This third act in Moglia's life story almost didn't come to fruition, however. When he resigned as CEO of now TD Ameritrade six years ago to return to his first love, he assumed his track record would be viewed as an asset. Instead, he found himself an outsider in a world he'd inhabited for nearly 20 years as a high school coach and college assistant in the 1970s and early '80s.
Moglia accepted a gig at Nebraska in the nebulous role of special assistant to head coach Bo Pelini. He worked 80-hour weeks, sat in every meeting and was quizzed routinely on football issues during his tenure. He was a natural at the job, Pelini said, but the next step in Moglia's comeback attempt remained painfully out of reach.
"To me, it was a no-brainer," Pelini said. "He understands football, has a tremendous work ethic, intelligence. He's a leader, just a successful guy. But getting an AD to recognize that -- I just wasn't sure if that was ever going to happen."
Moglia was told again and again that, as a former CEO, he'd be an ideal fit to lead a program, but athletics directors weren't interested in the scrutiny that would invariably come with hiring such an unconventional candidate. Even now this rankles Moglia, who scoffs at the shortsightedness with bluntness typical of his blue-collar Manhattan upbringing.
"People act like playing football is putting a man on the moon," he said. "There's sophistication to football, but it's not curing cancer. It's, frankly, having the balls to think outside the box to do something."
All of this might have been the perfect backdrop for Moglia's approach after Coastal Carolina president David DeCenzo finally gave him his shot in 2012 -- a coach shunned by risk-averse colleges now embracing change in a way few people in the business would dare. But the truth is this is how Moglia has always operated. It's in his DNA.
