'He really believed in me': How Chad Eppley got the Northridge football team to buy into him

MIDDLEBURY — Tagg Gott walked off of the field disappointed in himself that night.

The junior running back and quarterback rushed for just 13 yards on nine carries, a season-low for him, in Northridge's 36-3 loss to Warsaw. He felt that he played his worst game of his life.

"I walked up to Coach (Chad) Eppley and I said, ‘I’m sorry”," Gott said during Northridge's state championship media day. "He (Eppley) said, 'There was no reason to be sorry. We all have bad games.'

"That is when I knew that he really believed in me and that gave me the confidence to believe in him, too."

For Eppley that was his biggest challenge in his first season, which will culminate this Saturday in the Class 4A State championship game, as Northridge's head coach.

Back in March he took over the Raiders football program that found its footing in the Northern Lakes Conference under Tom Wogoman. In August, before the season started, he developed the "Why not us" mantra to get this year's players to believe in themselves.

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At the same time, the 26-year-old coach was trying to get his players, some less than 10 years younger than he was, to believe in him.

"I knew how Wog ran things and stuff like that," he said. "I knew the stuff that I liked, that he did. There was some stuff I wanted to change here and there. But I didn’t want to do a complete 360 because there was no need to. The reason why this school went from not winning games to coach Wogoman coming here and establishing a winning culture, I just wanted to build on that."

When did senior Ridge Howard know that Eppley was the right coach? Right after the first game. But it wasn't the fact that Northridge beat South Bend Adams 21-0 to begin the season. It was what Eppley told his team afterwards that sealed the deal.

"He said we had a great first half but there is still room for a lot of improvement, which showed me he didn’t want to be just a decent NLC team," Howard said. "He wanted to take that next step."

In eight seasons under Wogoman, the Raiders finished with a winning record in NLC play five times. The fact that Eppley, who had been on his staff in previous seasons, had built-in familiarity with Northridge's players made for a smoother transition into the season.

"I knew that he was going to bring a lot of energy," said senior wideout Jethro Hochstetler, who caught the semi-state clinching touchdown against New Prairie last Friday.

There were some changes that Eppley made during the offseason to make the program his own. He brought back a team camp experience to give the chance for Nothridge's players to build chemistry.

It showed before a scrimmage against Triton, in which Eppley noticed the bond his team had when his players started one-on-ones against each other on a practice as a group activity.

Eppley also fostered an opinion-based leadership, where he took into account his player's ideas and advice in order to build more trust.

“Throw an idea and he wants to try it," senior Clint Walker said. "It’s not just flushed down the toilet.”

That bond helped guide Northridge through early-season injuries (including one to senior quarterback Micah Hochstetler), and to a 4-0 start to the season with wins against Adams, South Bend Saint Joseph, Wawasee and Plymouth. Then, Eppley faced his first test as a head coach when the Raiders hit a mid-season slump.

A win against Goshen split four losses against NorthWood, Warsaw, Concord and Mishawaka. Suddenly, all of that early-season momentum was gone and Northridge's team bond was tested.

But the way the Raiders responded showed Eppley they had bought in.

"We were giving up quite a few points, weren’t scoring a lot of points," he said. "We were losing to these good NLC teams. They would come in and just want to get better. They believed in us in a coaching staff and I knew they were still in it for the long run."

Northridge's playoff run is now well-documented. Nobody expected them to be here a month ago when the Raiders began the postseason against NorthWood. Nobody expected them to upset No. 2 Leo in overtime to win a sectional championship. And many doubted if they could go into New Prairie to win the program's first ever semi-state.

But Eppley believed in his players because they believed in him.

To get to this point in the season, where the Raiders will play for their first state championship, that had to happen first. And it has helped set a precedent in his program, not only for Saturday's game, but for the future of his tenure.

"I can really just thank the kids and the coaches that helped," Eppley said. "The fact that they bought in, truly believed in me, it is huge,"

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: An inside look on how Chad Eppley guided Northridge to states