BYU football: Three reasons why Paul Peterson should be the new OC
By Ron Jensen
BYU football is searching for a new offensive coordinator. While the Cougars have tons of options available, the top guy should be Paul Peterson.
Though the debate on getting rid of Ty Detmer is raging on, the choice has been made. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, there is no doubt that Kalani Sitake made a bold move for BYU football.
He surely realizes from the reaction of the fan base, that whoever he brings in better find success. If they don’t, BYU football will be looking for a new head coach this time next year.
With that being said, the pressure is now on the coach to find someone who can turn around the offensive production, and do it quick. Though the pool seems to be large, in reality, the options are few.
One of the major complaints of the last three coordinators, was their lack of play-calling experience. It can be deducted, that Kalani’s next hire is someone who not only has done a lot of it, but has done well.
For me, the answer couldn’t be clearer. Here are three reasons why Paul Peterson – the head coach at Snow College – should be the new offensive coordinator for BYU football.
No. 1: He’s experienced
Paul Peterson is currently the head coach at Snow College. This is only the beginning of an extremely impressive resume that started at Bingham High School (UT) where he was an accomplished quarterback.
After high school, he played at Snow where he led the nation in total passing yards. The JC Gridiron All-American then transferred to Boston College where he won two bowl games and was named team MVP his senior year.
Next, he started to coach. Southern Utah employed him as a position coach from 2008-2011.
The most important experience was his time as the offensive coordinator at Sacramento State from 2012 to 2016. He called a lot of plays during these years. This allowed him the opportunity to perfect the art of play-calling and fine tune his offensive philosophy.
So, where is the connection to BYU football? Besides being a member of LDS Church and serving a mission, he also worked as a graduate assistant under Bronco Mendenhall in 2006. Of course, he worked for Ed Lamb while at SUU as well.