On a recent Sunday evening, Brent Vigen was watching “SportsCenter.” The top story featured the Josh Allen-led Buffalo Bills, who had defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers that night to clinch a playoff berth. Soon after came highlights of the Carson Wentz-led Philadelphia Eagles, who had rallied to beat Washington and keep their postseason hopes alive earlier in the day.
That programming sequence had Vigen beaming with pride. He coached both quarterbacks.
Vigen is the associate head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Wyoming, which faces Georgia State in the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl on Tuesday at Arizona Stadium. Allen went from the Cowboys to the Bills with the seventh pick in the 2018 NFL draft.
Vigen came to Wyoming with head coach Craig Bohl after working for him at North Dakota State. While with the Bison, Vigen recruited Wentz and coached him during his freshman and sophomore seasons. Three years later, Wentz would become the No. 2 pick in the 2016 draft.
So, to review: The OC at Wyoming, via North Dakota State, discovered and developed two top-10 quarterbacks who have led or are about to lead their teams into the NFL playoffs.
“One, a guy may be lucky,” Bohl said. “When you have two starters as rookies in the NFL, that’s not luck.
“I don’t know what kind of odds you would put on that, but I don’t think Alabama has that. Nick Saban may be as good an evaluator as there is. I have a great deal of trust in Brent, his skill set in picking out guys. People don’t recognize how hard that is and what he’s done.”
Bohl also credits the 44-year-old Vigen for the recruitment of Easton Stick, who played for a different coaching staff at NDSU before becoming a fifth-round pick of the Los Angeles Chargers this year.
Brent Vigen
Vigen downplays his role as a QB whisperer, saying there’s “some timing and luck involved” in unearthing players with pro potential. But he also believes certain traits are essential to success at football’s most important position. And he has the receipts.
‘Playing the long game’
Wentz is in his fourth season as Philadelphia’s starting quarterback. He has passed for 13,902 yards and 96 touchdowns. If they win Sunday, the Eagles will make the playoffs for the third straight year.
Allen is in his second season as Buffalo’s starter. He has passed for 5,158 yards and 30 touchdowns while rushing for 1,141 yards and 17 scores. He helped the Bills achieve their first 10-plus-win season in 20 years.
“It’s a pretty neat deal right now,” Vigen said. “I hope that continues for a long, long time.”
Wentz is a native of Bismarck, North Dakota, where he excelled in three sports — football, basketball and baseball — for Bismarck Century High School. His 247Sports.sports recruiting profile lists one college: North Dakota State. It has no stars beside his name.
Allen is from Firebaugh, California, a town of less than 10,000 about 45 minutes west of Fresno. Allen also played basketball and baseball in high school. Like Wentz, he had no Division I scholarship offers coming out of Firebaugh High. Allen played at Reedley College in Central California before landing at Wyoming, one of only a handful of FBS schools that showed interest in him.
The physical similarities between the quarterbacks are obvious. Both are big, athletic and strong-armed. Although they developed at different rates, both are listed at 6-5, 237 pounds.
But in discussing the ties that bind his pupils — and the qualities he looks for in quarterbacks in general — Vigen repeatedly stressed characteristics that can’t be easily quantified.
“Both were multisport athletes,” he said. “They were able to display their competitive nature in another arena besides the football field.
“Getting to know both of them in the recruiting process, it was apparent that they had a lot of confidence in their ability. Even though the recruiting situations were maybe not what they dreamed of, they believed in themselves. It wasn’t anyone else. When you have that – a young man 18, 19 years old that isn’t going to let other people’s thoughts of them dictate their boundaries – you have something.”
Bohl’s staff stresses patience when it comes to recruiting, Vigen said — especially with quarterbacks. The coaches “try to learn about them as people, what makes them tick, how competitive they are,” he said. The staff requires favorable responses to questions such as: What kind of teammate are they? What kind of student of the game are they? Why are they off the recruiting radar?
“It’s playing the long game instead of let’s see how fast we can get a guy committed,” Vigen said. “And that’s really served us well.”
Once they get a quarterback on campus, Vigen and Bohl continue to emphasize the position’s mental responsibilities. Wyoming uses a pro-style offense that doesn’t feature a plethora of predetermined pitch-and-catch opportunities. A premium is placed on preparation and film study.
“There’s a process that goes into being able to execute on the field,” Vigen said, “and a lot of it’s done off the field.”
Vigen and Bohl also try to put their quarterbacks in as many 11-on-11 situations as possible because 7-on-7, while valuable, has its limitations.
“I don’t think we’ve got the market cornered there by any means,” Vigen said. “But we go 11-on-11 as much as we can, because that’s real football.”
From TE to OC
Vigen didn’t become a quarterback guru by playing quarterback. A North Dakota native, Vigen played tight end for NDSU from 1993-97. It was the next-best thing.
“It requires intelligence and savvy to play that position,” Vigen said. “I’m not saying that was me necessarily. But I do think it’s a position where you are involved with so much. You might not know it as it’s happening. But you walk away, and you get a much greater understanding than a lot of the other positions on the offensive side.”
Vigen got his first job at his alma mater, as a graduate assistant, under Bob Babich, who is now the linebackers coach for the Bills. Babich promoted Vigen to tight ends coach in 2001 and QB coach in ’02.
“He saw something in me that I maybe didn’t see in myself,” Vigen said — a skill the young assistant eventually would acquire.
Vigen spent the following season as the running backs coach while learning under Dan Enos, who would become the head coach at Central Michigan and an offensive coordinator at multiple Power 5 conference programs. Since 2004, Vigen has coached quarterbacks under Bohl. Vigen has run Bohl’s offenses since ’09.
Vigen believes “you never stop learning” as a coach, and 2019 has provided plenty of fresh material. Starting quarterback Sean Chambers suffered a season-ending knee injury on Oct. 26. His main replacement, Tyler Vander Waal, recently put his name in the NCAA transfer portal, although he remains with the team for the Arizona Bowl. Freshman Levi Williams, who has appeared in two games, could start vs. Georgia State.
That Vigen is the one sorting it all out feels like something of an upset. With college programs and NFL teams thirstily searching for the next QB mastermind, how has a guy in his mid-40s who recruited and refined Carson Wentz and Josh Allen not been lured away from Laramie?
Vigen is about to conclude his sixth season at Wyoming. He and wife Molly have three boys. She played basketball at NDSU. Vigen was rumored to be a candidate for the head job there a year ago, but nothing came of it.
“While it seems like it’s a college football coach’s nature to be bouncing around and maybe chase the next thing,” Vigen said, “that’s never been my approach.”
Except when it comes to quarterbacks. You never know when or where you’ll find the next great one.
