by Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News , Rocky Mountain News

Those who know him say Josh McDaniels is ready to be coach of the Broncos, even if he looks like a kid who just stepped off a college campus.

"When you talk to him, you're thinking, 'This guy can't be more than 23, 24, 25 years old,' " said Tony DeCarlo, McDaniels' coach at John Carroll University in Cleveland. "He's young looking, but it's not the age that counts. It's the knowledge, the expertise and the fact that this guy is willing to prepare.

"He's going to be successful at whatever he does."

Though DeCarlo never coached with Shula, he heard the stories and said McDaniels comes from the same mold as the Hall of Famer.

"He reminds me of Shula, just the way he takes things on," DeCarlo said.

In addition to all the X's and O's, DeCarlo said there were all those whys.

"Like Shula, he had a million questions," DeCarlo said.

Only two weeks after firing Mike Shanahan, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen certainly is hoping McDaniels, a former Division III quarterback from Canton, Ohio, is the answer.

'Good play-caller'

He certainly made the right moves in New England, where, under his tutelage, Tom Brady threw for a record 50 touchdowns in 2007 and unheralded Matt Cassel guided the Patriots to an 11-5 record this season.

"He's a good play-caller," said Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, who played on the same college team as McDaniels. "He skinned us up pretty good (in 2007). He's going to take advantage of what you do, create big plays. But I'm sure his footprint will be all over that team."

Insiders say McDaniels was hired because he reminded Bowlen of a "young Mike Shanahan." When the season opens in September, McDaniels will be the third-youngest coach to debut in the NFL, at 33 years, 144 days.

Merril Hoge, an ESPN analyst, remembers what it was like when Chuck Noll called it a career and a young unknown named Bill Cowher stepped in.

"At that first meeting, we all sat there and looked at him like, 'Good luck,' " Hoge said of the youthful Cowher.

There was a wait-and-see attitude in which Cowher had to prove himself - and he did when he called a fourth-down fake punt against the Houston Oilers, a momentous swing in a comeback win that launched a new era.

"Right there, we believed in him," Hoge said.

Fletcher said there's one big difference between Cowher and McDaniels.

"He has three Super Bowl rings," Fletcher said of McDaniels. "He knows what it takes."

Joshua, as his mother, Chris, calls McDaniels, grew up watching his father become the winningest coach at Canton McKinley High School.

He was first allowed on the sideline at age 4 and slept with a football as soon as he was old enough to hold one.

He would tag along at two- a-days, scouting trips and sometimes even film sessions - not unlike Belichick with his father, Steve, who was coach at the Naval Academy.

By the time he got to high school, McDaniels' football IQ was off the charts.

"Josh was like having a coach on the field," his father, Thom, said of Josh, who graduated fourth in his high school class and tops in his college class.

Greg Debeljak, who recruited McDaniels and coached him at John Carroll, said the learning only continued in college.

"Most of the time, when kids look at film, they look only at themselves," Debeljak told The New York Times last year. "Josh saw the big picture more than anybody else would we've ever had. Anybody that was around him knew that he was going to be a great coach."

From plastic to turf

But first he had to get out of the plastics business.

Huh?

That's right. For several months, after finishing as a graduate assistant at Michigan State under Saban, McDaniels took a side job until he figured out what to do with his life.

"Apparently, he was very good at what he did," his mom said of him earning $55,000 in 2000. "But the next thing we knew, he was leaving (after being hired to help with scouting in New England). He went from making a lot of money to (almost) no money."

Mom and Dad helped make his car payment, paid his insurance and gave him some spending money.

Now, McDaniels is the one cashing in.

"Thom always told them if you love the game, it will love you back," Chris McDaniels said. "We still love the game like no other."

But even she wonders if the experience Josh had in New England can ever be duplicated.

"We were at four Super Bowls. He has three rings," she said.

Through it all, her middle son always left with a smile on his face and came home with the same.

He was smiling again Monday as he joked about wearing a "hoodie" like Belichick on the Broncos sideline.

"He promised me he wouldn't cut the sleeves off, though," his mom said.

Belichick he is not.

"He's very engaging," said The Boston Globe's Mike Reiss, who has covered the Patriots since 1997. "He's very, very friendly. What I always respected about him is that he was always nice, but when it was time to get down to business, he got down to business. It was the perfect mix, like a John Harbaugh."

True to his roots

There's no question McDaniels' Canton roots are important to him.

"Football is next to nothing," McDaniels said Monday. "The people in Canton love this game. . . . It's where I learned to love the game."

Though he learned a lot from Belichick and Saban, he said he learned one of the most important things from his father.

"The one thing about my father I do take into this job every day is his passion," he said. "There's nothing about this game that's unimportant to him."

His father repeated the quote Monday night and said his son is ready for the task at hand.

The boy who was featured along with his father in Sports Illustrated 15 years ago is not unaccustomed to the spotlight.

"Football is almost like a religion (in Ohio)," Thom McDaniels said.

Much as it is in Denver with the Broncos.

"We always taught (our kids) that pressure is what you feel when you're unprepared. He won't be unprepared," the elder McDaniels said.

As for their new allegiance, it's clearly with the blue and orange - a team that handed Ohioans some of their most painful football memories, what with "The Drive" and "The Fumble" and a guy named John Elway.

"When you're a football coach, you have to be willing to change mascots, be flexible. I'm a big Broncos fans now. I've joined the legion," Thom McDaniels said.

INFOBOX

What they're saying about Josh McDaniels

"He wasn't a big guy, but he had a great mind."

Tony DeCarlo, college coach

"I remember one play, in particular, he was trying to block me in an intrasquad scrimmage. Josh was a little guy, maybe 160, and he's trying to block me, 225, 240. He gave it his all. He's very courageous is all I'll say."

London Fletcher, former college teammate, who ended up dislocating his finger going against McDaniels

"When I first got here, I thought he was something like an assistant trainer or something - like a student trainer."

Donte Stallworth, former Patriots receiver, talking to The Arizona Republic

"He told his age, and I was kind of overwhelmed because we were in the same age bracket. Being with the New England Patriots, I figured he must know something."

Randy Moss, Patriots receiver

"They're not like the Colts, where they just line up in the same formation and do what they do. He always talked about philosophy and being a game-plan offense, looking at opposing teams to see what they do well and don't and attacking that. If it means running 40 times, like when they played the Broncos, they'll run 40 times. And the Patriots are a passing team."

Mike Reiss, Boston Globe beat writer

"He's one of the most knowledgeable men I've ever met in the game of football. He's a great motivator and has a great sense of control over the offense and how he wants to approach it."

Matt Cassel, Patriots quarterback, to The Boston Globe in 2006

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