COLLEGE FOOTBALL OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR Career Presentation by Ethan Smith

CAREER GIST Offensive Coordinator for a Division 1 NCAA football team. Offensive Coordinators are typically under the Head Coach and are responsible for preparing and conducting the offense for a football team. They are in charge of play calling, managing personnel, writing up game plans, and communicating with position coaches.

WHY? I have several reasons why I want to be a NCAA O.C… I have always loved football. I love playing the game and I love the strategy behind the game even more. It is almost like a game of chess. You have to play good offense, defense, and always be step ahead. The game is constantly on my mind. I have been drawing football plays since I was 12. I think my personality and composure, or lack their of, would allow me to be a good O.C. Besides playing the game, football is about the character and relationships between the coaches and players. Coaches are encouragers and direct young athletes into the right paths. I want to be a role model.

HOW? The road to becoming a NCAA Offensive Coordinator is very tough. There are two general routes. Becoming a teacher and coaching secondary school. This process is long and never guarantees becoming a college coach. After establishing yourself as a coach, you basically work your way up to Head Coach. From there, with the right amount of success, you can be asked to become a college coach. The other route, one I am interested in taking, is attending a university and becoming a Graduate Assistant (basically a lackey for a position coach). You serve the team and work your way up the ladder to possibly a coaching job. After becoming a coach, you can transfer or work up to the Offensive Coordinator position. This process will take years; it does not happen overnight.

On average, Division 1 NCAA coordinators make $400,000 a year. Monte Kiffin, long time USC Defensive Coordinator made a whopping $1,533,764 a year when he was with USC before moving to the Cowboys. Currently, the highest paid Offensive Coordinator is Tim OBrian who made $600,000 a year with Virginia (Moved to head coaching job at North Carolina). The job deserves such a high salary, as it is very stressful and demands plenty of work hours. Coaches, during season often spend long nights game planning and making adjustments. It is a draining job.

At the end of the day, I want to be happy in my career. I want to do something I love. We will all have to make the decision, the money route, or passion route, very soon. With this career, I will never work a day in my life.

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