While I'm sure that most here don't care much, I thought that gman, Hellah and a few others would enjoy this read from the Akron Beacon Journal.
While I'm quite surprised that the Zips didn't hire a defensive mind, I am impressed with his resume. Time will tell.......
The 1995 job interview with Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has become the stuff of legend.
J.D. Brookhart's performance that day was as compelling as any John Elway last-minute comeback.
The former Colorado State receiver had to convince Shanahan why a 30-year-old corporate salesman with minimal coaching experience was an ideal candidate to be an NFL coach's assistant.
Why a man making six figures in the business world would want to come to work for free.
Shanahan had no intention of hiring Brookhart right up to the moment he heard himself utter: ``I'll give you six weeks at training camp.''
Those six weeks turned into two years. Those two years earned him a place on the staff of Walt Harris at the University of Pittsburgh. That experience landed Brookhart the job as new University of Akron football coach.
How impressive were the 30 minutes in Shanahan's office? Harris says one of the reasons he hired Brookhart was based on that interview.
``I've heard that Mike Shanahan told J.D. `No' 11 times before finally saying `Yes,' '' Harris said.
Brookhart, 39, will turn his full attention to the Zips after coaching the Panthers for a final time Saturday in the Continental Tire Bowl against Virginia.
The offensive coordinator/receivers coach helped turn around Pitt and transform it into Wide Receiver U., utilizing the talents of Biletnikoff Award winners Antonio Bryant and Larry Fitzgerald.
Whether Brookhart can revitalize a
struggling Zips program mired in mediocrity and plagued by public apathy remains to be seen. But the Pueblo, Colo., native possesses several qualities that give fans reason for optimism:
He is persistent. He is personable. He is a good communicator.
He has taken skills acquired from eight years in the private sector and applied them to football. He might not be able to make a 17-year-old recruit believe the Rubber Bowl is Ohio Stadium, but as Shanahan discovered, Brookhart is quite persuasive.
``That's what this job is, it's selling recruits, it's selling your boosters, it's selling your kids on your game plan,'' said Brookhart, who signed a five-year deal worth $700,000.
``From a presentation standpoint, I feel like I have a great background to close deals, to open doors, to create relationships.''
Different approach
There appears to be substance behind his sales pitch. He arrives on the Akron campus with glowing reviews from former bosses and players.
``Akron is getting a great coach,'' said Bryant, a receiver with the Dallas Cowboys. ``Coach Brookhart can distinguish greatness from mediocrity and he knows how to get (greatness) out of players.''
He does so in somewhat unorthodox fashion.
Brookhart has been known to gather his receivers and read literature to them in meeting rooms. He has invited players such as Bryant into his house on Thanksgiving because he knew they couldn't get home for the holidays.
He has taken them on field trips to show them how successful businesses operate. Brookhart has stressed the importance of life after football because ``99 percent of (the players) are going to be in the real world in a couple of years.''
``He is a good teacher and a communicator,'' said Fitzgerald, this year's Heisman Trophy runner-up. ``He wants you to learn how to make yourself better, but at the same time he's always pushing you to make sure you get there.
``He does not settle for mediocrity in the classroom, on the football field or in life.''
Money isn't everything
In 1994, J.D. Brookhart was earning more than $100,000 a year selling high-end engineering software in Utah. He was single, successful, upwardly mobile.
And miserable.
``The low point was trying to find a reason to go to work,'' Brookhart said. ``There was nothing fulfilling about my job. Even when you got a big deal and a big check, what did it do for you?
``I'd go to Cancun or the Bahamas and spend some money, but what was I getting out of those trips? A memory or two, but nothing that was really in my heart.''
How many can relate? But how many armchair quarterbacks would call a reverse at age 30 when you are hitting the prime years of your earning power?
Brookhart went home and consulted the happiest man he knows -- his father, Jack Brookhart, who coached high school football for 37 years in Iowa and Colorado.
``My dad is real lucky; he has a passion for life,'' said Brookhart, who turned down a graduate assistant's position at UCLA in '88 to try out for the Los Angeles Rams.
``It got to a point where I did not have a passion in my life.''
J.D. Brookhart had done a little part-time coaching during his eight years since he left Colorado State. He had been a volunteer assistant and run summer speed camps for high school and college players.
He loves football, everything about the game.
Brookhart recalls piling into the station wagon with his four siblings and stopping at a store to buy suckers before going to his father's games. He remembers the joy of playing for Jack at Cherry Creek High School in Colorado.
He thinks of the satisfaction he took from proving so many people wrong about his abilities. He remembers how he walked on at Brigham Young as a freshman and did the same the next year at Colorado State, where he blossomed into an Academic All-American receiver.
Brookhart takes pride in knowing he cannot only tell Pitt receivers what routes to run but show them the correct way to do it. Stars such as Bryant and Fitzgerald have watched his college game films and respect what he tried to teach them.
``Joseph (J.D.) was kind of a scrawny receiver, but he had great hands,'' Jack Brookhart said. ``The second-best set of hands I've seen behind Larry Fitzgerald.''
When Brookhart told his parents of his intentions to pursue a coaching career, they pledged their support. But what about forfeiting the big paycheck?
Friends thought he was crazy. His father, a man who coached and taught for 14 years at parochial schools, offered a different perspective.
``During that time I worked for Green Stamps and holy water,'' Jack Brookhart said. ``But you know what? Money isn't everything.''
Rocky Mountain high
Brookhart's interview with the Broncos was arranged by the father of a friend who plays golf with Shanahan.
The coach spent much of the 30 minutes letting Brookhart know why he didn't need an assistant.
``He told me he had ex-defensive coordinators who wanted to come to work for him and he wouldn't do it,'' Brookhart said. ``He just kept coming up with objections and I just kept coming up with ways to overcome them. Finally, he just threw his hands in the air and said, `I'll give you six weeks at training camp.' ''
There was no job too menial for Brookhart. He retrieved food for the staff. He drove Shanahan's car to the gas station for a fill-up. He passed out practice jerseys.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick endured a similar initiation getting into coaching under Ted Marchibroda in the 1970s with the Baltimore Colts.
``You can be very humbled by this profession,'' Brookhart said.
And also very enriched.
Brookhart's sales background taught him the importance of listening. He sat in on coaches' meetings. He broke down film, he worked with the defensive scout team and studied the opponents' offenses.
He learned the tenets of the West Coast offense alongside Elway and offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak. He impressed the coaching likes of Greg Robinson and Ed Donatell, a Stow native and current Green Bay defensive coordinator.
It wasn't long before coaches started giving Brookhart some money on the side.
The recommendations of Donatell and Robinson, who coached with Harris at Pacific University, helped Brookhart secure a spot on the Pitt staff in 1997.
Pitt is it
Bryant and Fitzgerald agree that Brookhart has played a major role in Pittsburgh's resurgence.
Pitt is the only school in the nation with two Biletnikoff Award winners. The Panthers have led the Big East in passing offense in six of the last seven years.
Bryant said Brookhart values the input of players and understands them as people. The emotional receiver clashed with Brookhart on occasion, but has a profound appreciation for the coach.
``I can't tell you how much he meant to my development,'' Bryant said.
Harris said it will be tough replacing such a solid recruiter and someone so highly organized. Though Harris calls all the plays, he said the two men made for a good team on game day.
``It really is a big loss,'' said Harris of his first assistant to become a college head coach. ``Akron is getting a guy who is very smart and charismatic, a guy who has seen how a program can be built from the bottom up.''
Happy as Jack
Brookhart draws parallels between Pittsburgh and the University of Akron. He believes athletic director Mike Thomas, a fellow Colorado State graduate, and University President Luis Proenza are visionaries with a plan similar to the one put in place at Pitt in '97.
Brookhart is not making the trip to Akron alone. He met his future wife, Jami, at the Panthers' '97 spring game. The couple has two sons, Joseph (5) and Jamison (2).
He looks in the mirror nowadays and sees someone almost as happy as his father. He has family. He has football.
``Over the last 10 years, I have not once felt like calling in sick,'' Brookhart said.
That statement will be tested over the next few years. The Akron job brought some stressful times for Gerry Faust and Lee Owens.
While I'm quite surprised that the Zips didn't hire a defensive mind, I am impressed with his resume. Time will tell.......
The 1995 job interview with Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has become the stuff of legend.
J.D. Brookhart's performance that day was as compelling as any John Elway last-minute comeback.
The former Colorado State receiver had to convince Shanahan why a 30-year-old corporate salesman with minimal coaching experience was an ideal candidate to be an NFL coach's assistant.
Why a man making six figures in the business world would want to come to work for free.
Shanahan had no intention of hiring Brookhart right up to the moment he heard himself utter: ``I'll give you six weeks at training camp.''
Those six weeks turned into two years. Those two years earned him a place on the staff of Walt Harris at the University of Pittsburgh. That experience landed Brookhart the job as new University of Akron football coach.
How impressive were the 30 minutes in Shanahan's office? Harris says one of the reasons he hired Brookhart was based on that interview.
``I've heard that Mike Shanahan told J.D. `No' 11 times before finally saying `Yes,' '' Harris said.
Brookhart, 39, will turn his full attention to the Zips after coaching the Panthers for a final time Saturday in the Continental Tire Bowl against Virginia.
The offensive coordinator/receivers coach helped turn around Pitt and transform it into Wide Receiver U., utilizing the talents of Biletnikoff Award winners Antonio Bryant and Larry Fitzgerald.
Whether Brookhart can revitalize a
struggling Zips program mired in mediocrity and plagued by public apathy remains to be seen. But the Pueblo, Colo., native possesses several qualities that give fans reason for optimism:
He is persistent. He is personable. He is a good communicator.
He has taken skills acquired from eight years in the private sector and applied them to football. He might not be able to make a 17-year-old recruit believe the Rubber Bowl is Ohio Stadium, but as Shanahan discovered, Brookhart is quite persuasive.
``That's what this job is, it's selling recruits, it's selling your boosters, it's selling your kids on your game plan,'' said Brookhart, who signed a five-year deal worth $700,000.
``From a presentation standpoint, I feel like I have a great background to close deals, to open doors, to create relationships.''
Different approach
There appears to be substance behind his sales pitch. He arrives on the Akron campus with glowing reviews from former bosses and players.
``Akron is getting a great coach,'' said Bryant, a receiver with the Dallas Cowboys. ``Coach Brookhart can distinguish greatness from mediocrity and he knows how to get (greatness) out of players.''
He does so in somewhat unorthodox fashion.
Brookhart has been known to gather his receivers and read literature to them in meeting rooms. He has invited players such as Bryant into his house on Thanksgiving because he knew they couldn't get home for the holidays.
He has taken them on field trips to show them how successful businesses operate. Brookhart has stressed the importance of life after football because ``99 percent of (the players) are going to be in the real world in a couple of years.''
``He is a good teacher and a communicator,'' said Fitzgerald, this year's Heisman Trophy runner-up. ``He wants you to learn how to make yourself better, but at the same time he's always pushing you to make sure you get there.
``He does not settle for mediocrity in the classroom, on the football field or in life.''
Money isn't everything
In 1994, J.D. Brookhart was earning more than $100,000 a year selling high-end engineering software in Utah. He was single, successful, upwardly mobile.
And miserable.
``The low point was trying to find a reason to go to work,'' Brookhart said. ``There was nothing fulfilling about my job. Even when you got a big deal and a big check, what did it do for you?
``I'd go to Cancun or the Bahamas and spend some money, but what was I getting out of those trips? A memory or two, but nothing that was really in my heart.''
How many can relate? But how many armchair quarterbacks would call a reverse at age 30 when you are hitting the prime years of your earning power?
Brookhart went home and consulted the happiest man he knows -- his father, Jack Brookhart, who coached high school football for 37 years in Iowa and Colorado.
``My dad is real lucky; he has a passion for life,'' said Brookhart, who turned down a graduate assistant's position at UCLA in '88 to try out for the Los Angeles Rams.
``It got to a point where I did not have a passion in my life.''
J.D. Brookhart had done a little part-time coaching during his eight years since he left Colorado State. He had been a volunteer assistant and run summer speed camps for high school and college players.
He loves football, everything about the game.
Brookhart recalls piling into the station wagon with his four siblings and stopping at a store to buy suckers before going to his father's games. He remembers the joy of playing for Jack at Cherry Creek High School in Colorado.
He thinks of the satisfaction he took from proving so many people wrong about his abilities. He remembers how he walked on at Brigham Young as a freshman and did the same the next year at Colorado State, where he blossomed into an Academic All-American receiver.
Brookhart takes pride in knowing he cannot only tell Pitt receivers what routes to run but show them the correct way to do it. Stars such as Bryant and Fitzgerald have watched his college game films and respect what he tried to teach them.
``Joseph (J.D.) was kind of a scrawny receiver, but he had great hands,'' Jack Brookhart said. ``The second-best set of hands I've seen behind Larry Fitzgerald.''
When Brookhart told his parents of his intentions to pursue a coaching career, they pledged their support. But what about forfeiting the big paycheck?
Friends thought he was crazy. His father, a man who coached and taught for 14 years at parochial schools, offered a different perspective.
``During that time I worked for Green Stamps and holy water,'' Jack Brookhart said. ``But you know what? Money isn't everything.''
Rocky Mountain high
Brookhart's interview with the Broncos was arranged by the father of a friend who plays golf with Shanahan.
The coach spent much of the 30 minutes letting Brookhart know why he didn't need an assistant.
``He told me he had ex-defensive coordinators who wanted to come to work for him and he wouldn't do it,'' Brookhart said. ``He just kept coming up with objections and I just kept coming up with ways to overcome them. Finally, he just threw his hands in the air and said, `I'll give you six weeks at training camp.' ''
There was no job too menial for Brookhart. He retrieved food for the staff. He drove Shanahan's car to the gas station for a fill-up. He passed out practice jerseys.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick endured a similar initiation getting into coaching under Ted Marchibroda in the 1970s with the Baltimore Colts.
``You can be very humbled by this profession,'' Brookhart said.
And also very enriched.
Brookhart's sales background taught him the importance of listening. He sat in on coaches' meetings. He broke down film, he worked with the defensive scout team and studied the opponents' offenses.
He learned the tenets of the West Coast offense alongside Elway and offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak. He impressed the coaching likes of Greg Robinson and Ed Donatell, a Stow native and current Green Bay defensive coordinator.
It wasn't long before coaches started giving Brookhart some money on the side.
The recommendations of Donatell and Robinson, who coached with Harris at Pacific University, helped Brookhart secure a spot on the Pitt staff in 1997.
Pitt is it
Bryant and Fitzgerald agree that Brookhart has played a major role in Pittsburgh's resurgence.
Pitt is the only school in the nation with two Biletnikoff Award winners. The Panthers have led the Big East in passing offense in six of the last seven years.
Bryant said Brookhart values the input of players and understands them as people. The emotional receiver clashed with Brookhart on occasion, but has a profound appreciation for the coach.
``I can't tell you how much he meant to my development,'' Bryant said.
Harris said it will be tough replacing such a solid recruiter and someone so highly organized. Though Harris calls all the plays, he said the two men made for a good team on game day.
``It really is a big loss,'' said Harris of his first assistant to become a college head coach. ``Akron is getting a guy who is very smart and charismatic, a guy who has seen how a program can be built from the bottom up.''
Happy as Jack
Brookhart draws parallels between Pittsburgh and the University of Akron. He believes athletic director Mike Thomas, a fellow Colorado State graduate, and University President Luis Proenza are visionaries with a plan similar to the one put in place at Pitt in '97.
Brookhart is not making the trip to Akron alone. He met his future wife, Jami, at the Panthers' '97 spring game. The couple has two sons, Joseph (5) and Jamison (2).
He looks in the mirror nowadays and sees someone almost as happy as his father. He has family. He has football.
``Over the last 10 years, I have not once felt like calling in sick,'' Brookhart said.
That statement will be tested over the next few years. The Akron job brought some stressful times for Gerry Faust and Lee Owens.
