Paul Myerberg

USA TODAY Sports

Ty Detmer enters Brigham Young University’s football facility each morning through the back door, opting for this more low-key arrival rather than a main entryway crowded with trinkets and mementos from his playing career.

“I usually don’t go in that way,” he said. “It’s a little embarrassing when you walk in and people are looking at it.”

It, of course, is the Heisman Trophy, which Detmer won as a junior quarterback in 1990 — the lone such award in program history, and a bronzed reminder of his place in the Cougars’ annals. But there’s more: Detmer’s jersey hangs on the wall in the locker room, and his picture graces more than a few hallways, walkways and display cases.

“The first time you see him, you realize that you’re basically looking at a superstar,” said senior wide receiver Nick Kurtz. “You think about it, and it’s like, ‘This guy won the Heisman. He was the best player in college football.’ So it’s cool.”

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For years — decades, actually — Detmer held this role in BYU history, as a Heisman-winning face on its Mount Rushmore; along with his former coach, LaVell Edwards, Detmer has come to represent the program’s golden age, highlighted by a national championship in 1984 and his own three-year run as the starting quarterback.

Now, nearly 25 years after his final college snap, Detmer occupies a more physical presence: In late December, new BYU coach Kalani Sitake hired Detmer as his offensive coordinator, providing a reunion of program and player nearly unmatched in college football history.

“I’ve kind of stepped back in time a little bit,” Detmer said. “As a coach now, you’re saying a lot of the things I heard from coaches. Being in the meeting room with the quarterbacks and coaching them up has really been a fun part of the job. I’ve really enjoyed that part of it.”

It’s remarkable even at face value. Detmer is one of just three Heisman winners in the past half-century to serve as a coach on the Football Bowl Subdivision level, joining former Florida quarterback Steve Spurrier and former Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan, who won the Heisman in 1971 and went on to serve as the head coach at TCU.

Perhaps only Spurrier can provide a proper analogue to this endeavor, however. Like Spurrier, Detmer is returning not just to the college game but to the site of his on-field success; fans remember him as “perfect,” Detmer says, quickly adding that few seem to remember he broke the school record for career interceptions.

Unlike Spurrier, however, Detmer steps onto the sideline without any prior experience on the college level. Before BYU, his lone coaching history came at a private high school in Austin, following in the steps of his father, Sonny, a longtime coach in San Antonio.

“Not a whole lot of people have this opportunity, to go from high school to, all of a sudden, offensive coordinator of a great program,” Detmer said.

But he’s long been a coach, in a more abstract sense — as a “player-mentor,” Detmer termed it, to fellow quarterbacks during a 14-year NFL career, including Brett Favre during his time as a backup with the Green Bay Packers and Tim Couch with the Cleveland Browns.

“That was his deal, you know,” Sitake said. “When he was a player, he was a mentor-slash-coach. He already had that role. It just seemed like it would be an easy transition for him.

“Maybe it’s not the traditional way of being a graduate assistant for a certain number of years, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not ready for it. I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, he has limited experience as a coach.’ But there’s experience as a football person.”

This transition — one even Detmer admits is “a big jump” — has been eased by his own mentors. There’s his father. Norm Chow, his offensive coordinator at BYU, who taught him to tailor an offense to its personnel. Steve Mariucci, his quarterbacks coach in Green Bay, and Mike Holmgren, the Packers’ former coach.

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He’s also found a “measuring board” in SMU coach Chad Morris, who went from his own Austin-area high school to the offensive coordinator jobs at Tulsa and Clemson before being hired by the Mustangs prior to last season.

“Overall, I think I take a little bit from everybody,” Detmer said. “And at the end of the day, it has to be within your personality. I just try to take some of those things that I learned along the way and implement them into me, and my style. For me, maybe it’s a little more relaxed, but you’ve still got to demand things a certain way.”

Players have been drawn to Detmer’s message, which on offense is rooted in Edwards’ pass-heavy and timing-based system, and to his delivery: “He’s the most humble dude,” said sophomore quarterback Tanner Mangum.

“He never talks about himself. He’s very low-key, but he understands the game. He teaches you the game. Sometimes I forget that he won the Heisman and has all these accolades, because he just doesn’t come across that way. I have to pinch myself to realize this is a special opportunity.”

Temporary moments of stargazing are only natural — as when Detmer would throw passes to wide receivers before starting practice during the spring — and, of course, are only temporary. Even with a degree of goodwill perhaps afforded to only the program’s lone Heisman winner, expectations will rise come September, when BYU embarks on a stretch of four consecutive games against Power Five competition.

“It’s happy valley right now — everybody’s excited and happy,” Detmer said. “I just keep telling them: We haven’t played a game yet. So the expectations are there. Hopefully they’ll be patient and know there might be some growing pains for me.”