One day back in 2004, Chuck Donohue Sr. implored a 22-year-old Matt Abbato to have lunch with him at Pietro’s on East Bay Avenue in Manahawkin. Not long into their meeting, Abbato nearly choked on his chicken parmigiana sub, more in figurative sense, thankfully.

“When Coach said I was going to be his next defensive coordinator, I was stunned, along with a lot of other people,” Abbato said of that fateful day. “When he asked me, I was floored.