Steve Christilaw: Quarterbacks seem to make fine coaches

There’s something about quarterbacks and coaching that seems to fit.

Not always. But often enough to take notice.

There have been a few notable quarterbacks who turned to coaching at the NFL level.

Bart Starr won the first two Super Bowls with the Green Bay Packers, and they turned to him for several seasons in search of a coach who could return the Pack to its former glory.

Before him, former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Norm Van Brocklin and former TCU All-American Sammy Baugh had stints running NFL teams. Since then Jim Harbaugh seemed to have worn out his welcome in San Francisco but has found a home at his alma mater, Michigan.

Steve Spurrier was a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback in college, but his pro coaching career, in Washington, D.C., never matched his collegiate successes. In fact, the nation’s capital has a long, unsuccessful history of hiring former quarterbacks as coaches. Otto Graham had a stint as head coach and so did former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Jim Zorn.

June Jones, Jason Garrett and Gary Kubiak have had success at the NFL level. Sam Wyche played quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals and later led them to a Super Bowl as head coach. Tom Flores won two Super Bowls as the head coach in Oakland/Los Angeles, but could not match that success as head coach of the Seahawks.

It happens much more often at the high school level. Adam Fisher, who recently retired as the football coach at East Valley, played quarterback at South Kitsap.

Longtime EV volleyball coach, the late Jim Dorr, was a stellar quarterback for one season at Rogers (his only season of high school football), setting the Greater Spokane League passing record with 1,898 yards.

The second most prolific passer in GSL history? CV’s Rick Sloan, who had great success as a longtime offensive coordinator for Rick Giampietri as well as a successful head boys basketball coach.

And despite knee injuries, he had a successful college career, first at San Jose State and later at Idaho, where as Scott Linehan’s backup he led the Vandals to the NCAA 1-AA playoffs as the sixth-ranked passer in the country.

Sloan was a three-sport athlete at CV, averaging 21.4 points and 10.9 rebounds per game as a senior, when he led the GSL in both categories as a 6-foot-2 post in basketball. Then CV baseball coach Ed Garcia insisted that baseball was Sloan’s best sport, but a knee injury kept him from playing as a senior.

And now you can add another successful quarterback making a splash coaching basketball.

Former University of Washington quarterback Cody Pickett.

You remember Pickett, even if you Cougar fans never rooted for him to find much success. He is, after all, the most prolific quarterback the Huskies have ever had – a three-year starter from 2001 to 2003 who threw for 10,220 yards and 55 touchdowns. He holds some 21-odd passing records at the UW. He threw for a school record 455 yards against Arizona in 2001, capping the effort by diving into the end zone for the winning touchdown with 13 seconds left. All with a separated throwing shoulder.

I will grudgingly admit that Pickett was a good Dawg. And he was a good story, growing up on a 20-acre ranch just off of, I kid you not, Chicken Dinner Road in Caldwell, Idaho. In my family he got bonus points for being the son of Dee Pickett, the 1984 World Champion Cowboy and a member of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Pickett spent time in the NFL and a season in NFL Europe – not to mention playing with three teams in the Canadian Football League.

Like Sloan, Pickett was a multisport athlete before heading to UW. He was the Idaho State Player of Year in basketball at Caldwell High as well as qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo three times as a teenaged roper.

What makes Pickett especially interesting is the fact that he’s making his mark as a girls basketball coach.

Now in his fifth year as the head coach at Eagle High, Pickett’s team is both undefeated and ranked nationally by USA Today.

A year ago Eagle finished 25-2 and lost to Meridian in the Class 5A Idaho state championship game and is well on a path for a return to the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa next week.

In some ways, it’s totally understandable how quarterbacks turn into coaches – although it should be pointed out that the NFL’s Lombardi Trophy is named after a coach who was a college lineman – one of Fordham’s famous Seven Blocks of Granite.

Quarterbacks are immersed in the game’s strategy and a big part of their game comes from being strong leaders. They’re willing to put the team on their own shoulders as a player.

What is it they like to call quarterbacks? Field generals? Some like to call them a coach on the field.

That makes it fitting.

Even for a Husky.