McNeese State has always been known as a solid training ground for college football coaches.

Many who got their start with the Cowboys have gone on to larger schools and higher profile jobs.

Most give credit for what they learned at McNeese, mostly because they had to do so much it helped them develop all aspects of their coaching style.

No group has stayed connected more than the 2015 staff of Matt Viator, who left at the end of that season for the top job at Louisiana-Monroe.

Viator is the all-time winningest head coach in McNeese history, and the 2015 season was the last time the Cowboys made the playoffs. They went 10-1, losing only in the postseason’s second round.

“That was a great year that ended too soon,” Viator said. “We had a great group of players and coaches that season.”

When Viator left after 10 seasons in charge of the program, an era came to a close. The staff which had stayed together for a few years, broke up and went about their careers.

Three are on the Tulane staff while two, including Viator himself, are at Louisiana-Lafayette.

But they remember the 2015 season and a group of coaches that competed as hard in practice as they did in games, which helped make them all prepared for what came next.

“We were really a close group,” said Tim Leger who was the offensive coordinator at McNeese. “We talked through a lot of situations with each other. We used to go into the other guy’s office and draw on the window glass overlooking the stadium and using it like a white board.”

Leger left for Monroe with Viator and is the offensive coordinator at ULL. Viator serves as the quality control analyst for the Ragin’ Cajuns after five seasons at ULM.

“A lot of it goes back to the way we did things there,” Viator said. “All the coaches watched tape together and we were such a small staff you had to do a lot of things.

“To the credit of the guys, they all wanted to learn. That’s why they moved on so well. I didn’t micro-manage them. I gave them a lot of responsibilities and they ran with them.”

It was that freedom which helped the group become better rounded.

“Coach V gave us all free will,” said Lance Guidry who was the defensive coordinator and became the McNeese head coach for three years after Viator. While he has ups and downs at McNeese, Guidry’s defenses were always solid.

Guidry went on to be defensive coordinator at Marshall, where last year he turned that group into one of the nation’s elite.

Guidry got same job at Tulane, where he replaced Chris Hampton, who was on the 2015 McNeese staff as defensive backs coach. Hampton was hired Wednesday as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Oregon.

With Guidry at Tulane from the 2015 Cowboys are Slade Nagle, who was the running backs coach at McNeese and is the Green Wave’s (yet-to-be announced officially) offensive coordinator, and Eman Naghavi, who serves in the same position he did in Lake Charles as offensive line coach.

“We just had a solid staff back there,” said Guidry, who played for McNeese as did Leger and Nagle. “Competition was the big thing. We are all very competitive.”

And Viator let them go at it in practice.

“If you didn’t compete in practice or your side wasn’t ready, you are going to get embarrassed,” Leger said. “We competed maybe to a fault, but it worked and we pushed each other to be better.”

Others on the staff were Manny Michel, the defensive line coach who is now a senior analyst at LSU, tight ends coach Toby Willis, Landon Hoefer, who was the quarterbacks coach and stayed at McNeese until 2021, and Lark Herbert, who recently left the head coach job at Vinton High School after three seasons.

“What I saw was a lot of smart guys who were willing to work hard to get better,” Viator said. “They knew the game. I can’t take any credit for what they have gone on to do.”

However, they all give him some of the credit for the way he allowed them to work.

“Coach Viator did a great job of hiring people who knew the game and were the right fit for McNeese,” Leger said. “A lot of us still talk or go to dinner when we run into each other on the recruiting trails. We will always be close.”

And their leader back then will always keep an eye on what they are doing.

“I watch their games when I can,” Viator said. “I keep up with McNeese as well. I take pride in them and what they are accomplishing.

“I watched Tulane in the Cotton Bowl and got just as nervous as if I was coaching it, maybe even more.”

Guidry said that’s the reputation of the Cowboys when it comes to football coaches.

“It is what McNeese is known for,” he said. “We have always had good coaches.”