Branch on receiving end of alma mater’s call
To hear Deion Branch’s mother tell it, he’s always been destined to be a coach. Being tapped to lead the Louisville Cardinals when they come to Boston this weekend to face Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl was just another sign.
“You’ve got to listen to your mom,” he said.
Branch, though, never had coaching in his plans. Football has taken him places he couldn’t imagine. From Albany, Ga., to junior college in Mississippi, to a Division 1 program at Louisville, to the NFL, to Super Bowl MVP.
Every step of the way, he noticed all the doors that opened, and he wanted to open them for players coming behind him.
“My parents always taught me, ‘Deion, it’s not about you, it’s about what can you do for others. You giving back and helping others,’ ” he said. “I always pride myself on that.”
If there was a job that would allow him to do that, he saw it in the office and not necessarily on the field.
“Personally, I know I always challenged myself to become an athletic director,” he said. “That’s just a thought, who knows?”
In the years after he retired from professional football in 2013, Branch talked to a couple of previous Louisville ADs about coming back to his alma mater in some capacity, but not necessarily coaching.
“I know I can help lead these guys and give them all the resources I have,” he said.
Football brought him back to Louisville in January. He returned as director of player development. The role allowed him to make the impact he wanted on young players.
“Having this player development role is everything,” Branch said. “Having to watch these young men go from boys to young men is a beautiful thing. And me having a little input on their lives is beautiful.
“We have a lot of guys who come from college, leave, and don’t have any sense of direction which way to go. Me having an actual bag of resources, I feel like it is my job that I can help this young man and that young man.”
To show how small the world is, the offer to come back to Louisville came from one of his classmates at Jones Junior College. In 1998, Branch and Josh Heird crossed paths all the time. Branch hung out with the football team, Heird was around the baseball team.
Their paths ultimately took them in different directions. But 24 years later, they crossed again. Heird became Louisville’s interim AD a year ago.
“Lo and behold, this guy gets named our athletic director,” said Branch, “and he always told me from Day 1, ‘If I get the opportunity to bring you on board, Deion, I don’t care where I’m at, you will be my first hire.’ And the moment that they took the interim tag off him, he was a man of his word. I was his first call.”
When Louisville coach Scott Satterfield left, coincidentally to take the head coaching job at Cincinnati — Louisville’s longtime rival — Heird had to decide who would coach the bowl game. He could have named one of the Cardinals’ assistant coaches.
“All of those guys are super qualified to be an interim head coach,” Branch said.
But the deciding factor, especially as the school prepared to search for a new coach, was choosing someone they knew would be committed to Louisville long term.
“They felt deep down inside, ‘Deion Branch, he’s never going anywhere,’ ” Branch said. “I would never leave this university to go to any other program. There’s no amount of money that you can offer me. It’s just not going to happen. I’m super loyal and they know that.”
Branch acknowledged he fought the decision to be interim coach at first. He threw his support behind defensive coordinator Bryan Brown. When he talked to Heird, Branch said he understood the reasoning behind Heird wanting him.
“It was destined to be,” Branch said. “It’s God’s plan. The fact that this is my university, I have heavy roots in Boston, done some great things in that community, in that city, I couldn’t turn that down.”
Once the news was announced, Branch’s phone lit up with calls and texts from family members, friends, former teammates, and coaches. They all believed this was the path for him.
“I’m assuming they see something that I don’t see,” he said. “I would have never thought.”
But knowing that he’ll be on the sideline, he said his mind could change about coaching more in the future.
“These young men may change that,” Branch said. “They may change the landscape of exactly how I’m feeling or what I’m thinking.”
As exciting as coaching might be, the chance to influence players’ lives beyond football is what drives Branch.
“Even when I was playing, myself and all my former teammates, we always sit back and think, man, we didn’t have anybody to help us, let alone someone of real stature in this position,” he said. “Just imagine the things I probably would’ve learned and where I would be in life. So, just in general off the field, me aligning these guys with some of the things they want to do in the future.”
Branch has seen all the avenues football has to offer and wants to make sure younger players know the options they have in front of them.
“Some of these guys leave school and they don’t know which way to go,” Branch said. “And it’s my duty to change the landscape, especially here but also eventually across the country. It’s unacceptable for an individual to be in school for four years and leave and have no direction where to go.”
This weekend, Branch will lean on a lifetime of on-field experience. He said he’s not worried about coaching his first college game.
“I know the game of football and understand the situation,” he said. “The practices, I’ve been in thousands. I’ve been in numerous big-time games. I’m not perfect, by no means. But trust me, as far as thinking there’s any pressure with it, I’m more nervous if anything of letting the guys down.”
More than anything, Branch is humbled by the doors football continues to open for him and wants to do the same for the players behind him.
“Young kid from Albany, Ga.,” he said. “Look where you are now, man. It’s truly a blessing.”