Behind-the-Scenes Work Helped Love at Utah State, Packers

David Yost, Jordan Love’s former offensive coordinator at Utah State, sees parallels between Love’s growth at Utah State and with the Packers.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Mar 3, 2023 8:21 PM EST

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – If Jordan Love does replace Aaron Rodgers as the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback in 2023, he’ll be ready.

As ready as possible, anyway.

“Play is the best thing, no question, to get better. We all know that,” David Yost, Love’s former offensive coordinator at Utah State and now the offensive coordinator at Florida International, told Packer Central last week. “But I believe from what I’ve seen from Jordan that he’s probably taken full advantage of his time.”

Yost knows from experience.

He was hired at Utah State at the end of the 2016 season. That was Love’s redshirt season, when he was the last of five quarterbacks on the depth chart.

When Yost sat down with the quarterbacks he had inherited, Love was quick to impress.

“He knew the offense that they’d been running inside-out,” Yost said. “Him and the kid who was the starter [Kent Myers] knew it the best. The other guys that were in the room and had been there longer than Jordan didn’t know it as well.

“It was interesting that he was able to pick it up sitting there, and then as soon as we went out in February and March, you could tell he was in the top two and probably going to be No. 1 at some point. It was that just the other guy [Myers] had a lot of experience and was going to be a senior.”

Sure enough, Love’s knowledge of the offense – absorbed during a season in which he absolutely knew he wasn’t going to play – allowed him to push Myers for the starting job and eventually take over about one-third of the way through the season.

That’s the parallel going into what might be a season of seismic change in Green Bay. Love has done the work behind the scenes to give the Packers confidence that he could replace the legendary Rodgers – perhaps this season.

Yost, whose two-year run at Utah State included Love’s rise in 2017 and breakout season in 2018, is a bit busy on Sundays but he did watch Love’s start in 2021 at the Kansas City Chiefs and then his fourth-quarter relief appearance at the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022.

Yost was impressed with the improvement. It’s that improvement that might have convinced general manager Brian Gutekunst that now’s the time to make a move that seemed unthinkable 12 months ago when the Packers gave Rodgers a massive new contract.

“A year ago when he got to play in the Chiefs game, he did not have a great day,” Yost said. “And the Chiefs are a good team and all that, and I think they were trying protect him a little bit, but then when you got to see him play a little bit this year, he looked like a different guy.

“That’s a credit to him for being able to continue to improve even though he wasn’t playing all the time. I know he gets a lot of reps in practice, especially with Rodgers not being there all the time for the offseason, but he’d be the guy who would take full advantage of that and put himself in the best position to be successful. Not every guy does that.”

Love would bring a different leadership style than Rodgers. He’ll lead – in his own way.

“He doesn’t talk a whole bunch,” Yost recalled. “It’s like the old commercial – ‘When E.F. Hutton talks, everybody listens’ from way back when. I don’t even know what E.F. Hutton was; I was just a kid back then.”

During his two seasons at Utah State, Yost spent gamedays in the press box. The practice field is where Yost got an up-close look at Love’s style.

“Most of the time, it’s just him saying what he needs to say,” Yost said. “But, every now and then, he’d take a play and he would talk about it, all the other guys listened. The other guys had all played quite a bit and were older and he was kind of the young guy, but when he talked, the guys all knew important it was to him and, if he was saying something, it mattered.”

At Utah State, Yost said Love mostly hung out with the receivers and running backs. That’s been the case in Green Bay, too, which would help with the critical transition between 16-year starter and first-year starter.

“I imagine he’s got a really good rapport with all those guys – and I know there were a bunch of young receivers there,” Yost said. “I bet he’s done a lot with them and tried to help bring them along. ‘This is how we do it. This is how NFL receivers do it.’ I think he’d be a resource to those guys.

“When it becomes his opportunity to be the guy, I think he’ll jump into it. It won’t be a rah-rah guy; it will be more business as usual. ‘You all know I’m going to get my job done.’ I think he puts off that persona.”