Sixteen years removed from his NFL career, Ron Middleton still cuts an imposing figure.
Intimidation is second nature for a man who, for 10 years, made a living in the hard-fought trenches of the National Football League. As the Blue Devils’ associate head coach, special teams coordinator and tight ends coach, one could easily see this man simply frightening young players into working for him.
But then he cracks a smile. He lets loose a laugh so deep and bellowing that it disintegrates any inhibitions his imposing presence might have created. And when he starts talking about vampires and the Blade trilogy, it’s clear that this man is more than meets the eye.
That’s why, according to head coach David Cutcliffe, Middleton might be the closest to an NCAA head coaching job of any Duke assistant coach.
Surprising, considering the relatively low stature special teams have in the eyes of the common football fan. But as Middleton once told a group of Alabama boosters who questioned him as the first former-Auburn player ever to coach for its bitter rival, he’s a special case.
“’I’m Blade,’” Middleton would tell the chuckling Crimson Tide fans. “’I have all of the strengths and none of the weaknesses.’”
Nevertheless, 30 years ago, it would have been difficult to see Middleton ever planning kickoffs.
Middleton had a successful four-year career as a tight end at Auburn, a stretch that included an 11-1 record in 1983 and culminated in an SEC Championship and a Sugar Bowl victory over Michigan.
Despite his collegiate success, however, Middleton had to fight his way into the NFL. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Atlanta Falcons before bouncing around the league, playing four seasons with three different teams. In 1990, he signed with the Washington Redskins, with whom he eventually played four seasons and won Super Bowl XXVI.
“Once you cross the lines, the amount of your check, the round you were drafted in, that’s all left in the locker room,” Middleton said of being undrafted. “Now once you get off the grass, then the mentality of the coach is, ‘I’m doing this guy a favor’.... I understood that, and I was fortunate and blessed to be able to take advantage of my shot.”
Middleton’s ties to the gridiron didn’t end after his final professional season with the San Diego Chargers in 1995, though. Four years later, he joined the coaching staff at the University of Mississippi alongside Cutcliffe. He mentored the tight ends, predictably, and even spent two seasons working with the running backs.
Somewhat unexpectedly, though, Middleton also became special teams coordinator.
“I give all the credit to [assistant coach] Zac Roper,” Middleton said of his transition. “I started working with him at Ole Miss, and he’s really the hands-on guy with all those specialists.”
That might not have even been the most jarring transition for Middleton, who, in 2007, took a job coaching for a school he said he was “indoctrinated” into hating—Alabama.
Even though Middleton admitted he “really felt it” when the Crimson Tide faced Auburn, he used his unique perspective from the other side of the rivalry to try to make his current team better—even if his boss wasn’t too receptive.
“In the spring I told [head coach Nick Saban], ‘Do you understand this Auburn-Alabama thing?’ And Coach Saban being Coach Saban, he was like, ‘I don’t want to hear that crap. I’ve been in big games before,’” Middleton said. “We lost to Auburn. That night, he’s addressing the team afterwards and he goes, ‘For the next 364 days everything we’re going to do is about this game.’ I threw my hands up and said, ‘That’s what I was saying this spring!’”
Middleton spent only one season at Alabama though, as he joined Cutcliffe in the transition to Duke the next year. As a Blue Devil, Middleton once again took over the dual duties of special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. Luckily, though, he found a balance between those roles at Duke that he lacked at Alabama.
“As I’m in here studying the opponent’s special teams… [the offensive staff is] game-planning their defense,” Middleton said. “It’s a nice little system, and my trust in those guys to get that done, their trust in me to get the special teams done, it’s worked really well.
“Otherwise I would be in with them all day doing offense, and then all night I’d be in here doing special teams. And then I’d get burnt out, which is basically what happened at Alabama.”
The system certainly has worked, as in three years Middleton has turned a unit, once the laughing stock of the ACC, into a respectable one—redshirt-senior kicker Will Snyderwine was named preseason All-America, and incoming freshman Will Monday was rated as one of the top kickers in the Class of 2011.
And though Middleton takes a relatively “hands-off” approach to his specialists, his skills as a tactician give the unit an edge that Snyderwine says other schools can’t match.
“He puts us as kickers in great opportunities,” Snyderwine said. “He’s always open to new ideas and how things should work.”
One of those new ideas was Snyderwine’s high-hop onside kick, which Middleton turned into a play that resulted in four successful onside kicks last season.
“I brought that to him and said, ‘Look what I can do.’ [Middleton] turned around and said, ‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do,’” Snyderwine said.
While his football mind has pushed the special teams forward, Middleton’s football experience has pushed the tight ends to new heights, typified by the meteoric rise of Cooper Helfet.
Helfet entered last season as a junior college transfer admittedly “raw,” but he was expected to have time to develop with veteran tight ends above him on the depth chart. After both Brett Huffman and Brandon King fell victim to injuries, though, Helfet was thrust into the role as primary receiving tight end.
The team never missed a beat, as Helfet finished fourth on the team with 34 receptions, accumulating 380 yards and two touchdowns.
“He gave me support when I needed it and he got on my a— when he said I wasn’t working hard enough. I learned everything I need to know because of the things he taught me,” Helfet said. “He’s the best coach I’ve had at my position.”
Despite his success, Middleton still has to overcome the stigma of being a special teams coordinator if he plans to someday earn the head coaching job Cutcliffe thinks is all but a formality. However, Middleton thinks that his role actually gives him more of the skills necessary of a head coach.
“I think a special teams coordinator is more equipped than an offensive or defensive coordinator to take on that head coaching responsibility, because our influence is on all the kids,” Middleton said. “You can tell it’s slow to change because they keep preaching you’ve got to be an offensive or defensive coordinator. I present my argument to them, and it’s like, ‘Hmm, you’re making some sense.’”
Helfet certainly thinks his mentor has everything it takes to run his own team.
“More than any other coach I’ve been around, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t respect him and love being around him and want to play hard for him. He’s such a good guy and he’s so fair to us that we just want to work hard for him,” Helfet said. “I can see him having a strong career as a head coach.”
Still, Middleton follows Cutcliffe’s lead in staying focused on the task at hand—getting Duke over the proverbial hump and back to a bowl game. It’s a goal he thinks is feasible, especially considering he “wouldn’t be surprised if we ran the table.”
And when Middleton’s time finally comes, it’s his unique perspective—not only as a special teams coordinator but from his long and varied playing and coaching experiences—that could make Cutcliffe’s confidence in his associate head coach prophetic.
Just call him the Blade of collegiate coaches—all of the strengths, none of the weaknesses.
Correction: The photo that ran alongside this article in the print edition incorrectly identified Joe Manhertz, the Duke athletic department's executive director of development, as Ron Middleton. The Chronicle regrets the error.
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