Brian Schottenheimer credits wearing visor to Steve Spurrier

Brian Schottenheimer finished his college playing days at Florida after starting at Kansas. Given the transfer rules back then, the quarterback was required to sit out for a season before regaining eligibility. This led to Schottenheimer having an important role for head coach Steve Spurrier — picking up his visor after frustrating moments.

Originally not thinking much of the visor itself, one moment, in particular, led to Schottenheimer rocking with one throughout his career. Spurrier got onto him for not grabbing it off the ground one time.

“So we’re playing a game,” Schottenheimer said via ESPN’s Todd Archer. “I’m signaling the plays, something happens, he’s made. He’s pi--ed off at Danny (Wuerffel). He throws his visor and for some reason I was caught up and so I didn’t go and pick it up. And he looks at me, he’s like ‘Why didn’t you get my hat?’ And I went and picked it up.”

Ever since then, Schottenheimer has been going with visors. He believes they look better on him than a hat, given his current hair situation. Either way, it’s a nice tribute to where the bulk of his college days were spent under Spurrier.

“So like, honestly that’s where I first noticed it,” Schottenheimer said. “I think I look better in a visor than a hat. I’m losing my hair a little bit, at least up front. But it does go back to Florida.”

Schottenheimer wound up playing in 20 games at Florida, throwing for 290 yards and two touchdowns on 40 pass attempts. He won the national championship in 1996 before his coaching career got underway the following year. All but one season have been in the NFL, with the lone exception being the Georgia offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach back in 2015.

Now the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, he will be wearing a visor on the sidelines with millions of people watching. A switch up from the previous two, Mike McCarthy and Jason Garrett. McCarthy usually wore a hat while Garrett routinely went without any kind of headwear.

This is the type of information you learn about a first-time head coach. Schottenheimer was an out-of-the-box hire for the Cowboys. Jerry Jones could have gone with somebody with NFL experience but decided to promote from within.

Schottenheimer is getting his tenure underway now with the beginning of OTAs. However, everyone is counting down to the season opener against Philadelphia.