The coaching lineage in Adam Gase suggests he is ready to call plays for Peyton Manning.

Gase is 34 and a first-time offensive coordinator after he was promoted Thursday by the Broncos from quarterbacks coach. Manning is 36 and has been calling plays in audible fashion for the past 14 seasons.

“I’m not nervous about calling plays,” Gase said in a conference call Thursday. “You have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time as your quarterback — I’m excited. I’m thrilled to be able to have that opportunity. We’re looking to go pedal to the metal, and play as fast as possible and be aggressive.”

During the past season, Mike McCoy as Broncos offensive coordinator allowed Gase to call a few series, especially late in the season.

“He felt like it helped us as far as changing up what we were doing tendency-wise,” Gase said. “We experimented with that a little bit and it went well.”

Gase replaces McCoy, who became head coach of the AFC West rival San Diego Chargers on Tuesday.

Gase becomes the NFL’s fourth-youngest offensive coordinator, but he has considerable NFL experience. He counts Nick Saban, Mike Martz and father-in-law Joe Vitt among his mentors. Gase was hired out of high school by Michigan State defensive coach Dean Pees, now the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens.

Pees’ Baltimore defense got the better of Gase’s offense Saturday, although the Broncos scored 35 points before losing in double overtime.

As Gase attended classes at Michigan State and graduated from the school in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree, he also was learning the coaching business from Pees and Saban. One of Gase’s fellow lower-level assistants at Michigan State was Josh McDaniels, now the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator.

Upon graduating from Michigan State, Gase followed Saban to Louisiana State for the 2000-02 seasons, then was a scout for the Detroit Lions from 2003-04. He was an entry-level Lions coach from 2005-06.

Martz, the Lions’ offensive coordinator, promoted Gase to quarterbacks coach in 2007, and the two went to the San Francisco 49ers together in 2008.

When McDaniels was Denver’s head coach from 2009-10, he made Gase his receivers coach where he helped Brandon Marshall then Brandon Lloyd have Pro Bowl seasons. After McDaniels was fired by the Broncos and replaced by John Fox, Gase was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2010.

After an interview Wednesday with Fox and Broncos football operations boss John Elway, Gase was promoted to offensive coordinator.

“Adam was an integral part of the success we had offensively this season and was heavily involved in all aspects of our game plan, both during the week and on game day,” Fox said in a statement. “Maintaining that continuity with our offense was very important in this decision. While we did speak with several qualified candidates, it became clear that Adam was the best fit to be our offensive coordinator.”

The Broncos also held discussions with Ken Whisenhunt and Pat Shurmur, who had success in the offensive coordinator role previously. Whisenhunt and Shurmur were fired as head coaches this past season.

With both expressing a desire to get another chance at becoming NFL head coaches, it didn’t make sense to hire Whisenhunt or Shurmur for the 2013 season, only to lose +them the next year.

The only NFL offensive coordinators younger than Gase are Tennessee’s Dowell Loggains (32), Buffalo’s Nathaniel Hackett (33) and Washington’s Kyle Shanahan, who is five days older than Hackett.

Gase said he hasn’t decided whether to call plays from the sideline, as McCoy did, or from the press box, as was Martz’s preference.

The Broncos likely will go outside their staff to hire a new quarterbacks coach.