Meet LSU’s newest secret weapon

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al.com

 

Meet LSU’s newest behind-the-scenes secret weapon

By Matt Zenitz | mzenitz@al.com

5-6 minutes

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It wasn’t long into Ed Orgeron’s first conversation with Russ Callaway that the LSU head coach glanced over at his right-hand man and gave the look, one that made the next part of the dialogue unsurprising.

“I think Coach had only been on the phone with Russ for six or seven minutes and I was just sitting there and Coach looked at me,” said Derek Ponamsky, LSU’s special assistant to the head coach. “And from being with Coach every day for the last couple years, I kind of get a good vibe for it. And then Coach was just like, ‘Russ, why don’t you come on down, man? I’d love for you to be a part of what we’re doing here.’ And it’s been 110 miles an hour every day since then.”

In recent years, LSU has had success with finding up-and-coming offensive coaches like Joe Brady and DJ Mangas who have contributed behind the scenes while adding both energy and fresh ideas to the Tigers staff.

Callaway is LSU’s newest secret weapon.

Callaway, whose dad Neil has been a head coach at UAB and an offensive coordinator at Alabama and Georgia, left his post as the offensive coordinator of Samford’s Air Raid offense to join the Tigers as the team’s new lead offensive analyst.

The 33-year old works closely with LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger while also assisting with others like passing game coordinator Scott Linehan.

“Coach likes the energy that some of these younger guys bring, but they’ve also got new ideas,” Ponamsky said. “They’re not just doing the same things that some of the older guys are doing. So we found kind of a good mesh with guys like Joe Brady and DJ Mangas. … With Russ, coming from Samford and being someone who’s called plays and worked on design elements and all this, he’s a great person to put in the room with Steve Ensminger and Scott Linehan and some of these guys who’ve got a tremendous amount of experience because some of the spread things that Russ knows like the back of his hand, he is able to say, well, this is what I’ve done before and gotten some success and add some new wrinkles to what we’re doing with that.”

A former quarterback and team captain at Valdosta State, Callaway got his start in coaching as Kirby Smart’s inside linebackers graduate assistant at Alabama in 2011.

After two seasons with the Crimson Tide and two as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Murray State, Callaway went to Samford in 2015 and helped the team rank among the top five in the FCS in passing offense two of the last three seasons, including No. 1 in 2018 with an average of 392.7 passing yards per game.

With Callaway as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Devlin Hodges won the 2018 Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in the FCS and broke the FCS career passing yards record previously held by a former NFL MVP.

Steve McNair.

In addition, Callaway was one of three finalists for the American Football Coaches Association’s 2019 FCS assistant coach of the year award.

“He’s very smart, very intelligent, knows football and I think the most unique thing about him is that he’s worked on both sides of the ball,” said Iowa running backs coach Derrick Foster, who worked with Callaway at Samford. “He has it. He has the tools. He has the ability. He has the mindset and can coordinate an offense. He understands how to cater to his players. And he’s full of energy. I loved being around him, enjoyed coaching with him and can’t say enough about him.”

If not for Ponamsky though, Callaway may still be at Samford.

Callaway had passed up multiple job opportunities during the last couple years, including at least one head coaching job and at least one other SEC support staff position. The outcome was different this time, the result of a process that started with Ponamsky.

While gathering feedback on coaches that should be targeted for future LSU job openings, Ponamsky had five or six different figures in the football world that mentioned Callaway. Ponamsky then reached out to Callaway once Brady, Mangas and analyst Jorge Munoz left for other jobs.

The two had a preliminary conversation.

Ponamsky then connected Callaway with Orgeron for the interview that produced the look and culminated with Orgeron adding his latest behind the scenes secret weapon.

“Russ had a great experience at Samford, was an outstanding coordinator, did a lot of good things,” Orgeron said. “But he’s hungry. He’s been to big-time schools. I didn’t know how good he was, to be honest with you, until we got him. And his enthusiasm is infectious. He’s an outstanding coach and taught well by his dad and learned well. I do believe the guy’s going to be a coordinator and a head coach, and it won’t be long because he’s one of those type minds. He’s a great worker. He’s here at 5 every morning working with Coach Ensminger. Has a bright future ahead for him.”

Matt Zenitz is a senior SEC football reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.