STARKVILLE — Fresh off a year quarterbacking in NFL Europe and two more in the Arena Football League, Brett Elliott came to Starkville to work as an offensive quality control assistant for his former quarterbacks coach in college.
Back in 2004, current Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen saw the potential in Elliott when he coached the quarterback as an assistant coach for Urban Meyer at Utah. He saw that same promise when Elliott was a member of his coaching staff from 2012-14. But MSU already had an established offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach (Les Koenning) and his successors (current co-offensive coordinators John Hevesy and Billy Gonzales). To help Elliott get the hands-on experience and on-field coaching work quality control assistant coaches are barred from Mullen needed Elliott to leave MSU so he could return to have a larger role on his staff in the future.
After a year as the co-offensive coordinator at James Madison and a year as Texas State’s offensive coordinator, Elliott has returned to Starkville to be MSU’s quarterbacks coach. The time away has worked just the way Mullen envisioned.
“The comfort is why I wanted him to leave: to get that comfort of running your own room,” Mullen said. “Fortunately for him, he got to go be a coordinator for a couple of years: run the room, run the meetings, everything. You can see that helping him in his coaching development.”
Mullen expects Elliott’s experience as a player at Utah and the work he put in at James Madison and Texas State to help him make a smooth transition back to MSU. He feels Elliott’s familiarity with his system and the expectations he has for his quarterbacks will help him relate to Nick Fitzgerald and the Bulldogs’ other quarterbacks.
“I like guys that have a certain way of coaching quarterbacks, and there’s only a couple of guys that know that,” Mullen said. “I don’t have to spend a ton of time with him. The great thing about him is he knows what my expectations are, he knows what the program is, he knows how I coach quarterbacks and what I expect of it. I think that makes the transition very, very easy, having someone like him come to it.”
Elliott said Mullen’s way of coaching quarterbacks is an organized yet inexact science, one that his skill set fits.
“He’s not as black and white a coach as some are. It’s not always, this guy does this with this set of rules,” Elliott said. “We have basic rules we work off, but especially in this day of defense, it’s not as cut and dry as old-school cover 2 and cover 3. There’s so many combo coverages and different looks, it’s more conceptual teaching, talking the game.”
If there is anything Elliott can do well, it’s talk football.
Josh Hand was a freshman quarterback on the 2013 team. He remembers Koenning, the quarterbacks coach at the time, focusing so much on Dak Prescott and Tyler Russell — the quarterbacks who started most of that season — that Elliott’s responsibilities made him the de facto quarterbacks coach for the backups. Elliott filled that role within the confines of what a quality control assistant is allowed to do.
Having seen Elliott’s command of coaching quarterbacks, Hand knows Elliott will do well in his new role.
“He has a great understanding of our offense and what defenses are trying to do. Now he’s actually able to coach that,” Hand said. “He’s passionate about football, passionate about offense. You could see it even as a GA. He was one of the hardest working GAs I’ve ever seen.”
Elliott’s current protege, Fitzgerald, has a similar recollection of Elliott in his first stint in Starkville. Elliott was one of the first people Fitzgerald met with on campus. He then tested Fitzgerald with an hour-long workout.
“He’s still the same loud, fiery guy that had a lot of energy and is very knowledgeable about the game,” Fitzgerald said.
That energy was the inspiration behind Fitzgerald’s nickname for Elliott — Uncle Rico.
Elliott, 34, became a coach after he finished his career, so it’s not hard to envision Elliott still being able to play. In fact, Elliott is convinced he still can play.
“I tell (Fitzgerald) that all the time,” Elliott said. “I get mad, tell them I’ll go out there and show those guys up.
He then joked, “I’m still holding onto the dream a little bit.”
That’s why Fitzgerald calls Elliott Uncle Rico, a reference to a character in the movie “Napoleon Dynamite,” who has a similar outlook. Uncle Rico took it further than Elliott does — filming himself throwing footballs in the yard — but Elliott still loves the joke.
It’s a small part of the bond Elliott and Fitzgerald built in Elliott’s first stint in Starkville — and why Fitzgerald was so happy to see him return. It was common for Elliott to keep up with Fitzgerald while he was away. It also is part of the reason Mullen feels confident Elliott will work well in his new role.
“Maybe it’s because I’m single, but these are kind of my kids,” Elliott said. “Developing those relationships is really why I got into coaching.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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