Offensive Coordinators Every Blue-Chip Recruit Should Want to Play For
Though high school football recruits should be choosing their colleges based on the school itself and what it has to offer them from an academic standpoint, we know this isn't always the case. It's the football program, and specifically the coaches they'll be working with, that often carries the most weight.
And for top offensive prospects, the coach calling the plays should be the most important one in the group.
The offensive coordinator is the one whose scheme and play selection help set the stage for his players' success. Without a good play-caller, even the most talented and athletic blue-chip recruits will have their development stunted.
There's a group of OCs in the college game today who should be on the short list of every notable prospect, since their systems are such that they put the players in a position to shine on every snap.
Tim Beck and Ed Warinner, Ohio State
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A combination of old and new, Ohio State's co-offensive coordinators both bring a strong track record of success that gives recruits yet another reason to play for the defending national champions.
Ed Warinner has been on head coach Urban Meyer's staff since 2012, handling offensive linemen as well as co-OC duties during that time. He and Tom Herman made last year's quarterback shuffling seem like the norm rather than an exception, and that success helped Herman land the Houston head coaching job. OSU's last two teams have set school records for points and touchdowns.
Warinner was also offensive coordinator during Kansas' best season in school history in 2007, the 12-1 team that scored nearly 43 points per game. His passing game coordinator and receivers coach that year was Tim Beck, who later enhanced his reputation as Bo Pelini's offensive coordinator from 2011-14 before coming to Columbus.
Beck and Warinner will get a lot of attention this year with how they maximize Braxton Miller's skill set in converting him from quarterback to wide receiver. The fruits of that effort should lead to even more big-name prospects picking OSU.
Kendal Briles, Baylor
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Art Briles deserves all the credit in the world for turning Baylor from an also-ran to one of the elite programs in the country, particularly on the offensive side. He also has benefited from having an assistant coach who carries the same mindset, since Kendal Briles has been around his father's work his entire life.
The younger Briles has been on Dad's staff since 2008, slowly moving up the ranks while soaking up all of his father's vast knowledge along the way. Kendal has been one of the Bears' lead recruiters during that time and worked mostly with wide receivers, of which Baylor seems like it has an endless supply.
"Along the way, he's helped David Gettis, Kendall Wright, Josh Gordon and Terrance Williams put up big numbers at Baylor on the way to the NFL and now, you can't walk through Baylor's facility without tripping over a top-flight receiving prospect like KD Cannon, who along with Corey Coleman and Davion Hall, assure the position is in good hands for years to come," Fox Sports Southwest's David Ubben wrote.
Kendal Briles was promoted to offensive coordinator prior to last season's Cotton Bowl, stepping in for Philip Montgomery after he was hired to run Tulsa's program. Briles' first game calling plays didn't result in a win, but that wasn't the offense's fault: Baylor scored 41 points and racked up 583 yards against Michigan State and its eighth-ranked defense.
He also pulled the trigger on one of the best plays of 2014-15, the pop-pass touchdown to 400-pound offensive lineman LaQuan McGowan.
Sonny Cumbie and Doug Meacham, TCU
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TCU's huge one-year leap in 2014 was due to the perfect storm of a quarterback begging to be molded into a star and a pair of assistants with diverse career tracks. Put it all together, and the Horned Frogs offense improved by more than 21 points and 188 yards while the record went from 4-8 to 12-1.
Trevone Boykin was already there, having bounced around several offensive positions the year before, but once he got matched up with Sonny Cumbie and Doug Meacham, he was able to unleash his true talents. This resulted in Boykin having a massive season, and now he's sitting as the early leader for the Heisman Trophy based on Odds Shark.
Cumbie and Meacham were both in their first years with TCU, brought in by coach Gary Patterson from Texas Tech and Houston, respectively. Cumbie's responsibilities lean more toward the quarterbacks, while Meacham handles the receivers, including a slew of speedsters who have learned how to be more than just fast.
Scott Frost, Oregon
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Oregon has had no shortage of great quarterbacks during the last 15 years, but the only one to win a Heisman Trophy came on Scott Frost's watch. Marcus Mariota tallied more than 9,600 yards total in the two seasons that Frost was calling plays for him, and now the quarterback is in line to be starting in the NFL as a rookie.
Frost spent four years working with the Ducks wide receivers before becoming OC in 2013, taking over for Mark Helfrich after Helfrich was elevated to head coach. Before Oregon, Frost worked on the defensive side of the ball for two seasons at FCS Northern Iowa, a gig that has helped him become a better play-caller because he has an understanding of what defenses will try to do to counter a dynamic offense.
A former quarterback at Nebraska, where he led the Cornhuskers to the 1997 national title as a senior, Frost's background in his alma mater's superb option offense was evident in how he tapped into Mariota's running ability.
Lane Kiffin, Alabama
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His forays into being a head coach didn't go so well, but there's no denying that Lane Kiffin has been one of the best offensive minds in college football the past decade. The way he so quickly transformed Alabama's offense from an old-school approach into a modern attack in 2014 was nothing short of phenomenal, especially since most of the players he was working with weren't recruited to play in an uptempo system.
Nick Saban's choice to hire the former Tennessee, USC and Oakland Raiders coach drew plenty of raised eyebrows, but then the Crimson Tide had their best passing offense in school history. And Kiffin did it with a fifth-year senior quarterback, Blake Sims, getting his first shot at being a starter.
Sims set numerous school records, while receiver Amari Cooper had one of the best seasons in FBS history.
"He has a really good way with the players in terms of how they respond to him," Saban said of Kiffin, per Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times.
Alabama has no trouble grabbing recruits, but now that Kiffin is there it has access to an even larger pool of talent and not just the pro-style prospects.
Rhett Lashlee, Auburn
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Gus Malzahn is the face of Auburn's resurgence, but Rhett Lashlee has been the one pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Lashlee has worked under Malzahn for all but one of his nine seasons as a coach, dating back to Springdale High School in Arkansas in 2004 and including stops at Arkansas, Arkansas State and Malzahn's first stint with Auburn as its offensive coordinator. And just as everywhere Malzahn has gone there has been prolific offense, the same has gone for Lashlee.
At Auburn, Lashlee's primary position concentration has been quarterbacks, and so far his success has been significant. He got Nick Marshall up to speed in 2013 without having him on board until the summer, and he's also got Jeremy Johnson prepared to be the Tigers' leader this season despite limited experience.
Only 32 years old, Lashlee will likely head off on his own soon and run his own program. But if he's still around in 2017, he'll get to work with new commit Lowell Narcisse, whom Bleacher Report's Sanjay Kirpalani wrote is "a perfect fit for what Auburn likes to do with its quarterbacks."
Noel Mazzone, UCLA
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Noel Mazzone has been around the college game for more than 30 years, working exclusively on the offensive side of the ball at 10 different schools dating back to the early 1980s. And at pretty much every stop he's made, his teams have been stellar at moving the ball.
Since 1995, Mazzone has been an offensive coordinator at schools in the ACC, SEC and Pac-12, most recently spending two years with Dennis Erickson at Arizona State and then the past three seasons running Jim Mora's offense at UCLA. All of those teams finished in the top 35 in total offense.
With the Bruins, Mazzone sculpted Brett Hundley into one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the country, and that no doubt contributed to 5-star prospect Josh Rosen's decision to choose UCLA for 2015. Mazzone also coached Brock Osweiler to a big year at ASU and was calling plays for Philip Rivers at North Carolina State in 2003.
Mike Norvell, Arizona State
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Arizona State just landed the top uncommitted quarterback prospect for 2016 when 4-star Dillon Sterling-Cole picked the Sun Devils on Tuesday over Florida, Houston, Mississippi State and Texas A&M. That's the third 4-star passing recruit the school has picked up since 2013, all during Mike Norvell's time as offensive coordinator.
A disciple of ASU coach Todd Graham who has followed him from Pittsburgh and Tulsa, Norvell has had strong offenses regardless of the level of recruits he's had to work with. At Tulsa, Norvell mentored wide receivers on teams that twice finished in the top five in yards per game, including No. 1 in 2008.
With the Sun Devils as offensive coordinator, Norvell developed Taylor Kelly into a strong dual-threat weapon while also keeping Mike Bercovici prepared to step in at a moment's notice. When Kelly broke his leg, Bercovici was lights-out as a replacement and now as the full-time starter could be the Pac-12's most prolific passer.
Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma
9 of 11Oklahoma's offense has fallen off the last few seasons, during which it went away from the Air Raid attack that Bob Stoops used to make the Sooners a national power. Stoops made the move to go back to that style for 2015. But he needed the right coordinator to make that happen, so he plucked Lincoln Riley away from East Carolina to see if he could replicate the success he'd had there.
Riley, a former Texas Tech quarterback and assistant during the Mike Leach era, spent five seasons at East Carolina and pretty much rewrote the offensive record book there. And he did so without having the kind of players he'll now be able to work with at Oklahoma, though you wouldn't have known based on the production.
Quarterback Shane Carden was a 2-star prospect who ended up throwing for nearly 12,000 yards and 86 touchdowns from 2012-14, while Justin Hardy was unrated by 247Sports when he showed up at East Carolina in 2010 but thanks to Riley's offense ended up becoming the all-time FBS receptions leader.
Assuming Riley can produce these results in Norman as well, expect many of the best offensive prospects in the country to start shooting Oklahoma up their wish lists.
Brian Schottenheimer, Georgia
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With only a few exceptions, the top high school players in the country have dreams of playing in the NFL. So why not play for an offensive coordinator who has coached in the pros and thus knows what it takes to be successful at that level?
Brian Schottenheimer hasn't worked at the college level since 2000, but that's because for the past 14 years he's been either a quarterback coach or offensive coordinator in the NFL. During that time, he's worked with some of the biggest offensive names in the pros, mentoring the likes of Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Sam Bradford and Brett Favre.
Top 2016 quarterback prospect Jacob Eason committed to Georgia in July 2014 several months before Mark Richt hired Schottenheimer to replace Mike Bobo as OC, but because of Schottenheimer's pedigree, it's unlikely that Eason will waver from that pledge. And the Bulldogs now figure to be in line for most of the top skill-position players because of their coordinator's pro experience.
Jake Spavital, Texas A&M
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Nearly every notable offensive recruit isn't including Texas A&M on his short list because of the major renovations at Kyle Field or because of the school's military background. No, they're all interested in being Aggies because that would mean getting molded by Jake Spavital.
Spavital is entering his third season with A&M, and the first two have been pretty phenomenal from a production standpoint. In 2013 the Aggies ranked fourth in the country in total offense, and last year despite a switch at quarterback midway through the season still ranked 32nd. Before that he worked with West Virginia's quarterbacks on top-20 offenses for two seasons.
A key to Spavital's success has been a willingness to get as many people involved as possible, as evidenced by last year's Aggies team having six players with at least 29 receptions. That's made it a desirable place for skill talent to go, even with so many good players already there.
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