Craig Ver Steeg wasn't the first choice of Utah football coach Ron McBride to be Utah's new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
But Ver Steeg wants to be here. The former University of Illinois assistant was on the Jim Fassel Ute staff, and he met his wife (Lisa) here when she was a flight attendant living in the Sugar House area. "She's excited. She wants to be a Ute, too," Ver Steeg said by telephone Thursday evening after accepting McBride's offer.
"It's more the opportunity than when it happened," Ver Steeg (pronounced VER steg) told the Deseret News when asked about being the second person to have the job in the last two weeks. Rob Spence backed out of the position a week ago, citing family responsibility to stay near his aging parents for his children's sake.
"Maybe we'll find out it's supposed to be this way," said Ver Steeg, who said McBride had called him during his first round of talks and had told him he was in the first group of those he was considering.
"He called and told me his plans. I was in the first round," he said, confident even then that McBride and the assistants that Ver Steeg's known all these years were well aware "how hard I'll work."
"No. 1, the guy's a great teacher of quarterbacks," McBride said about choosing the 40-year-old as one of his top assistants.
Ver Steeg has been quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator for the Illini. Utah has three of the best young quarterbacks McBride has had in his 11 years as head coach, and their progress is most important to him.
"He's developed quarterbacks in every situation from the time he was here with Scott Mitchell," McBride said. "I've watched him teach quarterbacks. He's a workaholic."
Ver Steeg realized during his Monday interview with McBride that the quarterbacks are a priority. "That's one thing that really came out — how excited coach McBride is about the young quarterbacks in his program," said the man who helped develop Illini record-breaker Kurt Kittner.
Kittner smashed Jeff George's single-season touchdown record with 24 as a sophomore. Kittner threw for 198 yards a game this season, one of four Illini QBs, and 2,702 yards as a soph, when he was Illinois' MVP and offensive player of the year.
"It's a tremendous opportunity any time you get a chance to come in and help run something from the ground floor like this," said Ver Steeg, adding he likes the idea of "working with people you have a tremendous amount of respect for."
He said he's kept up with the Utes since leaving to work at Cincinnati and then Harvard, and he attended one of the U.'s Freedom Bowl appearances to see his friends on the coaching staff.
His offensive philosophy, learned from coaches like Fassel, Jack Reilly and Ron Turner, for whom he's worked at Illinois and on the staff of the NFL Chicago Bears, includes one-, two- and no-back sets that McBride said will be part West Coast offense, as run by several NFL teams, with some of Utah's offense blended in. "We already have the personnel here to run this," McBride said.
McBride said he was convinced about Ver Steeg after talking with Turner last weekend. Turner had no trepidations in recommending his assistant. "Turner said, 'This guy's a no-brainer,' " McBride said. "I could tell he really liked him and said, 'Oh, man, this kid's great.' And it wasn't hard for him to say it."
Ver Steeg also projects enthusiasm to players, and McBride calls that important to their success. "Craig is absolutely ready for this, and he is a great fit for us," McBride said.
Ver Steeg remembers McBride as a fellow assistant known for his energy. Ver Steeg calls that "legendary" and said he'll be happy "learning from him, one of the best motivators I've ever been around. I'm excited to be part of his staff. I know the passion he has."
Ver Steeg began coaching while completing his master's degree at University of Southern California in 1984-85, working with Trojan quarterbacks under Turner. He moved to Utah as a graduate assistant and part-time coach helping offensive coordinator Reilly with U. QBs. "Scott Mitchell and I came in together," Ver Steeg said. "We kind of learned the offense together." He says his own offense contains "a lot of elements of what we did back then."
He was at Utah until 1990, when he became Cincinnati QB coach/recruiting coordinator. He moved to Harvard as assistant head coach and quarterbacks/receivers coach, then rejoined Turner with the Chicago Bears as QB coach working with Erik Kramer and Dave Krieg. In '97, he followed Turner to Illinois.
E-MAIL: lham@desnews.com