Bruce Arians

" It’s about team; it’s a family; it’s a band of brothers that just will not quit."

- Bruce Arians

Bruce Arians is a head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Bruce has coached for 38 years for 12 teams both college and pro teams including the Chiefs, Saints, Browns, Steelers, and Colts before ending up as the Head Coach for the Arizona Cardinals.

Early Life and Playing Career
Bruce Arians was born was born October 3, 1952 in Paterson, New Jersey. He attended high school in York, Pennsylvania where he played quarterback for York Catholic High School. In 1972 he went to Virginia Tech running their wishbone offense as the quarterback, and in 1975 Arians served as a graduate assistant coach at V-Tech for 3 years.

Coaching Career
In 1978 Arians was recruited as a running back coach for Mississippi State and later University of Alabama. For 6 years Arians had his first head coaching job at Temple University and turned the program around gaining attention from the NFL. In 1983 he was made running back coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. After 3 years returned to Mississippi State this time as the offensive coordinator. After briefly coaching for the New Orleans Saints and Alabama. Bruce Arians became the quarter back coach on the Indianapolis for the newly drafted rookie Peyton Manning for 3 years before becoming offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns and then for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Indianapolis
While in offensive coordinator in Cleveland, Bruce Arians first met Chuck Pagano who was the secondary coach for the Browns. In 2012 Pagano (who had become head coach for the Indianapolis Colts) recruited Arians to be offensive coordinator. Just coming out of a 2-14 year in 2011 and with rookie Andrew Luck under center for the Colts Arians was greatly needed to turn around that offense. A few weeks into the season Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia and Bruce took over as the Interim head coach. Arians was able to take the Colts to the playoffs on an 11-5 record. When Pagano recovered just in time for the playoffs, Bruce returned to his job as offensive coordinator. The Colts went on the road to Baltimore in the Wildcard round of the playoffs, however Arians missed the game do to being hospitalized with an inner ear infection. Without their offensive coordinator the Colts suffered a miserable 24-9 loss to the Baltimore Ravens who would go on to win the Super Bowl. Soon after his return, Bruce was named NFL Coach Of The Year.

Arizona
Bruce Arians' impressive run as interim head coach had sparked the interest of the Arizona Cardinals who had just come off of a 5-11 record in 2012. Bruce replaced Ken Whisenhunt as the Head Coach of Arizona. Bruce Arians Immediately made an impact on the team, having many play makers to work with including Larry Fitzgerald, Carson Palmer, Andre Ellington and many more. It was only because of early struggles with Carson Palmer that the Cardinals fell short of the playoffs in 2013. Despite this, Arians made coaches fear him with many impressive wins including a week 12 blowout win over Indianapolis and a miracle week 15 road win over the Seattle Seahawks (who would win the Super Bowl that year).

In 2014 Arians faced high expectations from fans, opponents, and the press. Bruce exceeded all expectations. Despite losing almost half of his starters do to injuries and cut players. He battled through however leading his team 11-5 and to the Wilcard round of the playoffs. Despite losing horribly to the Carolina Panthers, Bruce and the Cardinals proved that they could make the most with the least.