ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos have hired T.C. McCartney, the grandson of former longtime University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney, to be the team’s quarterbacks coach.
Like offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, McCartney is coming to the Broncos from the San Francisco 49ers, where both were on Kyle Shanahan’s staff. McCartney, who is the son of the late Colorado quarterback Sal Aunese, had been with the 49ers for the past two seasons as well as in 2015.
He had spent the 2016 season on LSU’s staff. A former quarterback at LSU as well, including as part of the school’s national championship team in 2007, T.C. McCartney had also spent a season with the Cleveland Browns as well as two years as a graduate assistant at Colorado.
Scangarello said last week he was closing in on a quarterbacks coach and said “we’re excited to get the right guy in here.”
Bill McCartney is Colorado’s all-time winningest coach and his highly successful tenure (1982-94) included the 1990 national championship.
In a statement Tuesday night, Bill McCartney said: “I am thrilled by the news. Ever since TC was young he expressed the desire that someday he wanted to be a coach.”
McCartney also added, “TC started at the ground level and worked his way up. He earned this because of his work ethic and how he has become a total student of the game.”
T.C. McCartney’s arrival essentially fills out Vic Fangio’s offensive staff, as Scangarello, offensive line coach Mike Munchak, tight ends coach Wade Harman and assistant offensive line coach Chris Kuper have been hired over the past two weeks, while running backs coach Curtis Modkins and wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni had been retained from Vance Joseph’s staff.
Scangarello has already praised the staff’s makeup.
“So far, I couldn’t be more excited to work with a group of coaches that’s just — their temperaments, their detail,” Scagarello said. “I can tell it’s going to be a great staff. I think Coach Fangio has a vision for what he sees in coaches. And I think a big part of that is you have to be a great teacher, you have to be detailed.”
Scangarello will be in his first year as a play-caller at the NFL level, and the Broncos figure to add at the quarterback position. Case Keenum is set to be in the last year of his contract and the Broncos do not have a quarterback on the roster the team selected in the draft.
The Broncos have used four different starting quarterbacks over the past two seasons and have finished 24th and tied for 26th, respectively, in scoring in those two seasons. And the passing game has been particularly troublesome, even as they have successfully run the ball.
The Broncos tied for 24th in passing touchdowns this past season and tied for 25th in passing touchdowns in 2017, all while also finishing in the top 10 in interceptions in both of those seasons — tied for ninth most in 2018, second most in 2017.