When North Carolina offensive coordinator John Shoop puts his game plan into action Saturday against William & Mary, the defensive coordinator trying to put the clamps on the UNC attack might be familiar with Shoop’s repertoire.
That’s because the man calling the shots from the visitor’s coaching box will be none other than Shoop’s older brother, Bob.
“We’re all very close,” John Shoop said. “But on Saturday, he’s going to be trying to kick our butt just as hard as we’re trying to kick his, no doubt.”
The two Shoop brothers, separated by four years, and Bill, the middle brother who is not a coach, grew up together loving football in the pigskin-mad city of Pittsburgh, Pa., during the 1970s and 80s. The elder Shoop played wide receiver at Yale, and John Shoop played quarterback at the University of the South.
After college, Bob Shoop became an assistant coach and later the defensive coordinator at his alma mater before becoming the head coach at Columbia University, where he went 7-23 from 2003-2005. Before landing at William & Mary, Bob Shoop also worked at Northeastern University, Villanova, Army, Boston College and the University of Massachusetts.
John Shoop followed his older brother into coaching, but did so on the opposite side of the ball. He worked his way from a volunteer assistant at Dartmouth to a job as the Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator from 2001-03. In 2007, UNC coach Butch Davis brought him onto the staff as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Saturday’s game will be the first time the two have faced each other, but John Shoop said that until this past summer, the two talked football any time they were together, and he felt he might have an advantage because he was familiar with his brother’s schemes.
Though the brothers’ parents will be in Chapel Hill for the game, John Shoop downplayed the importance of the Shoop vs. Shoop matchup and said he did not know when he would see his brother.
“This isn’t about me going against Bob, this is about (UNC center) Jon Cooper blocking (W & M defensive tackle) Michael Stover, their three technique,” John Shoop said. “I’m able to see that, and I guarantee you Bob’s able to see that. This ain’t between me and him. This is between the players that we’re coaching and that’s how we’re both approaching it.”
