Elizondo embraces opportunity
Jaime Elizondo arrived for his first kindergarten class in El Paso, he barely knew any English.
Up to that point, Elizondo had lived in his birthplace of Mexico — an unusual origin for a professional football coach.
After a 25-year career winding mostly through East Coast college jobs and the Canadian Football League, Elizondo is embracing the opportunity to coach in a majority-hispanic market for the first time in his career, stepping in as the offensive coordinator for the XFL’S San Antonio Brahmas.
Seeing how his family in Mexico grew to become diehard football fans, with about half of the group cheering for the Pittsburgh Steelers and idolizing Brahmas head coach Hines Ward, Elizondo said he’s happy to have the chance to be something of an ambassador for the sport.
When the Brahmas arrived for training camp last month in Arlington, the team posted a video to Twitter of Elizondo addressing the fan base in Spanish to hype the start of the season.
“It’s important, because San Antonio has such a rich Hispanic community and tradition,” Elizondo said. “We want to get all of those fans in the Alamodome, and if I can help represent the game of football and represent possibilities for peoversity ple in the Hispanic community, that’s a blessing.”
Ward said he was drawn to Elizondo because of his creativity and experience in the previous version of the XFL, holding the same role with the Tampa Bay Vipers in 2020.
Born in South Korea, Ward has been active in support of social causes, pledging $1 million in 2006 to benefit mixed-race children in his native country through the Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation.
Though he aimed to install a “diverse group” in the Brahmas staff, Ward said he wasn’t aware of Elizondo’s ethnicity prior to their interview.
“When Jaime and I talked, I had no clue,” Ward said. “I heard his name, so I asked him, to be honest with you. He’s been awesome. The mixture of guys, I couldn’t be any happier with the staff I assembled.”
Elizondo, 50, said his playing career was cut short at a young age due to injury, but the sport was “always in my heart, and always in my dreams and passions.”
He graduated from the Uniwhen of Maryland and earned a law degree from American University, but he never shook the itch to coach. He missed the highs and lows of winning and losing, the familial relationships of the locker room and little things, like the sound of cleats in the tunnel before games.
“I had a girlfriend who at the time was like, ‘Man, every time you watch football or talk about football, your face lights up. Why don’t you just go do it?’ ” Elizondo said. “That’s really what set the trigger, and there’s no looking back.”
After rising through the college assistant ranks, Elizondo spent most of the past decade in the CFL, where teams use 12 players on each side and have three downs instead of four. Despite the variance in the rules, Elizondo said the adaptability and problem-solving skills required of a strong offensive coordinator are no different.
Ward said his first question during Elizondo’s interview was what his playbook would look like, and Elizondo responded that he wouldn’t be able to say until the Brahmas had a roster in place, allowing him to tailor the system to the talent.
Elizondo said the basis of his playbook comes from the New England Patriots, but he stressed that the system will be adaptable, ranging from an uptempo, no-huddle approach to a two-tight end look centered on “pounding the rock.”
“You can’t really label it,” Elizondo
said. “Some people say it’s a West Coast system. It really isn’t. There’s a lot of flexibility.”
Elizondo aims to replicate the success he flashed under head coach Marc Trestman with Tampa Bay in 2020. After Trestman called the plays for a Vipers offense that scored 3 and 9 points in its first two games, Elizondo took the reins and led the unit to an average of 28.7 points during its final three weeks.
Elizondo said he feels he has “unfinished business” from the 2020 XFL season that was shut down after five games. Two of his former Vipers players project to fill key roles for the Brahmas, with wide receiver Jalen Tolliver listed as a starter and running back Jacques Patrick serving as one of two offensive captains.
With four of San Antonio’s six wide receivers standing 6foot-2 or taller, Elizondo said one of the tenets of the offense will be playing “above the rim,” presenting easier targets for quarterback Jack Coan.
“His system is really well put together,” Coan said. “From a quarterback perspective, it’s very specific. Each play, exactly what you have to do, and the timing, rhythm and steps of everything. It’s something I enjoy as a quarterback, and it’s been a lot of learning, and I’m excited to learn from him and grow my football IQ.”