FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – Jeff Ulbrich's passion for coaching began with a play by the man who replaced him on the football field.
Ulbrich was a veteran linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers playing mostly on special teams because he was backing up a young, emerging Patrick Willis, the team's first-round pick in 2007.
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“The supporter of Patrick Willis was what I was,” said a smiling Ulbrich, who’ll make his debut as the New York Jets’ interim head coach Monday night against Buffalo. “Probably the assistant coach to Patrick Willis.”
The two spent many hours together watching tape and working on the field before and after practice. During a game against Arizona — “I still remember, it was just like yesterday” — Ulbrich was on the sideline when Willis made a big play.
“And he snaps his eyes to me,” Ulbrich recalled. "I look at him and it was something that we had worked and focused on that particular week. That felt better than any play I’ve ever made for myself.
“It was like, ‘I’m hooked.'”
Ulbrich's playing career ended after the 2009 season, when a concussion limited him to just four games. But he wasn't done with football.
He immediately got into coaching — something he never dreamed of while tackling anyone who tried getting past him.
“I remember early in my career saying, ‘Why would I want do that?’” he said, smiling. “You'd look at coaches' faces by the end of the week and you'd be like, ‘Has he slept?’ I was like, that's craziness."
But that moment with Willis, who developed into a five-time All-Pro, made it all make sense.
Ulbrich had stints as an assistant with Pete Carroll’s Seattle Seahawks and Jim L. Mora’s UCLA squad. When Dan Quinn was hired by the Atlanta Falcons in 2015, he tabbed Ulbrich as the linebackers coach.
The Falcons made a coaching change in the middle of the 2020 season, just as the Jets did by firing Robert Saleh on Tuesday after a 2-3 start. Quinn was out and Raheem Morris was promoted from defensive coordinator to interim coach.
Ulbrich, promoted to defensive coordinator in the shakeup, spoke to the team in meetings and his players detected something special in him.
“Just being a player-turned-coach, he was super relatable,” said Jets cornerback Isaiah Oliver, who was on that Falcons team. “You could just tell, OK, he could do this, it's in his future somewhere. He can definitely take control of an entire team. You kind of just sensed it.
"And it’s already shown in just a couple of days already here.”
It's not the way Ulbrich wanted to get his first shot at running a team, especially since he and Saleh are extremely close. But it's Ulbrich's chance to try to turn around the fortunes of a franchise that still has Super Bowl aspirations despite a 2-3 record and on a two-game skid.
“A lot of respect for him as a player years ago,” said Bills coach Sean McDermott, who was an Eagles assistant during Ulbrich's playing career. “And then also a lot of respect for him as a coach and what he’s done with that defense.”
After what he called a “whirlwind” first several hours after receiving the news, the 47-year-old Ulbrich reached out to fellow coaches such as Morris, Quinn and Matt LaFleur. They're friends who “have a deep understanding of what this position looks like, feels like,” Ulbrich said, “and what’s necessary to be successful in it.”
The buzzword this week has been “accountability” — from the coaches and players, with Ulbrich leading the way. He demoted offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett as the play caller in favor of Todd Downing, a move Aaron Rodgers publicly supported.
“It was Brick’s decision,” the quarterback said, “and I told him I’d back him up whatever he decided.”
Ulbrich, who was still playing for the 49ers when they fired Mike Nolan and replaced him with Mike Singletary during the 2008 season, said he has seen the pros and cons of in-season coaching changes.
“It’s why I’m just so grateful for this locker room, the character in this locker room, because they could’ve very easily gone sideways, and it might’ve not been as positive," Ulbrich said. "But they’ve been absolutely fantastic.”
That's no surprise to Bills backup quarterback Mike White, who spent two seasons with the Jets and worked with Ulbrich often when he was running New York's scout team in practice.
“Not to downplay what Saleh did when he was there, but Saleh did let Brick kind of have free reign of the defense — the game planning, running the show, play calling all that,” White said. "So this isn’t anything new to him. And I mean, he’s been in the league for a while, whether it was a player, coach.
“I have no doubt that he’ll be able to step into that role and it’ll go smooth. He gets those guys going, he gets them ready to play.”
And the first test comes in front of a prime-time TV audience — and with a chance to move into a tie for first place with the Bills in the AFC East.
"Coach Saleh was a great coach, a great leader of men and someone that was also really, really liked in the locker room," Oliver said. “But at the same time, Coach Brick kind of brings a different energy, a new energy, and it's something that we can rally behind."
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AP Sports Writer John Wawrow in Orchard Park, New York, contributed.
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