Doug Pederson is known best in his current role as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. He held various assistant coaching positions before that, and had an NFL career at quarterback that wasn’t exactly notable.
Doug Pederson was once a standout QB at Northeast Louisiana
Monroe, Louisiana, will have its eyes on the Eagles head coach in the Super Bowl.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
But in northeast Louisiana, he’s a legend. Pederson moved from Washington state to Monroe in 1987 to play his college football at Northeast Louisiana University — known today as the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
At ULM, Pederson set passing records that still stand today. A kid from Washington loved football so much, he was willing to move across the country to keep playing it.
It’s also helped shape him into the coach he is today, but he hasn’t forgotten where he came from.
Northeast Louisiana knew it wanted Pederson immediately.
Pederson’s dad, Gordon, was being transferred to Monroe from Washington to work for Columbian Chemicals. He mentioned to Pat Collins, Northeast Louisiana’s head coach at the time, that his son was a football player.
“Well I brought some film,” Collins recalls Gordon Pederson saying. “I’d like for you to take a look at him and see what you think.”
Collins then called the coaches in and had them take the tape to go look at it.
“Well they were gone about five minutes,” Collins told SB Nation. “They walked back in and said, ‘You got to come see this.’” When Collins saw it for himself, he was amazed. “I’m thinking, ‘God almighty! This is the guy?!’”
After asking where else Pederson’s dad planned to take the film and hearing Louisiana Tech, Collins immediately offered a scholarship. “All of a sudden from Ferndale, Washington, we get a quarterback,” Collins said.
“And what a great one he turned out to be.”
He made his mark in a way that’s still felt today.
Pederson was not the quarterback of Northeast Louisiana’s national championship team, but still got burn elsewhere.
“I dressed for the championship game, not as a second or third quarterback, but for the hands team,” he said in 2015, via the Chiefs. “That was my role, but it’s obviously a game that was one of the most memorable of my college career — being a part of a national championship team.”
When Pederson finally got the reins, he made every game count. Collins said Pederson’s leadership was his best quality as a quarterback. He wasn’t afraid of defensive tackles or anything else.
Northeast Louisiana won 29 games in his four years, including that 1987 I-AA national championship and the 1990 Southland Conference title. His most memorable game came in 1989, when he finished 46-of-71 passing for 619 yards and five touchdowns at Stephen F. Austin. His passing yardage that day still stands as a single-game school record.
“We threw the ball a lot that day,” Pederson recalled to the Chiefs. “It felt like 7 on 7, but the sad thing is their quarterback threw the ball all over the place too. There were like 1,200 yards passing combined.
“At the time, for two teams, it was the most passing yards in a game. There was no pass rush. It was crazy.”
Over the course of his career, Pederson threw for 6,602 yards and 33 touchdowns, which still ranks fifth and sixth, respectively, in school history.
His NFL career wasn’t as prolific. He had just 17 starts in his 12-year career, going 3-14 in those games. He was best known as Brett Favre’s backup quarterback in Green Bay.
He still shows up to games, despite a busy life as an NFL coach.
After Pederson retired from the NFL, he started coaching in the high school ranks. In 2009, he headed back to the NFL, going from Eagles’ offensive quality control coach to quarterbacks coach, and then to Kansas City as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator. Now, in his second year as Eagles head coach, he’s going to be coaching on the grandest of stages in the Super Bowl.
But Monroe will always be home for him, and he’s maintained that throughout his career.
“We always came back here in the offseason and still have a home here,” Pederson told ULMWarhawks.com.
The people around him would tell you the same thing. His friend Greg Andrews told ULMWarhawks.com, “I’d say this about Doug. No matter where he’s been as a player or coach, he always has time for family and friends here. He’s never more than a text or phone call away.”
“Doug has always been a great ambassador for ULM financially but also represents the Warhawk Nation up north,” Andrews added. “He’s held countless press conferences in Philadelphia wearing the ULM logo on a hat or jacket. That speaks volumes about the kind of guy he is. He’s one of Monroe’s most precious gems.”
It’s even easier for Pederson to make sure he’s around Monroe enough nowadays — his son is a tight end for ULM.
“It’s full circle for us,” Pederson said via ULM. “For me, it’s been a great place and it’s great to see my son back on the same field that I played on.”
Pederson didn’t quarterback the Warhawks’ 1987 team, but he’s got a chance to win a Super Bowl as an NFL head coach. There’s no doubt Monroe will be cheering hard for its adopted son against the Patriots on Super Bowl Sunday.
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