Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Chiaverini's Goals As Majestic As View From New Office
January 14, 2016 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – It was mid-afternoon Monday and after nearly one full day on the job, Darrin Chiaverini's office looked like he'd been in it for months. OK, maybe a week.
Family pictures on a windowsill, clutter on his desk, a yet-to-be hung sign on the floor reading “Team First, Me Second,” and a coffee maker tucked into a nook in the back corner of his workspace.
All the basics.
The office itself is prime real estate – a corner spot on the fourth floor of Colorado's eye-popping Champions Center that overlooks Folsom Field with the snow-spackled Flatirons as a backdrop.
Shadows in the stadium are beginning to lengthen as Chiaverini settles into his chair, offers a sweeping wave and says, “How great is this?”
Pretty great, teetering toward grandiose. Not many assistant football coaches' offices offer a view that can come close to Chiaverini's. And nothing against his last job, but he concedes the scenery outside his old office in Lubbock, Texas wasn't nearly as easy on the eyes.
But “Chev” didn't come home to enjoy the view. He's already warned his wife, Shannon, “You're going to have to come up here to see me because there's a lot of work to do.”
CU is expecting a ton of work out of Chiaverini. For proof, you only need a glimpse at his job description. He was hired in mid-December as recruiting coordinator, co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach.
That sounds like (and probably is) a world-class workload, but if the Buffs wanted more bang for their buck(s), they got the right guy. Chiaverini is a CU alum and former receiver (1995-98) who was among Rick Neuheisel's first recruits.
Chiaverini vividly remembers Neuheisel's in-home visit. Neuheisel entered the family's home in Corona, Calif., with his guitar slung over his shoulder. Almost as soon as greetings were exchanged, Neuheisel and Chiaverini's dad disappeared into the den, which was soon filled with the chords of “Margaritaville.”
EDDIE CHIAVERINI – aka EDDIE DAY – IS A professional singer, and you think Neuheisel would by-pass an opportunity for a duet on a recruiting trip? Remembered Darrin: “I thought that was the coolest thing ever.”
Chiaverini signed with Neuheisel/CU, enjoyed a productive career, played four seasons in the NFL, one in the Arena League, and then began a coaching odyssey that has brought him back to Boulder. Saying he's ecstatic to be back is like saying Donald Trump comes up a little short in humility.
“It's something that means a lot to me,” Chiaverini said. “This isn't a job to me – it's personal, you know? When it becomes personal you pour everything you've got into it. When this opportunity came about, it didn't matter what they were going to pay me. I wanted to come back and help. This is personal . . . it's something I wouldn't have turned down.”
Chiaverini witnessed CU's continued ascension in football as a participant; the Buffs won three bowl games – Cotton, Holiday, Aloha – while he was a player and were 10-2, 10-2, 5-6, and 8-4 (33-14) during his college career.
From afar, he witnessed the program's decline and more than once asked himself how could it and why did it happen? The simplest answer: Recruiting – and he intends to restructure the Buffs' approach.
“Recruiting needs to be taken to a different level – who we're on, who we're going after and who we're getting,” Chiaverini said. “At the end of the day it's who are you getting? You can say you're recruiting so-and-so and so-and-so, but who's actually putting their names on that NLI? That's a big difference.”
California and Texas have long been must-stop destinations for CU recruiters, and Chiaverini wants to see more emphasis put on those fertile states. With the Champions Center up and running, he believes the Buffs' selling points have soared.
“If you're a recruit in California or Texas and come see this place, how can you say no?” he asked. “We have to recruit the same people that USC, Stanford, UCLA are recruiting, that Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU are recruiting. We can't be afraid to go into people's homes and show them the vision of Colorado football, the history of Colorado football and get them on campus. Once you get them here . . . I've worked at a lot of places and there's nothing like this.”
Chiaverini said he got goose bumps watching the ESPN 30 for 30 production of The Gospel According To Mac and seeing former coach Bill McCartney and his interaction with the players in the late 1980s and early 1990s that made the Buffs a college heavyweight.
“Those were the players I grew up watching in California,” Chiaverini said. “Those are the teams I saw . . . those were some great, great teams but it all starts with great, great players. Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program; you've got to get them here. And we will, we'll get them here. I truly believe that once we show it to them this place sells itself. You don't have to talk them into it, they're going to want to come. They'll be banging down the door to come to the University of Colorado, I truly believe that.”
CHIAVERINI'S JOB DESCRIPTION APPEARS to delegate recruiting as one third of his duties – but don't suggest that to him. “You're always recruiting; it doesn't matter if it's off-season, in-season, bowl-game prep,” he said. “I'll be recruiting 100 percent of the time. That's the most important thing . . . recruit, develop relationships, cultivate relationships, and when it comes down to crunch time those kids are going to go where they feel most comfortable and with the coach they feel the most comfortable.”
If his contributions as recruiting coordinator might take a class or two to materialize, he believes his on-field responsibilities as co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach can pay immediate dividends. He'll share the offensive work with Brian Lindgren, having input in the Buffs' game-planning, the offensive personnel used and how they line up.
After their first meeting, he left believing he and Lindgren “are going to work really well together.” Chiaverini said Lindgren's offense “has been running stuff I like and he likes some of the things we did at Texas Tech – like playing with the tight end. I think you can incorporate some of that open-set spread stuff that we did at Tech with a tight end in the offense.”
He called Lindgren “an energy guy, which is very important to me. I wanted to see how we'd get along. Things can get stressful and you have to be able to work together, talk. If you can't it ain't good. But (Lindgren) is very smart, he's got a good aura about himself.”
As for the players returning at his position, Chiaverini wants across-the-board off-season improvement, particularly in strength and speed, among what he calls “proven guys who have played some football . . . I'm a great believer in games being won and lost in the off-season. The X's and O's will be put together and we'll be good at it, but if we don't develop bodies and mindsets in the off-season it's going to be a struggle. We have to have a great off-season for these young receivers, have them develop their bodies and their speed.”
CU has a new strength and conditioning coach – Drew Wilson – who will be instrumental in that. Chiaverini's first impression of the new S/C guy: “He brings some juice to the workouts, fresh energy with a different approach. I like the way he works.”
Wilson's role, said Chiaverini, can't be overestimated: “In my opinion, your strength coach has to be your best coach. He spends more time with (players) than anyone else. He has to be someone they respect, someone they lean on, but also someone that can discipline them and get them back in line. I believe that's crucial in any program.”
Chiaverini checked out of Lubbock after coaching in the Red Raiders' Texas Bowl loss to LSU. He packed his office belongings in a couple of boxes, drove from northwest Texas to California, spent several days there, then turned his vehicle toward Colorado, arriving last Sunday.
“What's crazy is I hadn't been back to Boulder in a while,” he said. “I came up this summer for a Buffs4Life event with my family (wife Shannon, son Curtis, daughter Kaylie). You forget how beautiful this place is, how great this place is.
“I told my wife, 'We've got to get back here. We've got to come back to help and get this thing right.' She looked at me and said, 'Yeah, we do.' . . . . Like coach McCartney said on his '30 for 30,' once you see Boulder you know it's home. I agree with him.”
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
