LORAN SMITH: Brian Schottenheimer wanted to return to campus atmosphere

The National Football League is where the ultimate competition is which has always appealed to Brian Schottenheimer. You get to coach the best players, and you match wits with the best coaches. His father, Marty, was head coach of four different NFL teams, which made it natural that Brian would want to experience the highest level of competition. He did that for almost 20 years.

There was, however, something missing when he became an established assistant in the league. He believes he is more than a football coach and wanted to return to the campus atmosphere and work with kids to develop life skills as well as skills that will enable them to make it in the league he just left.

Nothing was wrong with the NFL, but the campus offers an allure he finds refreshing. To move from a professional team to college meant that he didn’t want to wind up just any place. He interviewed at Alabama a few years back and other schools expressed interest, but he wanted to work at a place he considered special.

His appreciation for Mark Richt’s style and integrity were an attraction. He had gained an appreciation for the abilities of the Georgia players who came into the NFL, and Athens was a community which brought rave reviews from coaches who had spent time in the Classic City. “So many people told Gemmi and me, ‘You won’t believe how much you will enjoy living in Athens.’”

It was nothing he volunteered, but it is obvious that the coaching salaries on the college level, in some cases, are comparable to the NFL. Fully vested in the NFL, he has security and expresses the view that it’s not about the money. He wants to be a college football coach, to be immersed in the sis boom bah atmosphere with the bands dominating at halftime and the fresh-faced cheerleaders urging the graying alumni with an expanding waistline to help them exhort the home team to “hold that line.” In his case, “crack that line.” He wants to be a counselor, teacher, and friend of the young men, with whom he wants to make the passionate alumni pleased when game day concludes.

This is a man who began hanging around his father’s office as a kid, and his father’s office included NFL locker rooms. He could take a seat by Joe Montana and talk football if he wanted to. He learned a lot about running the football from conversations with Marcus Allen.

Even today, if he wants to talk offensive strategy, he can pick up the phone and connect with Mike McCarthy, head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Or Jimmy Raye with the Tampa Bay Bucks. Or Marty Schottenheimer, the doting grandfather of his kids. “Family is so important with our family,” Brian says.

When you question him about his personal life, you learn that it was as important for him to find a church for his family as it was a bank. When there is downtime, you likely will find him in partnership with a book. His reading pleasure focuses principally on history. He can’t get enough when it comes to World War II and the Civil War. When he speaks of his alma mater, he usually refers to the University of Florida as “that school down South.”

A primary goal is to compete successfully against the man who taught him so much—Steve Spurrier, the South Carolina coach who was Brian’s college coach in Gainesville. “I learned so much about play calling from him. He is one of the best. He just has a knack for calling plays, but my priority now is to go out and compete against him with positive results.” Schottenheimer played behind Danny Wuerffel when the Gators won a national championship in 1996.

Schottenheimer likes coaching in the “greatest conference in college football.” He is excited about observing at arms-length the quarterback competition at Georgia this spring. He believes the old adage that to win you must run the football and stop the run. He is as passionate about Nick Chubb as any loyal alumnus but maintains that you can’t win without effectively using a competent passing game.

About Georgia’s quarterbacks, he says of the spirited competition about to take place: “There’s not a leader in the clubhouse.”