Gary Goff wasn’t here for the two hurricanes, an NCAA academic probation, the spring COVID season, a record frost or even an historic flood.

He missed all that fun.

Still, it is his job to clean it all up.

When he left his cozy college home at Valdosta State in Georgia after taking his team to the Division II national title game just before Christmas in 2021, Goff had never seen McNeese State after all the mess.

He was aware of the program, its tradition and what it could become. He just hadn’t gotten a good look at how much work had to be done to restore the good old days.

“I didn’t lie to him, I told him how bad things were,” McNeese Athletic Director Heath Schroyer said.

To his credit, Goff hasn’t looked back or even searched for the exit ramp like his predecessors. He hit the ground running and hasn’t stopped.

“I knew there was a lot of work to do, but I didn’t realize how bad it was,” Goff said.

He found out.

Lack of investment in the program, depth and talent on the roster, had forced hard times on McNeese.

“It was terrible,” Schroyer said. “There were so many problems and so much to do. And that was off the field.”

In 2015, the last year McNeese made the postseason, the Cowboys won 10 games. In the last three seasons, including last fall, Goff’s first in charge, the Cowboys had won 11 games.

So clearly Goff had his work cut out for him.

The first thing he had to do was change the culture, which had little chance to be established through all the mess and coaching changes. When the academic troubles were announced after the 2019 season, a good portion of the talent on the roster walked out the door.

More than a few problems arose.

Proclaiming he would set a new culture, Goff made good right away. More than a few players didn’t make it through the spring and then came the big test in the fall.

When a trio of defensive backs were arrested and charged with robbery, Goff didn’t need direction from the administration. He suspended the three before the next day.

“Our standards are our standards,” Goff said.

The message was clear: he was willing to make the tough calls.

“You could feel the change right away,” said linebacker Brayden Adams, a product of Barbe High School in Lake Charles who had watched from the stands during McNeese’s better days.

“He changed our culture,” Adams said. “We trust him and the coaches. They are here for us.”

Goff then proved himself to be more than just a tough guy. Two of the suspended players are back after being “100 percent cleared, everything was dropped,” Goff said.

“Everybody should get a second chance,” he continued. “I’m willing to do that if they follow our rules. I’m in this business to be a teacher not just a football coach. They learned their lesson and have been cleared so they are back.”

That’s just one of several stories that have helped McNeese fans believe they found the guy to take them back to national prominence. As for Goff, he seems happy to be here as well.

“We came here to do a job,” Goff said. “We want to make McNeese an elite program again. The program has a great history and restoring that is the goal. We will win here and we will win here soon.”

The Cowboys haven’t had a winning season since 2019.

“I get it, there is pressure to win here and we know that,” Goff said. “If we do the little things right, we will win.”

Last season the undermanned Cowboys finished 4-7, their third consecutive losing season. Goff had to make a lot of in-season changes as injuries piled up against the already depth-challenged Cowboys.

The team bounced back and won its last three games to gain momentum for this season.

Then Goff and his staff remade the roster, bringing in 57 new players. The result is a much different-looking team this fall as Goff settles into his job.

“I feel more comfortable and at ease with the team,” he said. “I feel like they trust us, they trust what we’re doing. They trust the process and are starting to trust each other. We didn’t have that a year ago.

“It’s so hard to have when coming in with a brand-new staff, looking at 85 percent of the team that you didn’t sign. You just don’t have that trust and trust takes a while to develop. I feel like we have that with this team right now.

“It’s a lot of fun coming out here knowing that, even if I’m getting on them hard, they know where it’s coming from and they know why. We can walk off the field and speak the same language and we know that we got each other’s backs.”

The players have responded.

“We know what is expected now and where we are headed,” said defensive tackle Trey Winters. “Coach Goff has brought us together and fighting for each other.”

Getting the players pulling in one direction might have been the toughest job of all. The program has had its share of fractured teams of late.

And fixing off-the-field issues is also a good starting point for the rebuild.

“It is what I really liked about coach from the beginning, he is about more than winning football games,” Schroyer said. “He is all business. He gets what we are trying to do here.

“He takes care of business.”

Of course, in the end, Goff’s business is winning football games.

In more than 20 months Goff has left his mark but is always quick to point out it’s the players who must police themselves for it to work.

For now, he has proven to be the right guy to start cleaning up the mess.