Brian Billick bringing broadened perspective to ASU’s offense

The Arizona State Sun Devils added yet another former NFL head coach to their ranks in Brian Billick on Monday.

Named an offensive analyst and special advisor to ASU head coach Herm Edwards, Billick is looking to add another voice in the conversation as the Sun Devils look to improve on their 8-5 mark this past season.

“My role will to be … to lend whatever experiences I have to give an overall perspective,” Billick told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Tuesday. “It’s all about process. It’s not like I’m going to come in and have new plays and protections.

“Quite frankly in college football, everybody’s doing the same thing anyway so that’s pretty straightforward. It’s about process, it’s about formulating the game plan, how you’re communicating it, how you teach it, how you practice it and how it shows up on game day.”

Despite having last coached in 2007 with the Baltimore Ravens, Billick has stayed around football from a broadcasting aspect, working with both the NFL Network and FOX.

On his weekly assignments, Billick would find himself at different NFL facilities, taking in practices and even sitting in on some of the personnel meetings taking place. When prepping for NFL drafts, the coach would be fully immersed in college football.

“I’ve said it many times, that if I ever went back into coaching, I would be a better coach having had these experiences of what I’ve done the past 10-12 years, having that much broader view and not being tied to a team where you’re so focused on your situation and your circumstance,” Billick said.

“That’s what I hope to bring into it, a broader view of basically highlighting and platforming the talents that ASU has and getting the most out of the players.”

The icing on the cake for Billick’s return to football was coaching at the Hula Bowl this past season along with the likes of Wade Phillips, Mike Tice and former Arizona Wildcats head coach Kevin Sumlin.

It’s where he really got that itch to jump back into the coaching pool.

It also didn’t hurt that Edwards, vice president of university athletics Ray Anderson and special advisor Marvin Lewis — who was the defensive coordinator on Billick’s Super Bowl XXXV staff — were there to nudge the coach off the diving board.

“Kinda got the juices flowing a little bit,” Billick said. “I think with Ray and Marvin and Herm, they were a little strategic in their re-approaching me about it, kinda laying out what they had in mind right in the middle of my experience down there.

“Even though I was around it still via my work for the networks and doing what I was doing, to be immersed in it, to be a part of that team, guys that you admire, trust and like just talking ball,” Billick added. “That’s the best part of it.”

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