Former Pitt QB Rod Rutherford, who has been bouncing around minor arena football league programs is now looking into coaching. He did a part-time assistant thing with Pitt last year. This year it’s at D-III St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, PA — coaching the secondary.
“I’m brushing up on the coverages,” Rutherford said with a laugh. “Football is football, no matter what the level and no matter what position you play. I feel that I have a good sense of what (defensive backs) are thinking, having played quarterback and seeing their reactions so often. I just need to understand it through their eyes.”
Rutherford’s career path carried him through short stints with the Carolina Panthers and Steelers, plus NFL Europe and the American Indoor Football Association.
Now, after a year as a part-time assistant on Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt’s staff, Rutherford is taking serious the idea of coaching football.
“I tried a number of things. I tried office jobs. That’s not for me,” he said. “I’m a football guy.”
I hope he does well. I also hope he banked a lot of the minimum salary he earned in the NFL. It’s going to be some time before he reaches that level of salary. On the plus side, he is doing something he likes and wants to do.
Clint Session, now of the Indianapolis Colts, has attracted a lot of attention in exhibition NFL season. He was moved to strong-side linebacker and is the starter there until October.
Session is a 6-0, 235-pound bundle of energy who has a knack for making things happen. The key, coaches say, is to harness the aggression, stay within the defensive scheme, generate positive plays and limit the mistakes.
Dungy was impressed that Session was able to shake off the early mistake and make better use of his aggressive nature.
“He comes back and he’ll run through and make a tackle in the backfield, chase some things down and (produce) blow-up hits,” Dungy said. “We’ve got to channel that in the right way.
“He had plays that you would notice in a game. There were highlight-film plays for one team or the other, so we are just working to make sure there are more highlight plays for us.”
It was pointed out earlier this week, but, yeah, that’s real familiar.
