The Guelph Gryphons football team has made a big addition to the coaching squad as Super Bowl Champion Luke Willson steps behind the bench for the upcoming season. Willson got the call while he was helping to coach his brother’s U18 team in London this summer. That’s where he was introduced to Guelph coaches Mark Surya and Joe Cappiello. “They came to practice to scout some of the guys and then afterwards said, ‘Hey, would you consider coming to camp to see if it’s a good fit?’ and things took off from there,” Willson told CTV News. “Guelph’s got a really good operation going on here. I think it’s a big credit to coach March and also the alumni,” he said. The Lasalle, Ont. native will be the team’s tight end and H-back coach and hopes to pass on wisdom from his own experience playing the position. “Especially at the end tight-end position, I’ve seen a lot. So, just little technique things here and there but also schematically, things that helped me,” he said, adding that reading the defence will also be a focus this season. “How defences work with their gap integrity and how they all have gap responsibilities.” Willson played in the NFL for eight years and was part of the Seattle Seahawks team that won the franchise’s first championship in 2014. He said his years with the team have helped prepare him for the new coaching gig. “I learned a lot of football in my time in Seattle. A lot of it on the X and O side and obviously that’s a much different level than this. But, just kind of introducing some of those ideas will really help.” Despite the differences between American and Canadian playstyles, Willson said it won’t be a difficult transition. “A lot of hard Canadian fans will be sad, but the NFL game is much more complex than Canadian. So, it’s actually quite easy to understand the changes,” he said. The Gryphons will hit the gridiron on Saturday for their first game of the season against the Laurier Golden Hawks. The game will be a rematch of last year’s OUA semi-final. “They’re obviously a tremendous program, they’ve done a lot of great things over the past decade,” Willson said. “Do I think we’re ready? Absolutely! And I expect Saturday to be an extremely physical contest.” Outside of coaching, Willson will still be on TSN as an NFL analyst and podcast host.
