LAVELL EDWARDS remembers the first time he heard about Green Bay Packers coach Mike Holmgren. Well, actually, it was the second time.
Dr. Vic Rowen, a longtime, highly respected coach at San Francisco State who was considered a bright football man, heard that Edwards was looking for a new quarterback coach. He called Edwards and told him about a promising coaching prospect named Holmgren.Edwards instantly remembered the name. He had recruited Holmgren to play quarterback at BYU and visited him at his home in San Francisco.
"Wasn't interested," says Edwards.
Instead, Holmgren went to USC to play with his friend O.J. Simpson, another San Francisco native.
Rowen said Holmgren was knowledgeable and personable and worked well with people. He sounded like just the man for the job. "I didn't need a guru," Edwards recalls. "I needed someone who could come in and work within the system; someone who had his ego in check enough to let Norm Chow run the offense and confine himself to working with the quarterbacks."
Holmgren was 34 years old and had little in the way of coaching credentials at the time. Except for one year at San Francisco State, his only coaching experience had been at the high school level.
After graduating from USC, he had failed to catch on with the St. Louis Cardinals (who drafted him in the eighth round) and the New York Jets, so he returned home to San Francisco and taught history at Lincoln High School, his alma mater. A year later he was talked into being an assistant football coach at Sacred Heart High. Sacred Heart proceeded to lose 22 straight games in two seasons, and Holmgren quit coaching.
His players eventually persuaded him to return for another year ("I owe them a debt of gratitude to this day," Holmgren has said). Sacred Heart won a game that season, a victory so momentous that Holm-gren still calls it his greatest coaching moment, one that moved parents, coaches and players to tears.
Holmgren moved on to coach at another local high school, where he gained a reputation for his wide-open, innovative passing attacks. He spent a year under Rowen at San Francisco State, and then Edwards hired him.
Holmgren came to Provo in 1983, stepping into a position that had been held by "gurus" such as Ted Tollner and Doug Scovil. "He fit in right off the bat," says Edwards. Like Edwards, Holmgren was even keel and willing to work in the background. He stood on the sideline and relayed plays from Chow in the press box to the huddle, and he tutored quarterbacks.
During his first year at BYU he began working with a quarterback named Steve Young, a junior who would make his starting debut that season. "If this thing falls apart, you know who they're going to point the finger at," he told Young. "I'm following Doug and Ted, you're following all the quarterbacks."
Young struggled at times that first season, but the following year he was the best quarterback in the nation. BYU's offense averaged an NCAA-record 584 yards a game in 1983, and the Cougars won 13 of 14 games.
"The time at BYU really expanded my mind as to what was possible in this game," Holmgren would say later.
The following season he coached Robbie Bosco at quarterback, and the Cougars won the national championship. Bosco, who now has Holmgren's old job at BYU, says Holmgren was knowledgeable, personable, approachable and knew how to work with people. He tells this story:
"We were playing Air Force in a TV game when they were unbeaten and nationally ranked, and I threw some interceptions. After one of the interceptions, I came to the sideline and sat on the bench with my head down. I'm sure he wanted to scream at me, but all he did was hold up two fingers and say, `How many fingers am I holding up?' I said, `Two.' That was all he said. That got me laughing. I knew what he was talking about. He knew what I was thinking, and he knew what buttons to push with me. And we came back and won the game."
By 1985, after four seasons at BYU, Holmgren was no longer a secret. "After he'd been here a while, you knew he was going places," says Edwards. While the Cougars were in Orlando preparing for the Citrus Bowl, Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, who was looking for a quarterback coach, talked to Edwards about Holmgren. But then Bill Walsh, the San Francisco 49ers' great head coach, called.
Walsh and Edwards had become friends. During the NFL strike season, Walsh spent a couple of days in Provo observing BYU practices.
"I had called Bill and talked to him about Mike," says Edwards. "I knew what he was looking for, and Bill was a good friend. I told him, `I've got a guy you ought to look at.' I really thought he was a guy that Bill was looking for. What Bill wanted was the same thing we had wanted. He wanted somebody who could come in and work with the quarterbacks within the system. Bill would run show. Mike ended up doing for them just what he did for us. He worked hard and learned; he grew and developed."
Holmgren spent six years with the 49ers, working with Joe Montana and Young (again), and the 49ers won two Super Bowls during his stay. After Walsh resigned, Holmgren served as offensive coordinator for three years.
"He became a hot commodity," says Edwards. "A lot of them do but don't pan out. The difference is, Mike did."
In 1992, Holmgren was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers, a team that hadn't been to the playoffs since 1982 and had just completed a 4-12 season. They went 9-7 in Holmgren's first year and made the playoffs in his second year. On Sunday, they will bid for their second straight Super Bowl victory. It would give Holmgren four Super Bowl victories in four tries with two different teams, plus a national title at BYU.
"He's just done an excellent job," says Edwards. "What he is, is great with people. I still talk to him a couple of times a year. He hasn't changed at all."
"A great guy," says Chow. "His hat size is still the same."
"He just breeds success," says Bosco. "That's the kind of coach he is."