh from their introductory interview on a Zoom.

“He had a plan, he was able to articulate it and he was excited about it,” Heilbron said. “You just knew this guy was going to be successful [and] it wasn’t a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’”

Cosh arrived at Stony Brook, surveyed the landscape and quickly identified a couple things that had to be addressed.

“No. 1 was the mindset: I don’t think they knew what work was or how to work hard in general,” he said. “No. 2 was limiting selfishness. We had a lot of guys that were worried about stats instead of playing winning football and being good ‘team guys.’ Changing that was going to be critical.”

The transformations are hard to miss. For one, Seawolves practices are physical, run at high speeds and allow for little time standing around. It’s part of a coaching staff philosophy to make Game Day the easiest one of the week. Technique at high speeds also is an emphasis and mental errors — illegal motion, going offsides, missing an assignment — result in a player going to touch one of the two signs in the end zones of the practice field that say “TNT,” which stands for ‘takes no talent.’

Another is an attitude embodied by the team’s saying “As One.” As offensive lineman Niko Papic explained, “there are no individuals here, only one team.”

“It was just a culture change . . . because we always had talent,” Dempster said. “That was never the problem.

“The way we work, the way we practice, the way we come in dressed the same and don’t wear hoodies in meetings — all that’s a change. We saw it and we wanted to buy in.”

Cosh envisions that new attitude as a road sign on the route to meeting and exceeding expectations. Asked what he tells players about taking on the ‘As One’ mindset, Cosh explained, “Learn together, handle adversity together, celebrate together. There’s a no-excuses attitude here. . . . We know we’ll face adversity and we have to overcome it as a group.”

“I think it’s going to be a big season for us if we can stay together,” he added.

“He makes you want to play for him and be a part of what he is building here,” Dempster said.

Papic recalls how Cosh had players in for interviews when he took over. Instead of talking with them about what he expected from them, he opted to ask questions and listen to them.

“He asked every player what we wanted to get out of this and . . . we all just wanted to win,” Papic said. “He’s teaching us what it takes to win, that every day the amount you put it is what you’ll get out. And I really appreciate he’s given us a taste [for winning].”

Heilbron is clearly thrilled about the way Cosh has done everything he said. But looking back over the past 20 months, he marvels a bit at the way the Stony Brook players were so quick to adopt something new and change to transform the program.

“I give a lot of credit to our players, because they bought in,” he said. They believed and they wanted to be successful.  For those guys who had been here through the tough times? I wanted it for them and I liked how Billy wanted it for them. . . . They finally got a taste of success and it was awesome to see.”

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.