Eric Weddle is full of surprises. The former NFL safety, who came out of retirement in January to join the eventual Super Bowl winning Rams, was announced Saturday as the head football coach at
Rancho Bernardo (San Diego, Calif.) starting in 2023.
The 37-year-old will immediately join current Broncos head coach Tristan McCoy, who announced on Twitter and Facebook that 2022 will be his last. Weddle will replace McCoy the following season.
Rancho Bernardo went 7-6 last season and has gone 66-27 since 2014. The Broncos have won three section titles.
"At the end of the 2022 season (McCoy) will be handing the reins to Super Bowl champ Eric Weddle," The Tweet stated. "Eric will be joining the Bronco family this season to learn the blue in, blue out culture."
Weddle did just fine re-learning the Rams culture in a short time, immediately thrown into a key role. He had a team-high nine tackles in the NFC championship game against San Francisco and added five tackles in Super Bowl LVI versus the Bengals.
Weddle prepped in Southern California at
Alta Loma, starred in college at Utah before earning six Pro Bowl spots with the Chargers and Ravens. He played two seasons with the Rams, retired in 2020 before rejoining the club during its Super Bowl run.
He follows in the footsteps of many who left the NFL and immediately joined the high school coaching ranks, including
Phillips Rivers, now at St. Michael Catholic (Fairhope, Ala.),
Jason Witten at Liberty Christian (Argyle, Texas) and
C.J. Anderson at Monte Vista (Danville, Calif.).
"It's always been a dream of mine to coach high school football," Weddle texted the
San Diego Union-Tribune. "To have a chance to teach, coach and inspire these kids to be GREAT on and off the field through football is what I'm most excited for. I have huge shoes to fill from coach T, I am up for the challenge."
On Friday, another former Pro Bowl defensive back
Patrick Surtain, who coached six high school seasons at South Florida power American Heritage (Plantation), announced he was leaving to coach for the Miami Dolphins.
