By: Con Marshall
CSC Athletics
Chadron State College is experiencing a unique turn of events this season. One of their football coaches from last year has transitioned to a player role this year. This unusual situation is not only a testament to the coach's dedication but also a potential game-changer for the Eagles this fall.
A year ago, Nick Gossage, a native of Colorado Springs, was a graduate assistant helping Head Coach Jay Long tutor the offensive line. Now, he's seeking playing time alongside players he coached last season.
Gossage, a 24-year-old standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing 320 pounds, didn't let his injuries define his future. He thought his playing days were over at the end of the 2021 season at Fort Hays State in Kansas, where he'd started at right guard all season but played with a painful left shoulder that he knew needed surgery when the schedule ended. He'd had the same surgery in 2019 when he was a redshift freshman and played in about half of the Tigers' games when they won their second straight conference championship.
Because of COVID-19, the Fort Hays football team didn't play any games in 2000, even though it practiced most of the fall. Gossage's participation was cut short when he broke a bone in his right foot during workouts. However, he recovered to participate in spring drills and earned a starting job for the '21 season.
But, because of his second shoulder injury and surgery at the end of that season, he decided his college football career was over.
"I was mentally done playing," Gossage recalls. "I still loved football, but the injuries had taken their toll. I was still recovering from my surgery when spring practice occurred in 2022, so I missed that season and graduated in December."
He earned a bachelor's degree in social science, emphasizing secondary education, with the intention to teach and coach. He moved home during Christmas vacation. By then, his father, Erick Gossage, who had taught K-5 physical education for 30 years, had become the head football coach at Liberty High in Colorado Springs where Nick had attended and earned two-time all-conference and all-area player honors and a team captain for two years.
Nick sometimes hung around the school that spring, helping his dad and, by chance, was there when Chadron State Offensive Coordinator Micah Smith stopped to see if Liberty had any college prospects he could recruit.
"I met Coach Smith and told him I was looking for a chance to earn a master's degree and help coach college football. I told him to tell me if something opened up," Gossage recalls. "Early that summer, he called me and told me Chadron State was looking for someone to be an assistant offensive line coach. I jumped at that opportunity, arrived in Chadron in July (2023), and helped Coach Long last season."
Since earning a master's degree takes two years, Gossage also helped with spring football last April. While chatting with Coach Long, he mentioned that he probably had another semester of football eligibility since he had redshirted as a true freshman in 2018 and Fort Hays had not played in 2020. The supposition proved to be true. He was NCAA eligibile and cleared to play this fall, returned home after the CSC school year ended in May, and began working out to get back into playing shape.
"After school was out at Liberty, Dad had his football players running and lifting four days a week, and I joined them," Gossage said. "I worked hard. I knew I needed to get back into serious shape and be ready to play. In July, I returned to Chadron to work with the players who had stayed here for the summer. I was a little nervous about how I'd be received by the guys I had coached last year when I told them I was going to play again," Gossage noted. "But that only lasted about one day. Sometimes, they still call me 'coach.' We've gotten along great."
When the first week of practice ended last Saturday, Gossage said there are no guarantees that he'll be among the starting linemen or even get to play much, but he's trying to do his best to contribute.
"There's a lot of competition up front this year. Competition breeds championships. I saw it happen at Fort Hays," he said. "Coach Long has brought in some good transfers, and we have five or six other seniors besides me on the O-line roster. We'll have a unique line and an exceptional team this fall. We've got the right kind of zip at quarterback now and good competition at every position. It should be a fun year. I'm competing to start, but if that doesn't happen, I'll try to help those ahead of me succeed. I've had a lot of experience and might be able to give them some tips," Gossage continued. "I want this team to win."
Here's a footnote to the story: Nick has a famous relative from Colorado Springs who still lives there. He's Richard "Goose" Gossage, one of major league baseball's first and all-time outstanding closers, primarily with the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres in the late 1970s and much of the '80s. Altogether, Goose pitched 22 years in the majors, struck out 1,502 batters, was an All-Star Game selection eight times, and was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2008.
Nick said Goose is a third cousin, but the family is close, and Goose and his wife, Corna, often attend family birthday parties and graduations.
"It's nice to be related to someone famous," Nick noted. "That's how some people remember my last name."