Could Pat Shurmur leave the Broncos for Michigan State?
Feb 10, 2020, 5:07 PM | Updated: 5:18 pm
On Saturday, football fans in Colorado thought they had swatted away the pesky gnat that had flown into the state from East Lansing. When Buffaloes head coach Mel Tucker announced that he wasn’t interested in the head coach opening at Michigan State, most people thought that would be the end of the Spartans causing problems with the local teams.
Not so fast.
Today, the Detroit News published a list of six more candidates for the job, now that both Tucker and Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell had withdrawn from consideration. The list had a lot of interesting names on it, including former CSU head coach Jim McElwain and nearly CU coach Butch Jones, one candidate in particular stood out.
Second on the list was Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. That’s right, the guy who just got the job last month and was finally introduced to the Denver media last week. He’s on the short list of coaches who would be a good fit at Michigan State.
How serious of a candidate is Shurmur? Well, here’s what Matt Charboneau said about the Broncos OC:
A member of Michigan State’s 1987 Rose Bowl team, Shurmur has talked in the past about his desire to coach the Spartans. He was an assistant from 1990-97 before leaving for Stanford. The Dearborn native has been a head coach in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants, who fired him after the end of last season. He took the Broncos job in mid-January, which could make jumping to MSU tough.
That’s a lot of ties to the program. In fact, it’s a really deep connection.
As a result, a response from the Broncos and Shurmur came quickly, via Mike Klis of 9News.
Talked to Michigan State source as well as Broncos personnel source today: Shurmur is on Spartan’s radar but it appears he’s all in on Broncoland. Ink still fresh on his Broncos contract as OC. #9sports https://t.co/OORSxVZBWB
— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) February 10, 2020
So really, the only thing preventing Shurmur from departing is the fact that he just arrived in Denver. But that doesn’t seem like a very solid reason that he’ll stay. The offensive coordinator hasn’t put down any roots yet. Heck, he’s barely been dropped into the potting soil.
On the other hand, he could become the head coach – which in college means also being the general manager – of his alma mater and earn $5 million per year. That would make it pretty easy to bail on a situation where there are no long-standing relationships; there’s nothing in Denver that would be difficult to walk away from at this point.
Clearly, Shurmur still wants to be a head coach. But after striking out twice in the NFL, with the Browns and Giants, that opportunity might not come again at the professional level.
So that means the college ranks would be the next best option. Is a better fit going to arise than his alma mater?
That seems unlikely, which means the chances of Shurmur departing are real. Yes, it would be a bad look to leave a job less than a month after taking it, especially considering the fact that the Broncos broomed Rich Scangarello out the door in order to hire Shurmur, but no one would fault him for jumping at the opportunity. It’s a no-brainer decision.
Could the Broncos be looking for their second offensive coordinator in a month? It’s certainly a very real possibility, as Michigan State isn’t done causing trouble in Colorado just yet.
