Ben McDaniels charts own course to be Broncos' QB coach
Ben McDaniels charts own course to be Broncos' QB coach
Younger McD on board
By Jeff Legwold
The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/13/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Broncos quarterbacks coach Ben McDaniels gives direction to Brady Quinn during Thursday's practice. (John Leyba, The Denver Post )
First came the pause — short, yet still a pause. Then the smile. Then the laugh.
The question was, who is tougher to work for, your dad or your brother? And when Ben McDaniels had gathered himself he said: "Both are enjoyable."
The Broncos' 30-year-old quarterbacks coach is a lot of things. He's the son of a coach — Thom McDaniels, a renowned prep coach in northern Ohio. He's the younger brother of a coach — the Broncos' Josh McDaniels. And he's an NFL position coach trying to make his way in what he calls "a great situation to be a part of."
Ben McDaniels has played quarterback for his dad, been an assistant coach for him and is in his second season on his brother's coaching staff. Family ties bind, but where others see potential for stress in the line between personal and professional, Ben McDaniels said the family always has understood the balance in a competitive world.
"I don't think we've ever seen it interfere with being a family, not at all," Ben said. "We've all spent enough time with each other — we both played for my dad — that I don't think any of us — Josh, me or my dad — have ever spent a lot of time thinking about what might be difficult in it or what people would say. It just was something we look forward to and we always understood beyond that it's always about doing your job to the best of your abilities, that if you didn't do your job, you wouldn't succeed no matter where you were or who you were working with."
Whereas Josh McDaniels found his way onto an NFL coaching staff after one season as a graduate assistant for Nick Saban at Michigan State, Ben McDaniels said he needed to chart his own path.
After finishing up his playing career as a quarterback at Kent State — where he played for former Patriots assistant coach Dean Pees — Ben McDaniels, degree in hand, went to coach receivers at Warren Harding High School for a year. He followed that with two years as a graduate assistant at the University of Minnesota, a time when the team had Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber at running back.
"I think at that point, after Minnesota, I knew I wanted to coach, and I knew Josh was in the league at that point, but I still was really trying to find my own way," Ben said. "So I went back to Ohio, coached another couple of years, and that was good for me, and then really decided I wanted to challenge myself and coach at the highest level I could."
Josh promoted Ben from an offensive assistant to quarterbacks coach in January, saying "he earned it." Since then, Ben's duties have included tutoring Tim Tebow, as the Broncos have gone about the business of working on the first-round selection's throwing mechanics.
Tebow has called the younger McDaniels "very passionate."
"This was a no-brainer for me, and I was excited at every level for the opportunities," Ben said. "We are from the same family, we were raised the same way, so I'm sure we share some of our personality traits and how we do things. But we are individuals too. I just want to be as good a coach as I can possibly be."
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci...mplepiebroncos
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