Springdale grad Sean Dugan continues to move up football coaching ladder at Eastern Michigan

The life of a college coach can be, if nothing else, nomadic. Whether it is scouting, traveling for games or taking new jobs, those in the profession are almost perpetually on the move.

Springdale grad Sean Dugan knows this firsthand.

In May, he was hired as a defensive analyst at Eastern Michigan, his fourth school in seven years in the business. That came after a year as linebackers coach at Austin Peay. He helped the Governors go 6-0 in the new United Athletic Conference (9-3 overall) and finish No. 12 in the final FCS coaches poll.

At the moment, Dugan, 29, doesn’t have a spouse or children to consider. He is free to work his way up the coaching ladder, and landing at an FBS school was the next logical stop.

Dugan got his new position, perhaps not surprisingly, as a result of his coaching travels.

During the 2023 offseason, after Austin Peay’s successful campaign, Dugan was on a scouting trip in Ohio. While he was there last January, he crossed paths with Eastern Michigan assistant Ben Needham, who was scouting the same workout.

Needham had just been named defensive coordinator for the Eagles, but that first meeting with Dugan didn’t result in any discussions over jobs. Just two coaches talking, building a relationship.

A few months later, in the spring, Dugan and Needham ran into each other again during a high school combine in Ohio. There was a position open on coach Chris Creighton’s defensive staff in Ypsilanti, and, Dugan said, Needham floated the idea of having Dugan apply for the job.

A couple of interviews later, Dugan got his post on the Eastern Michigan staff.

“I’m pretty excited and certainly extremely grateful for the opportunity they have provided for me,” Dugan said.

The Eagles went 6-6 in the regular season (4-4 in the Mid American Conference) and qualified for the program’s third consecutive bowl game. The three straight bowl berths were a first in program history.

“Sean has made us better,” said Creighton, going into his 11th year at EMU, in an email to TribLive. “He is a great person and has certainly positively impacted our staff. He has a very bright future in coaching.”

Dugan said his brief time at Austin Peay helped to prepare him for the leap to the FBS level. He credited Governors coach Scotty Walden for giving him a taste of how a bigger program is run.

“Certainly he was understanding, knowing that my angle was eventually to get to the FBS,” Dugan said of Walden. “They do it big time. Austin Peay runs like an FBS program. … There is no coincidence or no secret to why Austin Peay is as good as they’ve become.

“I certainly learned a ton in the year I was there.”

So what does a defensive analyst do? Dugan said that, just a couple of years ago, he probably could not have answered that question himself.

Having spent four seasons coaching at the Division III level with a staff or six or seven, Dugan had myriad responsibilities. At the FBS level, Dugan found out quickly how specialized everything can be. In his first meeting with the EMU football coaches, there were, he said, 20 people in the room.

As a defensive analyst, Dugan’s job is to learn the opponent’s offensive tendencies. He spends a lot of time watching film, trying to dissect all the nuances of the next opponent’s schemes.

Then, when game week arrives, he passes along his observations to the rest of the staff, and a game plan is formulated. During games, he sits next to the safeties coach in the box and is in charge of personnel. He also focuses on the performance of the front seven.

Next season, Dugan’s analysis skills will be put to the test like never before.

Part of Eastern Michigan’s football schedule has been released for 2024, and one game jumps out immediately: Washington, this year’s national runner-up. According to the Eastern Michigan website, the Eagles will travel to Seattle to face the Huskies on Sept. 7.

A daunting task, to be sure, but, Dugan said, this is what he signed up to do.

“That should be quite an experience, to say the least,” he said. “It’s quite a task at hand with playing the national runner-up, but coach Creighton has quite a track record against Power 5 programs and certainly has flipped the script several Saturdays playing Power 5 programs.”

Creighton’s Eagles, to Dugan’s point, own victories over Power 5 schools Rutgers, Purdue, Illinois and Arizona State. Washington likely will prove to be a much taller task, but, if nothing else, the Huskies provide proof that Eastern Michigan is a great launching pad to bigger jobs.

Kalen DeBoer, the former Washington head coach who recently was hired to succeed Nick Saban at Alabama, got his first Division I opportunity from Creighton in 2014, when he was named EMU’s offensive coordinator. Ryan Grubb, the Huskies’ offensive coordinator under DeBoer who is also is expected to move to Tuscaloosa, was EMU’s offensive line coach under Creighton.

When that next big opportunity will come, Dugan isn’t sure. Whatever it is, whenever it comes and wherever it is, he said he will be prepared and is aware he must grab his chances while he can.

“Being in the profession now six or seven years, there are some challenges to it,” he said, “but, luckily, I don’t have kids just yet or a wife just yet, so it makes it a lot easier knowing I’m not uprooting a family just yet.

“It’s going to become a lot harder once I do get to that point into my life. I’m in a position where I can still pick up and move. I know that’s not always going to be the case, so I’m fortunate and not taking it for granted. I’m still in a position where, for me, it’s a cool experience to go live in different parts of the country and coach football.”