Kubiak lands first coaching job at Texas A&M

May 18, 2010

By Zak Gilbert
Athletic Media Relations

HOUSTON, Texas -- Vince Lombardi was 26 when he ended his days as a semi-pro lineman and broke into coaching as an assistant at St. Cecilia's Catholic High School in New Jersey.

Mike Shanahan was a quarterback at Eastern Illinois when a practice-field hit ruptured a kidney, nearly killing him. The next day, he unofficially launched his coaching career.

Every coaching career starts somewhere.

Former Colorado State safety Klint Kubiak will start his at Texas A&M. The Aggies last week hired Kubiak as a defensive quality-control assistant.

For Kubiak, 23, the thoroughfare to coaching began much like it did for Lombardi, Shanahan and countless others -- with the realization that while circumstances ended a playing career, coaching allowed them to remain in the game.

"I just think for me it was always about football," said Kubiak, snake bitten by injuries during each of his last three seasons with the Rams. "I just love football. I had some bad luck, but no matter what happened, whether I was rehabbing or playing, and it was especially fun when I stayed healthy, I just loved being part of the game."

Kubiak, who begins his duties at Texas A&M June 2, obviously had an itch to coach, but not as early as some would think. After an appearance at the East-West Shrine Game and a favorable Pro Day workout, he earned a tryout invitation from Shanahan, the current Washington coach who guided the Broncos when Kubiak was a ball boy at training camp in Greeley. Kubiak's dad, Gary, became Texans head coach after serving as Shanahan's longtime offensive coordinator during a stretch that included consecutive Super Bowl titles.

The younger Kubiak invested everything into extending his playing career, but by the end of that rookie minicamp May 9, he knew the transition wasn't far away.

"I kind of knew on that last day that it might not happen," said Klint, who reached out to Sherman soon after returning from Redskins Park. "I'm glad it worked out, because I don't know what I would've done."

Now, Kubiak will work alongside former Nebraska quarterback Zac Taylor, doing much of the grunt work at the low end of the Aggies' totem pole. And whether he's stuffing diagrams into a playbook or flashing scout-team play cards at practice, Kubiak's entered the coaching profession now.

"The game comes easy to me," he said, "maybe not as easy athletically as it does for others, but the mental aspect. That's what makes it fun. I grew up with the game, with my dad as a coach. Just because I'm not able to physically play anymore, I still want to be involved, and coaching allows me to do that."

CSU's Sonny Lubick, who recruited Kubiak from Denver's Regis High School, and after him Steve Fairchild, are two mentors Kubiak credits with helping groom him for the profession. Fairchild wasn't surprised that Kubiak would be donning a headset in the fall.

"He has a unique style of going about his business," said Fairchild, who now coaches only Kubiak's brother, Klay, a junior quarterback at CSU. "Great work ethic, great character. He's got that passion for football in his blood. This is a great move for him.

"Everyone knows who his dad is, but his mom is outstanding, too."

That dad was the running backs coach at Texas A&M in 1992, when Kubiak remembers first tagging along to the office and sitting with him in dark film rooms as a 5-year-old. It was the start of a pastime that continues to this day. Before Kubiak left for the Redskins minicamp, his dad pulled him into his Reliant Stadium office to break down film of Super Bowl XLIV, pointing out intricacies in the passing styles of Drew Brees and Peyton Manning that Klint said he never would've noticed had he been on his couch enjoying the game as a fan.

"Usually when I would come home from CSU during the summer or at Christmas, I would work out and then watch film with him there at the stadium. Hopefully some of that will rub off."

Like Shanahan, after an injury truncated his college playing career, Kubiak got a taste of his future on the sideline in street clothes, as an unofficial coach. He tutored his successor, Ivory Herd.

"I think because I was his teammate, he could relate to me more," said Kubiak. "When I was little, all I wanted to do was play, be a player. The coaching desire came later in college, at CSU. When I got injured, I started taking a second look at it.

"I've always looked up to coaches in a good way. This is something I can do now that allows me to give back what they gave me."

Fairchild, CSU's starting quarterback as a senior in 1980, also grew up with coaches as mentors, and remembers very vividly his transition.

"The year after I was done playing college football," the CSU coach said, "I went to grad school and I knew something was missing right away, that first Saturday. After that first semester, I was already fast on the coaching career path."

Kubiak's path will begin closer to home, only 100 miles from Reliant Stadium at Kyle Field, where his dad was the Aggies' quarterback before joining the Broncos as John Elway's longtime backup. The Aggies also have seven home games and leave the state only twice, trips to nearby Oklahoma State and Kansas.

The elder Kubiak got to see his son play a college game on very rare occasions, one of which was the Rams' 23-17 triumph in Boulder over the CU Buffs last season.

And while beginning his career near home is attractive, and the sky's the limit as it was for Lombardi and Shanahan, the former CSU captain has his priorities in line.

"Right now, the most important thing is going to school, getting my master's," said Kubiak, a multiple academic all-Mountain West selection who will pursue graduate studies in business, education or administration. "Once I get that degree, I can really get into coaching. But at the same time, I know the life of a coach is not easy. My dad's been fortunate to be able to keep his job, and stay in the same spot for a long time. I know that's not realistic. So if I can get that piece of paper, I'll be set either way."

But his most important paper will be the one he'll sign June 26. He'll get a marriage license when he weds former CSU volleyball star Tessa Nelson in her home state of Minnesota.

"He has a bright future, no question," Fairchild said. "Good to see something like this happening to such a good kid who had so many things not go his way up until this point."

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