Brian Surace just finished his seventh season as head coach of the FDU Football team. Surace is the fourth head coach in the program's history.
The 2017 Devils turned in a 3-7 record, and saw numerous school-records in the process. Junior Jagger Green broke the school record with 593 yards in the season-opening win over TCNJ, while also completing a school-best 52 passes against Lycoming.
Additionally, junior Mike Panzarino caught 23 passes against Lycoming, while teammate Malik Pressley re-wrote the FDU record book. He is in the top spot in career receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns and total touchdowns.
For the first time in 2016-17, the Devils had a student-athlete win the MAC Giant Steps Award, when Darryl Campbell was honored. 2016 saw the Devils beat Wilkes for the first time on the road in 43 years while also topping Lycoming for the first time in 10 seasons.
Coach Surace has successfully developed many players in his six previous seasons with the team. In 2015, under Surace's guidance, freshman wide out Malik Pressley became the program's first-ever Middle Atlantic Conference Rookie of the Year after setting the conference's record for receptions in a season (78) and single-game mark (18). Pressley and Mike Panzarino have led the MAC in receptions the last two seasons.
Previously, he coached Mike Mancino who is second on the Devils all-time leading tackles list. Other standout performances of note: Michael Santos 405 yards against Wilkes in 2013 is a single-game high for the program. Additionally Santos is the most accurate passer in Devils history with a 58.5% completion rate.
He coached conference sack leader Steve Hoverson who finished his career fourth in FDU history.
Surace arrived at FDU from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was the Offensive Coordinator for two stints (1999-2004, 2010). During his first tenure at RPI, he helped the team win two Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association Championships and in 2001, the Engineers earned the top seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament. In 2003, RPI went 11-2 and advanced to the Semifinals of the NCAA Tournament while Surace was named the American Football Magazine Offensive Assistant Coach of the Year.
From RPI, Surace went on to be the Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach at Northeastern University from 2005-2009. In 2009, the Huskies had the leading rusher in the conference (Former New York Jet John Griffin) while also having two offensive linemen named Second Team All-Conference. Surace also coached offensive lineman Ryan Gibbons, who played three NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboy and Jacksonville Jaguars. He also recruited and coached offensive lineman Martin Wallace, who has played with multiple NFL teams since 2013.
Surace has previously coached at King’s College (1995-96), Springfield College (1996-97) and Rutgers University (1997-98). He comes from a long line of football coaches as his father, Tony, coached at Millville High School for 25 years while his brother, Bob, is currently the Head Coach at Princeton University.
From 2014-2016, Surace served on the NCAA football rules committee, and was the VP of the MAC Football coaches from 2014-17. Additionally, he serves as the Sports Committee chair represting football for the MAC.
Surace has organized several community service events for the team, including the bone marrow drive- registered 168 participants for the 1st year participating in it, taking part twice in CURE MD where we honor a youth who are stricken with the fatal disease of Duchense MD.
The team is currently involved with 1 special boy through TEAM IMPACT and he is an honorary member of our football team. The football program has also taken part in many events on campus including campus cleanup on Green Day, Move-In Day, Open House, Admitted Students Day, Junior Day, activities with The Children’s Institute, Reading Day in multiple towns, breast cancer awareness, the polar plunge, and we will also begin a tradition of honoring our veterans who are going/have went to school at FDU at the last home game of the year.
A 1995 graduate of Gettysburg College with a Bachelor’s degree in Management, Surace went on to earn a Master’s degree in Physical Education from Springfield College. He resides in Florham Park with his wife Susan and son Will and daughter Taylor.
