Getting to Know the Chiefs 2009 Coaching Staff: Pat Perles

Chiefs Coaching Coverage

• Steve Hoffman
• Joel Collier
• Tim Krumrie
• Dedric Ward
• Gary Gibbs

Pat Perles is one of those coaching candidates that makes you go, "Who?"  Unless you're Jason Whitlock.  Because then you'd know that just a little over a month ago your alma mater, Ball State, hired him.

Perles is so far out there as a coaching candidate that this must be another one of those who you know, not what you know deals.  And it is.  We'll get to that in a bit.

First, let's take a look at Perles coaching resume:

The Chiefs haven't disclosed specific titles for each of the coaches we hired yesterday so a guess for Perles would be some sort of offensive line assistant.  He's been involved with the line for most of his career and was just hired to do the same at Ball State. So my official guess is offensive line assistant OR running backs coach, since it appears that's a position we've yet to fill. While at Michigan State, he had experience as a tight ends coach and a co-special teams coach for one year.

About a month ago, Ball State hired Perles to be work on their offensive line.  But with the NFL calling, he had to leave.  He said he wished he never would have moved to Ball State in the first place if he had known this was going to happen but, as they tend to do, plans changed.

Previous Success

Perles has been met with some recent success at North Dakota State.  NDSU ranked tops in scoring in 2004 and 2006 and ranked in the top 3 in all offensive statistical categories last season.

For three years at Michigan State, he was the tight ends coach and highlighted as the co-special teams coach his first season.  He was able to coach Chris Baker, now a tight end with the Jets, to an All-American season.

In addition, he's coached in a couple Grey Cups in the CFL.  In 1999, while with the Hamilton Tigers, his offensive line set a nearly 70 year old record for sacks allowed. 7. 7 sacks!  Over 18 games! Okay, I'm starting to get a little excited for him.

Todd Haley Similarities

Perles is 45 years old and Haley is 41 years old.  The theme, it seems, is to hire guys closer to your age bracket, rather than farther away.  Like our dollar with the current economy, experience isn't buying as much as it used to.

Like Haley, Perles' father was a long-time football coach.  Unlike Haley, however, Perles' father, George, spent his time in the college ranks as the Michigan State head football coach.

Chiefs Connection

George Perles, Pat's dad, was a defensive assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers when Mr. Dick Haley was the personnel director. So the younger Perles and the younger Haley grew up together in Pittsburgh.

Bottom line, this is definitely a hiring from Haley's network but that's fine.  Carl Peterson did the same thing but it became a detriment for him. As long as Haley continues his role as the boss of the team, even to his friend/assistants, we should be fine.