BOULDER — When Colorado’s defensive backs get advice from their new secondary coach, imagine how their ears perk up when he says, “When I covered Jerry Rice . . .” or “This reminds me of when I batted down one of Brett Favre’s passes.”
The promotion of former all-pro cornerback Ashley Ambrose to secondary coach this year has given added optimism to the most optimistic unit on the team. The Buffaloes boast two probable NFL draft picks in senior cornerbacks Jimmy Smith and Jalil Brown plus another returning starter in junior safety Anthony Perkins.
Hoping to take them to the next level, not to mention Colorado to its first winning season in Dan Hawkins’ five years, is the best defensive back in the AFC in 1996. When he talks, players listen.
“You know you’re learning from one of the best,” Perkins said. “He played in the league for 13 years and you just have confidence knowing that what you’re learning, that’s what works.”
The best part is he didn’t have to introduce himself. He spent 2008 as a defensive intern here before spending last year working with the receivers. When secondary coach Greg Brown went to Arizona after last season, Ambrose took over.
“Coach Brown is very intelligent,” Smith said. “He knows the ins and outs of the game, but it’s different having a player coach because he knows exactly what we’re thinking because he’s been through it.”
Ambrose has been through it all.
He spent 13 years in the NFL with the Colts, Bengals, Saints and Falcons. He had 42 interceptions — three returned for touchdowns — and 178 pass deflections. In his 1996 season with the Bengals, he won the AFC defensive back of the year award.
“I always have to reiterate stuff like the tricks of the trade,” Ambrose said, “certain techniques and different things to do: knocking a receiver off without getting called for a (pass interference). Also, I’m just trying to get them to understand the situations of the game. They go out and just try to play football. But you’ve got to understand the situations.”
Ambrose is 39 and still looks young enough to play. The guy could pass for a student at the UMC cafeteria. But he never thought about coaching, even during his last couple of the years with his hometown New Orleans Saints, with whom he retired in 2004.
“When you’re playing, you think about all the hard work you put in and you say, ‘Man, these coaches are still here and I’m tired,’ ” he said. “Many a day I said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ But I realized this is what I wanted to do. It’s a passion for me.”
As a veteran he had worked with young Saints cornerbacks such as Jason Craft, a former Colorado State star. Ambrose started his coaching career as a defensive intern with the Falcons in 2006. When coach Jim Mora got fired, he called Greg Brown, who coached him in Atlanta and New Orleans.
He invited Ambrose to talk to his players. Heck, he had time, he had money and he’d never been to Boulder. Plus he could hook up again with his old Falcons teammate, Ronnie Bradford, then an assistant with the Broncos.
In 2008, Ambrose came to Boulder again as an intern. His internship is officially over, and he falls in with probably Colorado’s best cornerback tandem since Donald Strickland and Phil Jackson in 2002.
“When you look at those guys, they’re tall, they can run and they’re strong,” Ambrose said. “They have great hips. Jalil’s a little shorter, and usually the shorter you are the better hips you have, but it’s good to see a guy like Jimmy who’s 6-2 1/2 who can still move his hips like he can.”
Footnote.
Receiver Travon Patterson, the Southern California transfer, was cleared late Monday to play for the Buffs and participated in some drills without pads. He was awaiting official word from the Pac-10 after leaving USC because of its NCAA sanctions.
