ANALYSIS/OPINION:
RICHMOND — The largest presence at the Washington Redskins’ training camp is a 59-year-old former quarterback from Illinois Benedictine College.
Bill Callahan is not hard to find. He’s the guy hunched over showing 23-year-old Brandon Scherff how to play right guard.
Yes, that’s right, right guard. The kid from Iowa who Washington picked with the fifth selection in the NFL draft to play right tackle has been playing right guard for the past few days — because that’s what Callahan wants. He likes offensive linemen who can play more than one position. He likes flexibility. And he also likes right tackles who can block edge rushers — something Scherff, who new general manager Scot McCloughan drafted to be a right tackle, may not be able to do, at least not yet.
He has been working as right guard, because what Callahan wants, he gets.
No single offseason transaction may impact this franchise more than the hiring of Callahan away from the rival Dallas Cowboys as the Redskins’ offensive line coach. Credited with being the architect of the Cowboys’ impressive rushing offense last season, Callahan is being heralded as the savior who can return this team to the days that this fan base has longed for — running the ball down the throats of opponents with a group of big offensive linemen.
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Big ones. Very big ones.
No one wants to invoke the revered name of the Hogs. It’s happened too many times in the past, only to fail to meet expectations. It is hard not to think of the great Joe Bugel when you watch Callahan on the field, barking out to his linemen, getting down on the ground with them.
McCloughan is building this team from the line out. “It all starts there,” he said Thursday, pointing to massive human beings such as Scherff and Moses Morgan.
Callahan may be the most important coach on the staff not named Jay Gruden — and who knows how long that will last. After all, Callahan took the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl. Callahan worked with Redskins team president Bruce Allen in Oakland, and also with Jon Gruden, Jay’s well-known brother.
Callahan left Dallas to “explore other options,” and that landed him a reportedly “very lucrative” three-year deal here with the Redskins, for essentially the same role he had with the Cowboys. It was one of the first moves the organization made after McCloughan came aboard.
I’m not saying the Redskins have hired a coach in waiting, but if things go south, an impressive option is available on the coaching staff.
Callahan is determined to make sure things don’t go south for his boss.
“I’m genuinely excited,” he said shortly after being hired in January. “I’ve always prided myself on trying to take a group and make them better. This is a great challenge — one I’m fired up about.”
He is a fiery presence — much like Bugel was — and will have far more influence on the Washington offense than simply as an offensive line coach. Callahan will be calling the running plays — and, based on what we’ve seen so far in Richmond, there will be a lot of running plays.
“Having the ability to run different type runs and get them coached up, Coach Callahan will do a great job teaching them [the offensive line] the right fundamentals, footwork and all the different combinations that are necessary in offensive line play,” Gruden said at the owners’ meetings in March. “He’s the best at it. What type of runs we’re going to feature, hopefully, it will be a diverse group, but we’ll be sound in what we do.”
Callahan may do a great job teaching fundamentals, combinations and football, but watching him work with the Redskins’ linemen, he speaks their language — the passion of football.
“I love it,” he said before training camp opened. “I absolutely love it. I look forward to practice every day. There’s nothing like it. I’m just an old-school ball coach.”
An old-school ball coach — just like one who put together one of the legendary offensive lines in NFL history more than three decades ago.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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