Friday afternoon continues to supply coaching news, which is fairly atypical for July. Pat Shurmur, who did not coach last season, will catch on in the college ranks. Deion Sanders is adding the two-time NFL HC to his Colorado staff, Mike Klis of 9News tweets.
Most recently the Broncos’ offensive coordinator, Shurmur has not coached in college since the late 1990s. Andy Reid hired Shurmur for his first Eagles staff back in 1999, bringing him over after a role as Stanford’s offensive line coach. From then until the 2021 season, Shurmur coached in the NFL. But Colorado will bring him aboard. 247Sports.com’s Carl Reed Jr. was the first to report the hire was expected (Twitter link).
Formerly a head coach with the Browns and Giants, Shurmur caught on as the Broncos’ OC in 2020. Not exactly saddled with prime ingredients on offense during that stay, Shurmur was out once the team fired Vic Fangio. But Shurmur’s 2021 work looks better after what happened in Denver last year. Using Teddy Bridgewater as their primary starter, the 2021 Broncos ranked 23rd in points. This came with three Drew Lock starts and two extended appearances by the struggling second-round pick. Last season, the Broncos’ Nathaniel Hackett–Russell Wilson partnership produced a last-place scoring ranking.
Shurmur, 58, is expected to serve as an offensive analyst with the Buffaloes, Reed adds. While Shurmur has been in the NFL since 1999, he did make that jump after a lengthy stay in the college ranks to start his career. Michigan State employed Shurmur as an assistant from 1988-97.
Although the Browns and Giants both fired Shurmur (19-46 as a head coach) after two seasons, he has enjoyed success as an assistant. Most notably, Shurmur earned Assistant Coach of the Year acclaim for his 2017 work in Minnesota. Despite losing starter Sam Bradford early that season, the Vikings soared to a 13-3 mark and earned the NFC’s No. 2 seed behind backup Case Keenum. In what proved to be an outlier season, Keenum led the NFL in quarterback DVOA and won a back-and-forth matchup against the Saints to book the Vikings in their first NFC championship game since 2009.
After spending 10 seasons on Reid’s Eagles staff, Shurmur enjoyed three opportunities as an NFL OC. He served in that capacity with the Rams (2009-10) and, after the Browns stint, back with the Eagles (2013-15). Shurmur called plays for the Vikings, Giants and Broncos from 2017-21. The Commanders interviewed him for their OC position this offseason, but the job went to Eric Bieniemy.
Their offense led by Sean Lewis and his uptempo system will be fine on its own. They’ll move so quickly the defense won’t get much rest which will lead to some very high scoring shootouts.
Yes, that incredibly high uptempo style of offense definitely has its advantages, but it can also make the defenses life alot more difficult, and that grows exponentially if your offense isn’t scoring nor sustaining any kind of long drives..
Either way, while it is rarely ever successful/sustainable in the NFL, it has repeatedly worked throughout the years in college. See Chip Kelly and more recently look no further than what Tennessee Volunteers’ Head Coach Josh Heupel and what he’s been able to do to their program bringing in his fast-paced, uptempo style of offense..
Either way, I think Lewis, Sanders and Colorado can be successful, they’re just going to have to put an emphasis on the defensive side of the ball as well. This style works extremely well when you can combine an uptempo offense with a defense that is opportunistic and trained to really focus on knocking balls out and getting turnovers.
If you have a top tier offense, your defense really only needs to be able to get a turnover and/or a few timely stops each game to secure a W.
Like I said, it is going to be fascinating watching Colorado’s team, and seeing how they’re able to perform. They should be able to find some immediate success just based off the overall weakness of their conference