New QB Coach Tim Rattay and Family on the Move
STILLWATER -- Believe me, nobody wanted the extra time off with the COVID-19 pandemic, but the changes with the schedule have allowed for coaches to spend more time with family. We have learned this week with our interviews on the radio with all of the Oklahoma State football coaching staff, as well as other coaches in the athletic department, that those coaches are able to spend more time with family. That includes the Cowboys new quarterback coach Tim Rattay. He has been able to help oversee a process that sometimes is left to the wife/mom in a coaching family.
"Well, I'm currently standing and looking at a bunch of boxes and movers," Rattay explained of his current whereabouts. "(I'm) in Virginia, where we've spent the last three days and we'll be heading out tonight to Oklahoma and getting ready to move into there."
Rattay was the quarterback coach for the Washington Redskins last season and without the coronavirus situation he would have been back in Stillwater coaching spring practice on Friday (March 27). Instead with the football offices closed and campus locked down, Rattay is there to help wife, Allison, and daughters Riley, Taylor, and Sloane with the move to Stillwater.
"They're a little nervous, but excited about it," Rattay said of his daughters.
Honestly, Stillwater is one of the best places in America for kids to grow up. It combines so many things that are productive in a young person's background from education and culture to safety and solid values.
Rattay believes it is also a good place to coach quarterbacks, even if you're the third quarterback coach in three seasons.
"That's the challenge when there is a coaching change and I went through it as a player and as a coach," Rattay said of being the new guy, Spencer Sanders is on his third quarterback coach in three seasons. "You have to get in there and build a relationship with those players as soon as possible. You know I spent a lot of time when I first got here meeting with them individually and not really on football, but just trying to get to know them individually. That's the challenge when you are a new coach and player walks in the room and they really aren't sure how you coach."
Rattay believes he has established himself with his players and especially with the returning starter in Spencer Sanders.
"My job is finding out what is the best way to teach each of these guys and how they learn," he said. "I feel like Spencer and I established a good report."
Once again, the offense hasn't changed. Head coach Mike Gundy has always believed with new coaches, especially coordinators, that you keep the offense and the language the same. It hasn't changed much since Mike Gundy and Dana Holgorsen as coordinators and the offensive language is a hybrid of the two and has been consistent. That is ultra easy for new offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn. He's used that language since arriving in 2011. Rattay seems to have learned the language fast and didn't even need Rosetta Stone.
As far as learning the quarterbacks, it helps that he's not staring at a room full of chairs.
"It is a smaller room and you can do some one-on-one stuff with guys during the week and spend some extra time to develop each guy individually," Rattay explained. "It is different having five guys where Coach (Charlie) Dickey may have 18 guys."
The language has been a quick learn. The names? Rattay developed a quick answer to getting those down.
"I told them in the beginning that there are too many first names starting with S, so I had to get nicknames for them," Rattay said of his five quarterbacks and three with the first initial S. "I call Shane (Illingworth) the Rookie and that makes it easier for me. Shaun (Taylor), I just call him S.T. and then Peyton (Thompson), I call him P.T. Then Brendan is B.C."
That leaves out one important member of the room, but my guess is Spencer is Spencer. That's the way Rattay has addressed him so far. He could just call him starter, but that is another word starting with S.
