San Diego Chargers head coaching candidate: Dave Toub

There is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the future of the San Diego Chargers, but the most pressing need at the current moment is to find a new head coach.

Recently, I listed five options for the Chargers, who I feel should consider a defensive-minded head coach to replace the fired Mike McCoy. However, the team is interested in interviewing a guy who isn’t on that list, Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub.

The Chiefs have a first-round bye in the playoffs, so the Chargers could potentially interview him soon.

Are the Chargers just doing their due diligence and considering a multitude of candidates? Or is Toub a legitimate candidate? It appears he is, as the Denver Broncos have also been linked to wanting to interview him.

Though a coach with a defensive background should be the preference, we’ll also do our due diligence with Toub and look into his background.

Wrote about it earlier in the week. If a club wanting a HC doesn't talk to Dave Toub, they are missing the boat. Easily a great candidate

— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) December 24, 2016

Playing Career: Toub played at Springfield College before transferring to the University of Texas-El Paso in the early 1980s as an offensive lineman. Back then, the NFL draft had many more rounds than it does today, so the Philadelphia Eagles selected him in the ninth round of the 1985 draft. He didn’t make the team as a rookie. The next year, he attended training camp with the Los Angeles Rams, but failed to make the squad there as well.

Coaching Career: Toub returned to UTEP in 1986 as a graduate assistant. He then became the team’s strength and conditioning coach before moving to Missouri in the same. It was there that Toub was first introduced to Andy Reid.

Toub was at Missouri from 1989-1998 as the team’s strength and conditioning coach. He then coached the defensive line there for three years. Following that season, he was given his shot in the NFL.

It was Reid who brought him in to coach special teams in Philadelphia in 2001. In 2004, he moved onto the Chicago Bears as a special teams coordinator. There, he engineered one of the league’s best special teams units, one that featured arguably the best return man in NFL history, Devin Hester.

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Toub held the position in Chicago for nine seasons but moved onto the Chiefs when Reid was hired as their head coach prior to the start of the 2013 season. In total, Toub has 16 seasons in the NFL under his belt as a special teams coordinator. While it’s rare for a special teams guy to get hired as a head coach, there should be little debate that Toub is one of, if not the best in the game.

As a special teams coordinator, Toub has had to work with a variety of players on the team at a number of different positions. This makes him versatile and his game plans and approach could be more versatile as well. It’s an interesting idea to make a hire such as this one, but it’s not a bad one.

In 2008, the Baltimore Ravens hired one of the league’s more prominent special teams coaches when John Harbaugh became their new head coach. All he’s done in that time is lead the Ravens to six postseason appearances and a Super Bowl victory.

Maybe more teams should consider special teams guys. What do you guys think of the idea of hiring Toub in San Diego?