Norm Chow - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

Chow began his coaching career in Hawaii, where he was born, at Waialua High and Intermediate School. He was the head coach there from 1970 to 1972. In 1973 he left for BYU to be a Graduate Assistant, a position he held for two seasons. He was promoted to receivers coach in 1976, a post he would hold until 1982 (apart from a one-year stint as running backs coach).

In 1982, head coach LaVell Edwards named Chow as principal offensive play-caller. He continued to call all the offensive plays until he left the program after the 1999 season. In 1984 BYU won the consensus national championship. He became quarterbacks coach in 1986, and was officially given the title of offensive coordinator in 1996. During his 27 years with BYU, they had a record of 244–91–3.

Chow spent one season as the offensive coordinator at NC State, where he coached an offense quarterbacked by Philip Rivers, before accepting the position of offensive coordinator at USC. Chow helped lead the Trojans to the 2003 Associated Press National Championship, (their first national title since 1978), and the 2004 BCS National Championship. He left USC in spring 2005, after unsuccessfully interviewing for the Stanford head coaching vacancy, for a job offer to be the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans--his first job on the professional level. Their head coach, Jeff Fisher, graduated from USC.

Chow was the Titans' offensive coordinator from 2005 to 2007. During this time, the Titans had non-losing seasons in 2006 (8-8) and 2007 (10-6), and appeared in the 2007 AFC Playoffs. In 2007, the Titans were 21st overall in total offense, with a total of nine touchdown passes.

On January 15, 2008, after being fired by the Titans following the 2007 season, Chow was hired by new UCLA Bruins head coach Rick Neuheisel as offensive coordinator. When Lane Kiffin took over as head coach of the USC Trojans in early 2010, he attempted to hire Chow away from UCLA, but Chow elected to stay after being assured he would receive a contract extension. However, the Bruin's 2010 season proved to be an offensive disappointment: UCLA finishing ranked 116th out of 120 teams nationally in passing yardage and 118th in passing efficiency, as they tried to install a pistol offense; in his three seasons, the team had a 15-22 record. On January 22, 2011, Chow departed UCLA after negotiating a buyout to the contract extension that would have paid him $1 million over the next two seasons rather than remain at UCLA and be demoted to a lesser coaching position. While Chow made his reputation by developing quarterbacks, Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com said he never really had one to develop at UCLA due to injuries to their quarterbacks. Chow never publicly made excuses.

Chow was immediately hired as the offensive coordinator of the Utah Utes, a team that was getting ready to enter its first season in the Pac-12. "Rick did a nice job with . And is a good football situation," said Chow. "I went to school there, you know? I have two degrees from there. I met my wife there, my kids were born in Salt Lake. Not many people can say they get to go full circle like that."

During his time as an assistant football coach, Chow has helped coach 8 of the top 14 career passing-efficiency leaders and 13 quarterbacks who rank among the top 30 in NCAA history for single-season passing yardage. The list of players he coached includes Jim McMahon, Steve Young, and Philip Rivers, as well as Heisman Trophy winners Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer, and Matt Leinart.