Loyola transforms offense behind former Libertyville coordinator with Caleb Williams ties

Loyola's John Holecek returning as head coach after three years of semi-retirement was unusual, but maybe not the most drastic change on the coaching staff.

The Ramblers also added new offensive coordinator Danny Schaechter, a coach with a unique entry on his resume: Calling plays for Caleb Williams at Gonzaga Prep in Washington D.C.

Early results with a more pass-heavy offensive attack have been positive — Loyola sports a 3-0 record heading into Friday's CCL Blue Division showdown against Brother Rice.

“So far it's been great,” Holecek said. “Catholic League was iso, power, counter — old school football. This is not. A lot of different personnel packages and it's just not a traditional Catholic League grind — run, run, play-action.”

There will surely be tense moments down the road as Loyola vies for the Class 8A title. But Schaechter may never be in a more pressure-packed situation than the day he sat in a room with the eighth-grade Williams and his father, Carl, tasked with convincing Caleb to play for Gonzaga.

Head coach Randy Trivers and the school's recruiting director were also at the meeting. Schaechter's role was to get on the white board and explain why his offense might help Williams reach his potential.

“Caleb was going to be special whether or not he ever met me or was coached by me,” Schaechter said. “When I saw him, I said, 'I've never seen a high school kid throw like this, let alone an eighth-grader.'”

Still, it was a successful combination. During Williams' sophomore season, Gonzaga won its conference championship with an epic 46-43 win over DeMatha. That game included three lead changes in the final 29 seconds and ended with a 53-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass by Williams.

“I did show that stuff to the Loyola guys,” Schaechter said. “The message was just the 'never give up' mentality, and that game is a perfect encapsulation of why you keep on fighting until there are zeros on the clock.”

Schaechter is a Northbrook native who played high school football at Glenbrook North. During college at Illinois State, he caught the coaching bug and became a student assistant. Eventually, he was hired by Trivers at Leesburg High School near Orlando. Trivers is a Maryland native and decided to move closer to home, so Schaechter followed him to Gonzaga.

After Williams left for college, Schaechter decided to make the same move, closer to home, and took a job at Libertyville. He coached a high-powered offense two years ago for the Wildcats, led by quarterback Quinn Schambow. The opportunity at Loyola was too good to pass up.

“There's definitely a lot of carryover from what we were doing at Libertyville,” said Schaechter, a full-time strength coach at Loyola. “Honestly, what I'm running now, I wish I ran that with Caleb, because he would have crushed with it.”

The move to Loyola also gives him a new audience for all those Caleb Williams stories, right?

“For the most part, he's pretty quiet and humble about that,” Loyola quarterback Matthew Lee said. “We've seen some highlights of Caleb. Obviously, he produced a great quarterback, but he's pretty humble about it, I'd say. Just hoping he can do it again. I love the new offense.”

The Ramblers are coming off an unusual 4-5 season, their first losing record since 2002. Lee split time at quarterback as a sophomore with junior Dominic Maloney. Since Maloney is also a baseball star, Loyola decided to play him at safety this season.

“(Maloney) is one of those kids you'd pick first on the playground,” Holecek said. “For the betterment of the team, we'd rather have both on the field.”

With Holecek, Schaechter, defensive coordinator Pete Devine and former head coach Beau Desherow still working with the program, Loyola appears to be back on track.

All that's left is for some famous superfans to hop on the bandwagon. Any chance Williams, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Matas Buzelis show up at a Loyola game?

“I sent him our schedule,” Schaechter said. “He doesn't owe me anything. In high school he gave me everything he's got and he knows I love him and I know he's got love for me, and that's all that really matters at the end of the day.”