Jeremy Bates Gone; Heading to Southern California

No, Jeremy Bates hasn't signed a deal to coach the San Diego Chargers. In fact, he won't be in the NFL at all.

Only days ago, Denver Broncos players and fans were hoping that, now former, quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates would be retained by the team to coach under Josh McDaniels.

That is now officially out of the question as Bates has agreed on a deal to become one of Pete Carroll's top offensive assistants at the University of Southern California (USC).

USC is known for producing some of the best quarterbacks in the nation.  Many of whom become successful National Footballl League starters/first round draft picks. The most recent examples are Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Matt Cassel, and this year will be Mark Sanchez who is projected to be one of the first quarterbacks taken.

Bates was said to be under consideration for a job on the offensive staffs of several NFL teams, including the Oakland Raiders and Detroit Lions. Bate however picked USC over the NFL.

Carroll is regarded as one of the finest coaches in all of college football and Bates will join offensive coordinator John Morton to command college football's third ranked team.

He will be filling the space left open by Steve Sarkisian, who left uSC to take the head coaching job at the University of Washington.

It is reported that Jeremy will be the primary offensive playcaller for USC, which is just as he was for the Broncos.

Bates will be paid less than $300,000, thousand, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen. Since, he is still under contract with the Broncos they will be obligated to pay Bates the rest of his contract, which will continue for three years unless he takes a job with an NFL franchise.

Bates will take the job from Carl Smith who was appointed quarterbacks coach/assistant head coach for the Trojans on January sixth. According to Mortensen, Smith is now expected to take a job with the Cleveland Browns.

Bronco quarterback Jay Cutler reflected on his time with Bates on Tuesday saying, "He was extremely innovative with our offense and took our playbook to the next level with some of the things he did, keeping defenses off balance and changing our look but at the same time keeping it simple for us players. . .Some of the things he did were amazing to watch.  He was always watching other teams and coming up with new ideas for our offense.  He made me want to come to work every day and get better."

These words should be exciting to the group of quarterbacks hoping to win the starting job for the Trojans in the wake of Sanchez, as well as other USC players and fans.

Bates will have his work cut out for him as the Trojans look to play for another national title in 2009.

In other Broncos coaching news, former San Diego Chargers defensive line coach Wayne Nunnely was hired to coach the same position for the Broncos under new defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.

Nunnely has coached the 3-4 Charger defensive line for the past 12 seasons, and they have been very successful. He is another 3-4 oriented assistant to help the Broncos bedraggled defense learn, and execute, the new scheme.

Both Nunnely and Bates were regarded as some of the top men at their respective positions, and both should be important additions to their new teams.