By By Jonah Rosenblum
Before
Carson Coffman arrived in Utah to commence his Arena Football League
career, he consulted with a former teammate from Kansas State as to the
quarterback situation in Salt Lake City. Told that the Blaze were
bringing back “a guy that started for us last year”, Coffman eagerly
packed his bags and went to Utah with dreams of standing behind center.
Those dreams would be dashed the moment he laid eyes on Tommy Grady.
"I
had no idea," Coffman said. "I had never really watched Arena Football
or anything and I didn't know who the good players were. Tommy Grady was
there and I was like, ‘Holy cow, this guy is pretty good.’”
What
his teammate, wide receiver Ernie Pierce, had neglected to tell him was
that Grady was coming off of an unbelievable 2011 campaign in which he
completed 65.9 percent of his passes for 107 touchdowns against just 11
interceptions. Coffman might as well have been entering a quarterback
competition with Tom Brady.
Sure
enough, Coffman made the team but never cracked the starting lineup. He
finished the season with just 10 pass attempts, completing three of
them for 29 yards.
"I
was expecting to at least be able to compete for a starting job and
that wasn't really the case," Coffman said. "I mean well-deserved to
Tommy. He's a great quarterback and he deserves to start over me."
That
being said, Coffman was hungry to play, and realizing that he was
unlikely to get that opportunity in Salt Lake City, he once again packed
his bags, this time for the Windy City, where he said that the Chicago
Rush had assured him of at least a chance to fight for the starting job.
"I
just felt like they wanted me there," Coffman said. "It was good to
feel wanted, and I felt like that was the case with them."
Coffman was assigned on November 13.
Naturally,
the Rush weren't about to just hand the starting quarterback job to a
player with just 10 career pass attempts in the League. So, Chicago
brought in a trusty veteran six days later in Gino Guidugli, a
29-year-old signal-caller who tossed 86 touchdowns as Milwaukee's
starting quarterback last year.
Coffman
wasn't upset. He said that the Rush had been honest with him and had
told him that they would be bringing in another quarterback. He's not
likely to be rattled by Guidugli's presence either, not after a career
in which he has already fought for starting jobs with the likes of Tommy
Grady, Josh Freeman and Collin Klein.
"I've
competed against Josh Freeman and Heisman Trophy finalist Collin
Klein," Coffman said, referring back to his college days at Kansas
State. "I feel like I can compete to win a starting job. It's not like
it's anything new to me. All I wanted was just a fair chance to compete
and that's what they told me I'd get."
Competition
has always been a prime motivator for Coffman. All you have to do is go
back to his days at Kansas State, when Josh Freeman – who has already
tossed 25 touchdowns against just eight interceptions this season for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – and Coffman arrived in Manhattan, Kansas, in
the same year. To some extent, Coffman was just grateful to be there,
since he said that then-coach Bill Snyder hadn't recruited either
Freeman or Coffman, preferring a more mobile quarterback behind center.
But Snyder stepped down after 17 years at the Wildcats' helm, paving
Freeman and Coffman's way to Manhattan.
While
both quarterbacks arrived in Manhattan at the same time, Freeman
quickly got the upper hand, attempting 270 passes in his freshman season
at Kansas State. His debut didn't go all that well, as he completed
just 51.9 percent of his passes, throwing 15 interceptions against just
six touchdowns. Still, it was preferable to sitting on the bench.
"It's
definitely a grind being the backup quarterback," Coffman said.
"Putting in all the work and not being able to get out there on gameday
and do what you want to do, it's definitely a grind. It takes a lot to
keep pushing through."
Coffman
would have to push through for a couple more years, before finally
getting his chance to start in 2009, when Freeman had already pushed his
way into the National Football League. Unfortunately, Coffman's first
season behind center didn't go so well, and Grant Gregory, a transfer
who had previously attended Indiana and South Florida, quickly began
taking many of Coffman's snaps. Ultimately, Gregory won the job, while
Coffman failed to attempt a single pass in the Wildcats' final five
games of the season, finishing his junior campaign with four
interceptions against just two touchdowns.
"I've
been through a lot of struggles, a lot of ups and downs in my career,"
Coffman said. "I just wanted to go out and finish on a strong note."
Heading
into his senior season, Coffman had just 163 pass attempts in four
years in Manhattan. In comparison, Freeman reached that total 10 games
into his collegiate career. Coffman would toss precisely 100 more, 263
pass attempts, in 2010. Even then, he had to keep Collin Klein, this
year's Heisman Trophy finalist who excelled the few times he did take
the field in 2010, at bay. In some ways, the competiton only made him
stronger.
"Collin
is one of the best people and one of my best friends and just being
able to compete with him pushed us both to levels that we hadn't seen
before," Coffman said. "Just going into the film room and seeing Collin
already there, I'm thinking, 'Ah shoot, the next day, I got to get in a
little earlier.'"
Rather than losing friends through competition, Coffman said that he gained knowledge through competition.
"If
you get a good room of guys, a good room of quarterbacks, you're all
going to be good," Coffman said. "We all have that desire to be good.
All of them want to start. If there are people better than you, then
you're going to push yourself to better performances."
With
that positive attitude, Coffman didn't leave Manhattan empty-handed. He
waited in the wings until 2010, when he finally got the chance to show
what he could do. And at the conclusion of an up-and-down season,
Coffman had led his team to its first bowl game since 2006. Coffman
relished the opportunity, completing 17-of-23 passes for 228 yards and
two touchdowns at Yankee Stadium in Kansas State's Pinstripe Bowl loss
to Syracuse.
"That
was a pretty awesome experience," Coffman said. "It was a pretty iconic
stadium. Being able to play my final game there was really special. It
feels good to see them succeed now. We didn't do all of that hard work
for my senior year, for my seven-win season. There's a period of time
that you have to get through to get to where they're at now."
Just
like he left Manhattan with plenty of lessons learned from working with
a coaching great like Bill Snyder, who returned for his final two
seasons, and quarterback greats like Freeman and Klein, Coffman will
hardly leave Utah empty-handed. He couldn't have picked a better
quarterback to study under and learn from than Grady, who has quickly
become one of the top signal-callers in the AFL. Yet, for all of the
fine numbers that Grady has put up, Coffman took something more
intangible away.
"It
was a great experience sitting behind Tommy," Coffman said. "Tommy's
calm demeanor is one of the best things I took away from that. He
doesn't get rattled at all. He just has this confidence that we're going
to score on every drive, and that's one of the big things I appreciated
from Tommy and that's what I'm going to add more of to my game."
Coffman
is ready to rejoin the fray. He hopes that he can pull off the unlikely
journey from Yankee Stadium to Allstate Arena. Yet, even if he isn't
under center to start the season for the Chicago Rush, he'll just be
grateful for the opportunity to compete.
"They
told me the job isn't yours but you're going to get a fair opportunity
to compete," Coffman said. "That's all I was really looking for."
