By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
Pete Carmichael Jr. did not come by his career path with ease.
His dad, Pete Sr., coached football for 18 years at Boston College and nine more in the NFL.
” I played baseball in college (at BC), but I always kind of knew I wanted to get back to football from when I finished playing in high school,” young Pete said of his late father. “I just kind of saw how much passion (my dad) had about it and how much he loved the game and the relationships that he had with players, so, I always felt, ‘Oh, I want to be around that.'”
And this offseason he continued his dream signing with the Bills to be new coach Joe Brady’s offensive coordinator.
Carmichael has known Brady since the two were with the New Orleans Saints, where he spent 17 years, before following Sean Payton to Denver where he was assistant head coach and passing game coordinator for a team that made the AFC Championship Game.
But Carmichael had no problem deciding to take the job in Buffalo.
“That was really a lot of the excitement about coming here, something new, something different after having been pretty much in the same system,” he said. “There’s some things here that are similar, some things that are different.”
“The excitement of coming here … one of the things that Joe said to me when I first got hired was, ‘You’re going to love it here, you’re gonna love the people in the locker room, the players, the building.’ And he’s 100% right.”
OF COURSE, this is Carmichael’s second stint working with a high profile quarterback starting with all those years in New Orleans — plus one in San Diego — coaching Drew Brees and now with the Bills’ MVP-level Josh Allen.
Payton called the plays in New Orleans until he left and his replacement, Dennis Allen, made Carmichael offensive coordinator and shifted play-calling to him.
To be sure, he feels privileged to be coaching a talent such as Josh Allen.
“I just think that he’s got a great personality,” Carmichael said. “He likes to keep it light, but when it’s time to get serious, he does. I’s just the overall, him going out there executing, and, obviously, his ability.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
