Raiders coach Josh McDaniels bracing for special homecoming

Josh McDaniels was 5 when his father, Thom, took the reins of the Canton McKinley High School football team. Not long after, McDaniels was a regular presence amid the talent for one of the most renowned high schools in Ohio.

The experience left an indelible mark. It led to McDaniels setting the goal to be the quarterback of the prep powerhouse that played in the shadow of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Mission accomplished — and then some.

Hence the gleam in McDaniels’ eye Sunday while discussing his homecoming Thursday when he and his Raiders roll into Canton’s Tom Benson Stadium to play the Jacksonville Jaguars in the annual Hall of Fame preseason game.

That is the same field his father guided McKinley to a 142-34 record from 1982 to 1998, including an undefeated season and the Ohio and mythical national championships in 1997.

That is the same field where McDaniels reached his dream of becoming McKinley’s quarterback. He started a football journey that included a college career at nearby John Carroll University — the cradle of NFL coaches and executives — and coaching run with the Patriots in which he helped to lead New England to six Super Bowl titles.

And that is the same field where his younger brother, Ben, also played for the Bulldogs.

“My family has spent a lot of nights there for many, many years,” McDaniels said. “So it’s a special place for us.”

As improbable as it sounds, the next time McDaniels sets foot inside Tom Benson Stadium, he will do so as the coach of a Raiders franchise prior to the Hall of Fame enshrinement of two of its greatest players.

He will carry every lesson, every teaching moment and every piece of advice passed down from his father.

“Surreal is probably a good word for it,” McDaniels said. “Just thinking that he was coaching me, correcting me, calling plays for me many, many, many years ago.”

This is much more than a preseason trip, he said.

“For me, personally, going there is maybe a little different than other people because of where I grew up,” McDaniels said.

The late Cliff Branch and Richard Seymour will be enshrined Saturday. Raiders owner Mark Davis fought a decades-long battle to get Branch in the Hall while Seymour played the first eight years of his career on Patriots teams in which McDaniels was an assistant coach.

Yet the biggest accomplishment for current Raiders is they will get their first game exposure.

“We’ll learn a lot about ourselves,” McDaniels said.

To mark the event, the Raiders are leaving a day earlier to take a tour of the Hall of Fame. For many of the players, this will be their first visit to Canton.

McDaniels, who would pass the Hall of Fame on his way to school each day, has lost track of how many times he’s been inside.

“Each time I do I see something new, or they’ve added to it,” McDaniels said. “It’s such an element of history and tradition. You just get excited because it’s such an important part of the game.”

The entire region played a pivotal role in who McDaniels is and how high he’s risen in his career. That makes this particular visit so special.

“It’s a really cool place to grow up,” McDaniels said. “It was a great place to be a young boy that loved football.

“What a blessing to have the opportunity to come back. I never would have dreamed this would have happened.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.