Background, quarterback history with Dowell Loggains

South Carolina’s offensive coordinator search is potentially winding down. Reports surfaced Wednesday night, confirmed by GamecockCentral’s Chris Clark, that Arkansas tight ends coach Dowell Loggains has some buzz associated with the vacancy at South Carolina. 

It led to plenty of consternation from the fan base, but what could the Gamecocks be getting if Loggains is the hire? A look at his background here.

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Background

Loggains played his college ball at Arkansas where he started as a walk-on quarterback. After his time in Fayetteville he nearly immediately began his scouting and coaching career almost exclusively in the NFL. He began as a quality control coach for the Titans and worked his way up to quarterbacks coach and ultimately Tennessee’s offensive coordinator for two seasons. 

He was the Browns quarterbacks coach in 2014, when Cleveland had Johnny Manziel, Brian Hoyer, Tyler Thigpen and former Gamecocks quarterback Connor Shaw on the roster. The Browns went 7-9 that season. 

Loggains was the Bears’ quarterbacks coach for a season then called plays for another two after Adam Gase left to take the Miami Dolphins job. The Bears struggled offensively those two seasons. 

He then bounced down the Miami to be with Gase again and then moved with Gase again to the Jets. Loggains was dubbed the offensive coordinator both places. Gase, though, was the primary play caller.

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Once his stint was up with the Jets he transitioned to the college game. He was briefly with Penn State as an analyst before making his way back to his alma mater to be the tight ends coach on Sam Pittman’s staff. He’s been there the previous two seasons. 

Outside of his stint with the Razorbacks, Loggains has spent his entire coaching career working with quarterbacks.

GamecockCentral mentioned Loggains on one of the first offensive coordinator hot boards. Other college football programs have reportedly been interested in luring him away from Arkansas.

He was reportedly in the thick to be Kentucky’s offensive coordinator last season after Liam Coen left. National reports linked his name early to the Arizona State head job. 

Quarterbacks he’s worked with

There is an argument to be made that the quarterbacks attached to Loggains haven’t necessarily set the offense up for success but there hasn’t been a lot of elite quarterback play dating back to 2010. 

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No quarterback room Loggains has worked with dating back to 2010 has averaged more than 7.6 yards per attempt (2015 in Chicago). Six times the room has averaged fewer than seven yards per attempt.

Loggains did have rooms where the team had to cycle through quarterbacks, especially late in his time in the NFL. Every year but one Loggains was in the NFL the quarterback room had at least two quarterbacks take significant snaps. Four times three took major snaps.

He worked with Kerry Collins, Matt Hasselback, Jake Locker and Ryan Fitzpatrick in Tennessee.

The Cleveland room has been accounted for in 2014. In Chicago he helped Jay Cutler to a good year in 2015. He couldn’t recapture that with Matt Barkley and Mitch Trubisky the next two.  

In Miami he worked with Ryan Tannehill for one season. He was with the Jets for the Sam Darnold experiment in 2019 and 2020.

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The best seasons came in 2015 with Culter and 2018 with Tannehill. Culter had a career year in 2015, throwing for almost 3,700 yards (7.6 yards per attempt), 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. 

Tannehill only started 11 games in 2018 but averaged 7.2 yards per attempt with 17 scores to nine picks. 

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