NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In 2008, Brian Callahan was charged with teaching football plays to freshmen at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif.
The work was the most basic, fundamental teaching imaginable.
“The freshman process was hard because a lot of the kids hadn’t ever buckled a chin strap or put on cleats and didn’t even know how to be in a stance,” Callahan told us during an interview on Robby and Rexrode on 102.5 The Game. “So you really had to teach and instruct.
“I couldn’t say, ‘Hey run a slant route’ because the kid would look at me like, ‘I don’t even know what that means, like what is a slant route? How do I stand? What are my steps? What’s the angle to come out?’ So in the best way possible, you’re really trying to break down exactly what you expect from them in those moments. And it really helped me refine how I teach. You can’t assume they know anything and you have to teach all of it.”
That was 2008, when Callahan was the offensive coordinator of the freshman team, the only position his friend, the varsity head coach Patrick Walsh, had available.
Said Walsh of that story: “Zero embellishment. One hundred percent accurate.”
