In December 2010, Jon Embree was given the chance of a lifetime, and he knew it.
Embree had just been hired to be the head football coach of his alma mater, the University of Colorado, a once-proud program that had fallen upon hard times.
Embree needed someone who would help him implement a physical brand of the West Coast offense, and one of first hires was Eric Bieniemy, a fellow Colorado grad who’d spent the previous five seasons as running-backs coach for the Minnesota Vikings.
Two years — and a 4-20 record later — Embree was swept out of Colorado, along with the rest of his staff, although some of the kids they left behind eventually contributed to a Pac-12 South champion in 2016.