Norm Chow’s reputation as one of the great passing game play callers is legendary, but it had nothing to do with analytics.
Chow used great instincts to work through a game plan both in college and the NFL – until Dowell Loggains became his right hand man with the Tennessee Titans in 2006. Chow was offensive coordinator with Loggains serving as a quality control analyst.
“That was when I learned about analytics,” Chow said. “I’m not sure we were calling it that when Dowell joined us with the Titans. But what he did for me was just fabulous. He had answers before I had questions. He was incredibly valuable.
“What he gave me when we made our plans and then what we did in the press box was always two steps ahead of anything that happened and that was Dowell. He anticipated because of the information that he’d gathered.”
Chow said Loggains would be just as valuable on Sam Pittman’s staff at Arkansas as tight ends coach.
Chow knows a thing or two about college football. He is best known for his years as a college coordinator and he won the 2002 Broyles Award as part of Pete Carroll’s staff at Southern Cal. The list of college quarterbacks tutored by him include Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Ty Detmer, Philip Rivers, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.
“I think Dowell will do a great job for Sam and Kendal Briles,” Chow said. “I don’t know a lot about the no huddle. It took me longer to figure things out. I will say that when we were together with the Titans, we’d split the calls in the press box. I’d make one and he’d make one.”
Told what Chow said, Loggains said it was the kind of data that he learned from working in the Dallas Cowboys’ scouting department for Bill Parcells in 2005. Parcells was ahead of the trend in analytics.
“I just brought to Tennessee the stuff that Dallas was using the design game plans with advanced analytic trends,” Loggains said. “It was self scouting and knowing your tendencies and knowing the tendencies of the opponent.
“Coach Chow was such an instinctive play caller, but some of the stuff we could provide could help him some. The idea was just to provide him with as much data as we could with our scouting.”
Chow is a believer in that kind of help in scouting now, but there are times that analytics frustrate him while watching his favorite baseball team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I guess that’s what it’s all about now, analytics,” Chow said. “The Dodgers don’t bunt, they don’t push the runners and it drives me nuts.”
Chow got to love the way Log-gains presented the analytics.
“One thing I’ll say is that Dowell as a young coach was really good in knowing the dynamics of a staff,” Chow said. “He always had the answers, but he presented them in the right way. You’ve got to know when to shut up when you are the young guy in the staff room.
“He is so smart. But you have to be careful not to say too much. I’d say the best thing about Dowell is that he’s a great guy.”
Chow knows just as importantly, Loggains is an Arkansas guy returning to his roots. He was a walk-on quarterback with the Hogs from 2001-04 and played mainly as a holder on extra points and field goals.
“I think that is a dream come true for Dowell, to be back with the Razorbacks,” Chow said. “He’s been a devoted (fan) all of these years. I knew that when we were together with the Titans.”
The 40-year-old Loggains, born in Newport, is a product of west Texas football. But he has always kept up with the Hogs during his 17 years in the NFL.
“It’s surreal that I’m back,” he said. “All through my time in the NFL, I’d use pro day as a reason to come back so I could see campus — even if Arkansas didn’t have anyone we wanted at that time.
“It would give me a chance to see friends like Zak Clark and so many others. To be back and have this job is really emotional. It may take me a few weeks to sort through all of this.”
Pittman didn’t have a difficult sell.
“I knew we were going to love each other because I knew what kind of person I’d be working for – from talking to so many of his former players that I’d coached in the NFL,” he said. “Guys like Travis Swanson would talk about Sam.
“I’d coached guys from Georgia and Arkansas. I met Sam at Georgia’s pro day. What you knew was that he was going to give you straight up answers on his guys and they were always accurate. Most of the time he’d point to one of his linemen and say, ‘That guy is going to be the first guy taken,’ and he was always right.”
As far as his Razorback roots, Loggains said, “It’s been my school since I was a 5-year old. And what I have told people all through the years of being gone, once you are a Razorback, you are always a Razorback. Even when I was gone, I kept up. If I couldn’t watch a game live, I saved it on my DVR for later. My closest group of friends is from my days here. Those relationships are more important than any others.”
The job interview was over the phone. It wasn’t like Loggains had to visit.
“When it finally came down to the decision, Sam just sent me a text that said, ‘All you have to do to become a Razorback again is to reply, ‘YES,’ and I did.
“The thing about Sam, the more I talked to him, the more passion for Arkansas I felt from him. I just knew that it was the perfect time for me to come back.
“Maybe some other times it wasn’t the perfect timing. It is now because I have heard Sam talk about his vision for this place. It matches mine.
“He’s such a good fit. Of course, he had me from the start. When he sent that text that said just say yes, I was in tears.”
The tears came back when he returned to the Broyles Center to sign his contract.
“I flew in the night before and because of some flight trouble in Chicago, it was after midnight,” he said. “I got to my hotel and then couldn’t sleep. So I got in the car and drove around campus and town until 4 a.m. I just wanted to take it all in that I was home.
“I came in the next morning and after signing the contract, I went downstairs to see the new locker room. Fantastic. The old team room is gone and when you walk out the tunnel, it’s like you are in a pro stadium.
“There’s one thing that is missing from all of those great stadiums around the country. You walk out to the middle of the field and turn (to the west) and on the press box it says, ‘Home of the Razorbacks.’ I got chills and was in tears again.”