Staley will coach in the same division as Gruden, a 1986 UD graduate who led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a championship in Super XXXVII in 2003 and has coached the Raiders for the last three seasons. Staley and Gruden played for Mike Kelly, who retired in 2007 after 27 seasons as head coach.
Noll, who died in 2014 at 82, played for Dayton in the early 1950s and coached the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl titles.
Staley, a graduate of Perry High School, northeast of Cleveland, arrived at Dayton in 2001, redshirting as a freshman. He earned the starting quarterback job in 2003 as a junior and shared the job with redshirt freshman Kevin Hoyng, who would finish his career as Dayton’s all-time leading passer, in 2004.
“I think it was obvious last year that Kevin was going to be a very good quarterback and a special player for us as well,” Kelly told the Dayton Daily News in 2004, “so we redshirted him and everybody in the program understood that it was going to be a real serious battle going on there. We got to game week and we decided to play them both. They’re both doing good jobs. They both can lead. With the (option) offense we play, you’re probably going to need two or three quarterbacks (because of injuries).”
Six months before Staley’s final season at Dayton began, his mom Linda died after a nine-year battle with cancer. Fifty to 60 of his teammates traveled to his hometown for the funeral.
“I knew I had some great teammates before,” Staley said in 2004, “but it reaffirmed that I’m really a lucky guy.”
Here's a 2004 Dayton Daily News story on Brandon Staley, who was hired as Chargers head coach on Sunday. His mom died before his senior year at Dayton, and 50-60 of his teammates attended the funeral. pic.twitter.com/zpjvyoyyms
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) January 18, 2021
In 2005, with one more season of eligibility remaining, Staley transferred to Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa., where he played his final season with his twin brother Jason.
Staley’s coaching career began in 2006 when he was a graduate assistant at Northern Illinois University. He fought cancer himself after that first season as a coach, overcoming Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 24.
After more than a decade in the college game, he became the linebackers coach for the Chicago Bears in 2017. He spent two seasons with the Bears and then one season with the Denver Broncos as a linebackers coach before getting the defensive coordinator job with the Rams in 2020.
Under Staley, the Rams led the NFL in total defense (281.9 yards per game). He coached under head coach Sean McVay, the Dayton native and former Miami RedHawks wide receiver who’s the grandson of a former Dayton Flyers football coach, John McVay.
The Chargers finished 7-9 last season. Coach Anthony Lynn was fired Jan. 4 after going 33-31 in four seasons. Staley is the 17th head coach in franchise history. He will be introduced at a press conference. Thursday.
“It’s hard to put into words just how excited I am for the opportunity to be the Los Angeles Chargers’ head coach,” Staley said in a statement. “While this is certainly a dream come true, it’s also a dream that’s just beginning. There’s a reason this was probably the most sought after job out there — from ownership, to the fans, to the city, to the men in that locker room — it’s the total package. I can’t thank the Spanos family and Tom Telesco enough for placing their faith in us, and by the time everyone is reading this quote in a press release, we’ll already be hard at work developing a program Chargers fans everywhere can be proud of.”
About the Author
