From the Sun Bowl to the Super Bowl: The UTEP coaching connection
EL PASO, Texas -- Only two NFL fandoms every year get to celebrate watching their team on the greatest stage of all. For the rest, they're stuck trying to figure out which team they dislike less than the other.
Well, if you have any association with UTEP, ABC-7 has a reason, or two, or three, why you might want to back the Chiefs over the Eagles this Super Bowl.
In the 1980s Andy Reid, Ken Flajole and Dave Toub all coached at UTEP. Reid was the offensive line coach from 1987-1988, Flajole the defensive backs coach from 1986-1988 and Dave Toub the strength and conditioning coach from 1987-1988.
Now the trio is all at the Chiefs. Reid as the head coach, Flajole as the outside linebackers coach and Toub as associate head coach and special teams coordinator.
"Little did we know that 35 years later, those guys would have had unbelievable NFL careers," Jon Teicher the voice of the Miners said.
To anyone who knows Reid, they're the least bit surprised he's brought some of his old friends along for the ride.
"Well, that's the best thing you can hire when you hire somebody is to have somebody that you know all those things about," former athletic director of UTEP Bob Stull said. "We had a real close staff both at UTEP and at Missouri, and so they were always in close contact with each other."
Stull is the man responsible for giving Reid one of his first full-time coaching gigs.
Stull told ABC-7 when he hired Reid, he was coming from San Francisco State, where he was selling donuts at lunch, raising money for football.
"They weren't speculating NFL guys at that time," Stull said. "But Andy was a really great technician, a great strategy coach, he's great with the players, and he's got a real sense of humor."
This is now Reid's fifth Super Bowl appearance, and he will have a 50/50 chance of winning his third ring in his illustrious coaching career.
"It's quite amazing. I think that any coach can do that well over an extended period of time because that's not the norm, but again, he works so hard," Stull said.
Reid and the Chiefs are set to play the Eagles at 4:30 p.m. MT in Super Bowl LVII.
