Tag: matt house

Two coordinator targets emerge as Brian Kelly looks to finalize his coaching staff

Reports indicate that Brian Kelly is targeting two assistants for his coordinator roles.

The LSU Tigers are continuing to work on finalizing the coaching staff under the new head coach and we could be closer to naming the two remaining coordinators.

According to Football Scoop, Brian Kelly is targeting a former offensive coordinator in Mike Denbrock. He is currently the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati as they prepare to take on Alabama in the College Football Playoffs.

Offensively, numerous sources this week told FootballScoop that Kelly is expected to reunite with Mike Denbrock, Kelly’s former Notre Dame offensive coordinator and assistant head coach who spent seven seasons alongside Kelly in South Bend, Indiana.

Denbrock worked with Kelly at Grand Valley State and at Notre Dame. He is very familiar with what he likes to do on offense. This could also bring Danny Lewis of Westgate into pay for the Tigers. He is currently committed to the Bearcats but remains the lone commit who has yet to sign with Cincinnati.

Football Scoop also stated that Kelly was looking at Todd Monken of Georgia but reports indicate that he would like to remain at UGA. Bringing in Denbrock would likely give LSU their play-caller and tight ends coach.

The other name is for the defensive coordinator, but it appears that Kelly is eyeing a candidate from the NFL. That likely means he wouldn’t join the staff until late February.

On the defensive side of the ball, Kelly has set his target – per sources — on an up-and-coming NFL assistant coach Matt House, the Kansas City Chiefs’ linebackers coach who spent almost two decades coaching at the collegiate level before he exited the University of Kentucky three years ago for an opportunity with the Chiefs.

House last worked in college at Kentucky as the defensive coordinator. In his final season before joining the Chiefs in the NFL, his defense allowed just 16.8 points per game. They finished 10-3 that season.

Report: Chiefs LBs coach Matt House turned down Tennessee Vols DC job to stay in Kansas City

House opts to stay in the NFL rather than return to the college ranks according to a new report.

The Kansas City Chiefs already lost one assistant coach to the college ranks, but another has decided to stay with the team.

According to a report from ESPN’s Dan Graziano, Chiefs LBs coach Matt House turned down an opportunity to take a defensive coordinator job with the University of Tennessee under new head coach Josh Heupel. House has a long background in college football. He previously served as the linebackers coach, special teams coordinator and defensive coordinator for the Kentucky Wildcats under Mark Stoops prior to joining the Chiefs in 2019.

House is undoubtedly familiar with SEC football and all that it has to offer. He’s also seen what they’re building in Kansas City and wants to continue to be a part of that. Graziano reports that House could be on track to land a defensive coordinator job in the NFL, so it’d make sense why he’d want to stick around.

The Chiefs are certainly impressed with what he’s been able to do with the linebacker group. There has been a marked improvement since his arrival in 2019, specifically in veteran players like Anthony Hitchens. What he was able to accomplish earlier this season, getting second-year UDFA LB Darius Harris coached up to step in for Hitchens during his stint on the COVID-19 list, was impressive. It was a feat that didn’t go unnoticed by his fellow coaches in Kansas City.

House will be a valuable asset for the team moving forward. Who knows, if Steve Spagnuolo were to get another head coaching opportunity, he could even have a future as the defensive coordinator for the Chiefs.

[vertical-gallery id=88531]

Chiefs LB Dorian O’Daniel could see breakout season in 2020

Linebacker coach Matt House says this season will be an important one for Chiefs third-year LB Dorian O’Daniel.

Kansas City Chiefs LB Dorian O’Daniel has seen a pretty disappointing start in the NFL for a top-100 draft pick.

During his rookie season, perhaps surprisingly, O’Daniel had the most snaps of any 2018 draft pick for Kansas City. The majority of those snaps came on special teams, but he also had 302 defensive snaps, good for over 25% of the defensive snaps for the team. He was used initially in 11 personnel situations for the Chiefs as the lone inside linebacker on the field.

People were critical of former Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s failure to get O’Daniel playing sooner as he provided a needed boost in terms of speed. Former Chiefs LB coach Mark DeLeone claimed that they brought O’Daniel on slowly and added to his plate as they went on throughout the season.

Fast forward to 2019 and O’Daniel has a new defensive scheme, a new defensive coordinator and a new position coach. By the end of the season, O’Daniel had taken a significant step back on defense to his rookie campaign, playing only six defensive snaps all season. He did play 69% of the Chiefs’ snaps on special teams which were a slight increase from his rookie season.

Many Chiefs fans already look at O’Daniel as a player that hasn’t panned out. They point to the decision to draft Willie Gay Jr. as an indication of that as well. New Chiefs LB Matt House hasn’t given up on O’Daniel as someone who can contribute on defense. In fact, he believes that this next season could prove to be a really important one for him.

“First I’ll start with the year,” House told reporters in late May. “I think it’s not only important in his third year that he continues to grow and develop but it’s also the second year within our scheme. So there’s going to be less of a learning curve coming back out on the practice field and when we start playing games for him than there was last year. Last year, that’s the one thing, it was his second year in the league but it was his first within the scheme.”

House hasn’t yet had an opportunity to get out on the field and see how comfortable O’Daniel is in his second season in this scheme. What he has seen in virtual team meetings is a player still works hard despite achieving professional football’s peak, winning Super Bowl LIV.

“I’m excited about Dorian [O’Daniel],” House continued. “He’s really embraced these meetings and he’s been very, very active and worked hard, so I’m excited to see how it transpires on the field.”

Only time will tell if O’Daniel is able to change the narrative surrounding his career. With two seasons remaining on his rookie contract, he sure could be an asset for Kansas City if he were able to have a breakout season in 2020.

[vertical-gallery id=69904]

Chiefs LB coach Matt House says virtual offseason allowed more 1-on-1 time with rookies

Coach House has a favorable opinion of the Kansas City Chiefs’ virtual offseason program.

Matt House is entering his second season as the linebackers coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. Thus far, he’s been really pleased with the work that his unit has been able to accomplish despite the challenges presented by the virtual offseason.

“Yeah, I’ve been very pleased with the linebacker room and how they’ve embraced what we’re doing,” House told reporters on Thursday. “I think they’ve grown within our scheme during this time.”

In fact, House has enjoyed the challenges presented by the virtual offseason. He doesn’t feel like the linebackers, specifically, the rookies are missing out on anything right now. He feels like he’s actually getting a little bit more one-on-one time with rookies, such as Willie Gay Jr., than he would during the normal offseason program.

“Well, I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t really looked at it that way,” House said. “As coaches, our job is to adapt and adjust, and in the times that we’ve been in, that’s kind of what we’ve been doing. Really, it’s been great because I don’t know if you get this much individual meeting time normally because you are racing to get out on the field. So hopefully it clears up any questions that he has in his mind so that when we do get out on the grass, we can hit the ground running.”

You won’t catch House complaining about two more weeks of the virtual offseason program, which the NFL announced on Thursday. At the end of the day, House feels that teaching is teaching no matter the platform.

“Yeah, I think the good thing is it’s still teaching,” House said. “Coaching is just teaching. One of the things, we’ve had to use different platforms, but at the end of the day, you’re still teaching off of the same concepts and using video and using the different avenues you have available to yourself and the group. There’s some trial and error for sure, but all-in-all, it’s still teaching in my mind.”

Perhaps the positive impact from the virtual offseason program will allow for some changes in how NFL teams handle the offseason in the future.

[vertical-gallery id=69402]

Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden Jr talks versatility, competitive relationship with Chiefs LB coach Matt House

Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden Jr details his positional versatility, competitive relationship with former Kentucky DC and current Chiefs LB coach Matt House.

We might not know the position he’ll play in the NFL, but we do know that confidence is not something that the University of Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden Jr is lacking for. The 5-11 and 204-pound athlete has played everywhere during his tenure at Kentucky. He’s played receiver, kick returner, punt returner, running back and he’s found marked success at each spot.

When the Wildcats were ravaged by the injury bug at the quarterback position in 2019, Bowden became the natural replacement because of his versatility. When asked to make the switch to the quarterback spot, he didn’t even blink. Instead, Bowden went on a historic tear, breaking numerous school and SEC rushing records at the quarterback position over the course of the season.

“[NFL teams] liked that,” Bowden said of his switch to the quarterback position. “They like that I was a team player first and that I didn’t think about myself.”

In November of 2019, Bowden’s versatility was put on display in another way. A video of one of his plays from high school went viral on social media. During the play, he was playing punter and had to punt from the back of his own endzone. The punt went awry and he bobbled the snap, so naturally, he picked up the ball, ran through the entire defense and returned it for a touchdown.

While Bowden hasn’t played punter since high school, playing special teams is still a big weapon in his arsenal. He’s amassed 71 kick returns for over 1,600 yards during his time with Kentucky. He’s also returned 2-of-9 career punt returns for touchdowns.

“I want to do everything I can,” Bowden told Chiefs Wire at the NFL combine. “If I’m fortunate enough to get [to the NFL] I want to play everything. I’m not trying to be a basic guy. I want to be THAT guy. I want to be a superstar at every position I can.”

Kansas City Chiefs LB coach Matt House is very familiar with Bowden, as he used to be the defensive coordinator for the Kentucky Wildcats during Bowden’s freshman and sophomore seasons. House’s defense was regularly tasked with stopping him in practice, and more often than not, they found themselves frustrated by the athlete.

“I got under [Matt House’s] skin because his defense couldn’t tackle me and he didn’t like that,” Bowden said. “Coach House and I, you know, we were competitive. I talked my stuff to him and he talked his stuff to me, but I’d always win at the end of the day.”

If Bowden happened to be reunited with House on the Chiefs, he still expects that he’d be able to frustrate him and his linebacker corp.

“Yeah, I would,” Bowden said. “Anybody — [I’ll frustrate] anybody.”

Bowden claims to have met with nearly every NFL team in either a formal or informal capacity at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. If he remained as confident with NFL teams as he was with the media, you can rest assured he’ll find a home in the league. In fact, his demeanor and confidence would fit in well with the Chiefs’ newly-found “Championship Swagger.” His versatility would add yet another mismatch to the high-powered offensive unit that they’ve built Kansas City.