Kent Somers | The Republic | azcentral.com

Sean Logan, The Republic | azcentral.com

The muscular man with a shaved head appeared at Cardinals practices midway through the fall of 2017.

Sean Kugler had just resigned after nearly five years as head coach at Texas-El Paso and came to Arizona to visit friends, most notably Cardinals coach Bruce Arians and offensive line coach Harold Goodwin.

But it was a working vacation, too, and Kugler spent time coaching centers during practices and sitting in on meetings of the entire offensive line. Not long after Kugler arrived, he gave starting center A.Q. Shipley hand-written notes that critiqued his play and suggested ways he could improve.

“It was super detailed,” Shipley said. “It was awesome.”

Sean Kugler : Talking about keying the different stances : which leg is back, which hand is forward, ... these types of things. pic.twitter.com/keMShWTNjM — Safe Gipsy (@GipsySafety) May 31, 2017

Shipley and the rest of the Cardinals offensive linemen will be hearing a lot more from Kugler these days.

Coach Kliff Kingsbury hired Kugler to coach the offensive line, which is a coup for the Cardinals given Kugler’s reputation in the league.

Kugler spent only a few weeks in Arizona in 2017 — he stayed in a spare room at Goodwin’s house — but he made quite the impression on players.

“I was fired up,” Shipley said of hearing that Kugler was his new coach. “He gets the best out of guys.”

Kingsbury is coaching in the NFL for the first time, and there were questions (at least from me) about the quality of assistants that he could attract. The hiring of Kugler suggests that it will be better than I thought.

Kugler played offensive line at UTEP when Andy Reid was an assistant there. He spent 2006 on Chris Peterson’s staff at Boise State, and his 12-year coaching career in the NFL includes three seasons with the Steelers, 2010-12.

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Kugler spent last year in Denver, and reportedly was contacted by four teams this year, including the Buccaneers, about jobs after the season.

He chose the Cardinals, despite not knowing Kingsbury beyond the two times they met as head coaches in college.

“To be part of a new staff intrigued me,” Kugler said. “I love the desert Southwest. I spent 20 years at Texas-El Paso as a player, assistant coach and head coach. My wife’s from El Paso and it’s six hours away. Ultimately, visiting coach Kingsbury and seeing his vision excited me.”

Sean Kugler talking DUO/Double pic.twitter.com/5y0l4Tr9yp — James Light (@JamesALight) June 3, 2017

Kingsbury’s offensive staff is comprised of divergent backgrounds. Kugler and running backs coach James Saxon are grounded in the power and inside zone blocking schemes favored by the Steelers. Passing game coordinator Tom Clements and receivers coach David Raih come from the Packers and the so-called West Coast scheme.

Over the last month, Kingsbury has met with those coaches daily to see how different concepts might fit it in the “Air Raid” system he ran at Texas Tech.

“It’s been fun,” Kugler said. “We’re throwing on a lot of Texas Tech film. We’re throwing on film from a lot of NFL teams.”

To Kugler, it reminds him of being at Boise State in 2006. Petersen was in his first year as a head coach and hired several assistants who didn’t know each other well.

The unfamiliarity was invigorating, Kugler said.

Sean Logan/The Republic

“If a guy hires just his buddies, there’s that comfortable feeling,” Kugler said. “If there are guys who don’t know each other, you’ve almost got to prove yourself. It’s like you move to a new town, you’ve got to prove yourself.”

One of the Cardinals’ priorities this season is repairing an offensive line that was among the worst in the NFL last season. Kugler (pronounced KOOG-ler) isn’t inheriting a mystery. He worked with Shipley and left tackle D.J. Humphries in 2017. And Kugler’s son, Patrick, played with center Mason Cole at Michigan.

Max Starks played for Kugler with the Steelers, so he has an idea of what Cardinals linemen can expect.

“He’s one of my favorite coaches of all time,” said Starks. “He is a very technical coach and is really a teacher. That’s something that’s rare in today’s offensive line coaching philosophy, being that teacher as well as a coach.

"That’s a very important thing. Some coaches with various teams over the years kind of go, ‘well, this is what you did to get here, just learn who you have to block. I don’t care how you block them, get them blocked.’"

Sean Kugler on when to kick out block or log block on pull. Also raise your hand if you coached the type of player he talks about lol. pic.twitter.com/T9RhtsVXQl — Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) June 1, 2017

The Cardinals need a teacher in the classroom and on the field. They also need someone who can accurately evaluate draft prospects and free agents, because what they've been doing hasn't worked.

Since the franchise moved to Arizona in 1988, only three Cardinals offensive linemen have been selected to the Pro Bowl, and just one, tackle Luis Sharpe, was drafted by the team. But they've drafted 44 offensive linemen, including seven in the first round.

In 2018, the line play bottomed out. The Cardinals were last in rushing yards per play and 27th in sacks per pass attempt.

Injuries played a large role in that, but it’s also true that it’s been years since the Cardinals drafted an offensive lineman who lived up to long-term expectations. Kugler was hired to change that.

Kugler, 52, deflects praise, as offensive linemen and their coaches tend to do. But the Cardinals were wise to hire him, and it would behoove them to listen to his evaluations of players and thoughts about how to integrate different run game concepts into the Air Raid.

Once the Cardinals settle on a group of linemen, look for Kugler to turn into a protective parent.

“It ain’t going to change,” Kugler said. “They’re the best guys on the team, the hardest workers, the tightest group. If they get a pat on the back, that’s all they’re looking for. They’re usually unselfish guys. That’s why it’s fun talking to them.”

Sean Logan, The Republic | azcentral.com

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