After a disastrous stint in the corporate world, BYU’s Ty Detmer is finally back where he belongs: calling the shots on a football field.
In fact, last Friday was his first game as head football coach of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin, TX. Let’s just say it was forgettable. The Crusaders lost 69-14. But this position isn’t exactly “Friday Night Lights.” The high school has just 350 kids and last season the team went 0-10. In those ten games, St. Andrew’s was shut out three times and only scored in double digits twice.
On the bright side, Detmer knows where to go for advice. His father, Sonny, who groomed Detmer to play quarterback in high school, is now the head man at Somerset High School outside San Antonio. Ty’s brother, Koy, is also an assistant there.
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Ty’s new gig can’t go any worse than his last job working at Austin’s infamous investment firm, Triton Financial. That’s where Detmer got his first real job after his lengthy NFL career – unfortunately best remembered for throwing seven interceptions in a single game –came to a close after the 2005 season.
Now defunct, Triton first made headlines with its roster of former NFL players, such as fellow Heisman winner Chris Weinke. But it was back in the news late last year for all the wrong reasons when it was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for defrauding investors out of tens of millions of dollars in an insurance scam. Detmer’s lawyer said at the time that his client knew nothing of the scam and would assist the SEC in whatever way possible.
While many people are obviously skeptical, Detmer says he was on the marketing side of the company and points to the fact he personally lost a lot of money, as he was also an investor in the company. One thing’s for sure: Don’t expect to see the Heisman winner back in a 9-to-5 job anytime soon.
“I’ve always been in control of my future by how I train, what I do, those kinds of things,” Detmer said. “And after that whole experience, you realize you’re at the mercy of someone else to do the right things. And that’s part of (why I went) into coaching; I know I can control what I do… And I want to be in control of anything that’s going to reflect back on me. The corporate world’s not for me.”
And though Detmer has moved on, the ordeal is not over.
“It’s just been a nightmare,” Detmer said. “People question your integrity and (I’m) involved in a couple different lawsuits and all those types of things that are just part of it when you’re in something like that. You’ve got to kind of take your lumps and hope the people that know you know that’s not the kind of person you are.”
For Detmer, it must feel like several lifetimes ago that he won the 1990 Heisman Trophy – the last non-BCS conference player to do so. Leading BYU to victory over No. 1 Miami early in the season and throwing over 5,000 yards and 41 touchdowns in 1990, Detmer beat out Notre Dame’s Raghib “Rocket” Ismail for the honor. Detmer learned of the decision via live satellite just hours before a game at Hawaii. Afterwards, his teammates immediately mobbed him and threw him in the pool – a vastly different experience than the stuffy atmosphere in New York.
Unfortunately, it proved to also be a huge distraction for the Cougars. A couple hours after winning the award, Detmer and BYU were blown out by 31 points.
Said Detmer point-blank: “We got our butts kicked that night.”
Two decades later, it looks like another player outside the six major conferences could finally win Heisman, with quarterbacks Case Keenum (Houston), Kellen Moore (Boise State) and Ricky Dobbs (Navy) all in the mix. Detmer thinks Keenum, a fellow Texas native that will be starring this season just three hours away from Austin, has the best chance among non-BCS conference players after the publicity he received last year and Keenum’s potential to put up eye-popping numbers in 2010 – just like Detmer did two decades ago.
Come this December, the two just might also have a bronze statue in common.
