Al Borges

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Al Borges
Borges at Auburn's 2007 Fan Day.
Borges at Auburn's 2007 Fan Day.
Title Offensive coordinator
Sport Football
Born October 8, 1955 (1955-10-08) (age 52)
Place of birth Salinas, CA
Career highlights
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1986-1992
1993-1994
1995
1996-2000
2001
2002-2003
2004-2007		 Portland State (OC)
Boise State (OC)
Oregon (OC)
UCLA (OC)
California (OC)
Indiana (OC)
Auburn (OC)

Alan Borges (born October 8, 1955(1955-10-08) in Salinas, California) is an American college football coach and the former offensive coordinator of the Auburn University football team. Borges is known for quarterback development[1] having mentored Cade McNown and Jason Campbell, both first round NFL draft picks.[1][2] Borges has been described as "one of the best offensive coordinators I've ever seen," by former Auburn head coach Pat Dye.[3]

Contents

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Early career

Borges began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Salinas High School from 1975 to 1978, followed by a stint as an assistant at Pleasant Valley HS from 1979 to 1980.[4][5] He earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in 1981 from California State University, Chico.[4][5] Borges began his college coaching career at California as a part-time assistant in 1982 and 1983. He then moved on to his first full-time collegiate job at Diablo Valley College from 1983-85. He split time with Diablo for two years in 1984 and 1985 as a defensive assistant with the USFL's Oakland Invaders.

From 1986 to 1992 he was the offensive coordinator for Division II Portland State University where he coached three All-American quarterbacks.[5] In 1993, he moved up to then Division I-AA Boise State University where his offense reached the Division I-AA championship game in 1994.[5] In a single season as offensive coordinator at Oregon in 1995, his team lead the Pac-10 in passing offense with 263.8 yards per game. The Ducks also averaged 406.3 yards and 29.1 points per game. His quarterback that season, Tony Graziani, led the Pac-10 in both total offense and passing.[5]

[edit] UCLA

Borges was the offensive coordinator for five years (1996-2000) at UCLA under head coach Bob Toledo. Over that five-year period, UCLA averaged 31.9 points a game as well as reaching season averages over 40 points per game in 1997 (40.7 ppg) and 1998 (40.5 ppg).[5] He is also credited with developing Cade McNown from an average quarterback into a first-team AP All-American and first round NFL Draft pick and personally considers McNown his biggest turnaround.[6]

[edit] California and Indiana

In January 2001, Borges left UCLA for a $50,000 raise and two-year contract for the same position at California.[5] After a losing season in which the entire California staff was replaced, Borges accepted the offensive coordinator position at Indiana where he coached for two seasons until Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville called in early 2004.

[edit] Auburn

Borges joined the Auburn staff in 2004. Auburn is 33-5 in the three seasons Borges has been the offensive coordinator. Auburn is the only Southeastern Conference (SEC) team to finish ranked in the top 15 each of those seasons.[2] Borges is credited with much of the success of the 2004 Auburn Tigers football team which recorded a perfect 13-0 season, but was snubbed by the Bowl Championship Series for a berth in the BCS Championship game. Borges resigned from Auburn December 10, 2007, after a steady decline in the team's offensive production, before the team's appearance in the New Year's Eve Chick-Fil-A Bowl.[7]

[edit] Offensive philosophy

Borges is a student of the West Coast offense and once considered himself a West Coast "purist."[8] Borges still credits former San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh with the major influence for how he coaches quarterbacks.[6] He subsequently incorporated substantial play action into his offense to deal with modern defensive schemes and strives for a 50-50 run-pass ratio.[8] He likes trick or gadget plays to "keep defenses honest" and "deflate your opponent a little bit."[8] After arriving at Auburn in 2004, a traditional rushing offense power, Borges found a deeply talented set of running backs including Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown and further modified his version of the West Coast offense to a run-first orientation he has referred to as the "Gulf Coast" offense.[9][10]

[edit] Awards and honors

  • Rivals.com Offensive Coordinator of the Year, 2005[4]
  • Finalist - Frank Broyles Assistant Coach of the Year Award, 1997 and 1998[4][5]
  • Football Coach Quarterly's Offensive Coordinator of the Year,1997.[4]

[edit] Instruction

Borges and his brother Keith, an assistant with him at California in 2001, collaborated on a book titled Coaching the West Coast Quarterback (ISBN 1585183415) as well as a series of instructional videos by the same name.[11] Borges also contributed a chapter on strategy using the I formation for the American Football Coaches Association-published book, Football Offenses & Plays (ISBN 0736062610) published in 2006.[12]

[edit] Personal

Borges is married to the former Nikki Federico.[5] Nikki Borges serves as Associate Athletic Director, Marketing & Communications for Auburn.[13] The couple have a son, Cole, and a daughter, Mady Joe.[14] Borges is one of seven children[5] and his brother Keith was an assistant coach on Borges' offensive staff at California.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Jason Campbell, QB, Auburn", USA Today/NFLDraftscout.com, 2005-05-18. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. 
  2. ^ a b Low, Chris. "Healthy Cox, WRs key to Auburn's improvement", ESPN.com, 2007-03-19. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. 
  3. ^ McCready, Neal. "AU needs to secure its own Big Al", Mobile Register, 2005-11-23. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. 
  4. ^ a b c d e Player Bio: Al Borges. Auburn Athletic Department. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Cal Hires Offensive Guru Al Borges as New Offensive Coordinator", PAC-10, 2001-01-04. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. 
  6. ^ a b Handwerger, Bradley. "Borges' success with QBs", Decatur Daily, 2005-11-16. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. 
  7. ^ Al Borges out as Auburn's offensive coordinator; won't coach in Atlanta's Chick-fil-A Bowl - Breaking News from The Birmingham News - al.com
  8. ^ a b c d Reneau, Kevin (2001-02-28). Exclusive Al Borges Interview. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  9. ^ Forde, Pat (2004-10-02). Campbell key to Auburn's success. ESPN.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  10. ^ Moore, Matt (2006-08-31). Auburn 101: Mistakes not an option for Cougs. Cougfan.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  11. ^ Coaching The West Coast Quarterback. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  12. ^ Football Offenses & Plays. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  13. ^ Player Bio:Nikki Borges. Auburn Athletic Department. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  14. ^ Woodbery, Evan. "Baby steps", Mobile Press Register, 2007-09-06. Retrieved on 2007-09-06. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Hugh Nall		 Auburn University Offensive Coordinator
2004–2007		 Succeeded by
Tony Franklin