Nate Scheelhaase's Path to Rams Play Caller Ran Through Church Work in Louisville

Nate Scheelhaase took over play calling for a Super Bowl contender after a detour few NFL assistants follow: a year counseling teenagers in Louisville, Kentucky. The 35-year-old was promoted to offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams last winter.

Scheelhaase finished his career as a four-year starting quarterback at Illinois and married a few months before his playing days ended. Coaching did not appeal to him at first. He had watched enough coaches get fired and hired to question whether the job suited a young family, and meetings with Illinois alumni working corporate jobs in Chicago left him cold. He called Jason Epperson, the Illinois team chaplain, who had just moved to Southeast Christian Church and knew of a youth pastor opening.

He arrived at Southeast in 2014, visited a few dozen high schools and volunteered as chaplain for two football teams. Chris Burke, an ESPN baseball analyst who lived nearby, watched Scheelhaase in pickup games and said he "looked perfectly suited for that job." Andrew Coverdale, then offensive coordinator at Trinity High School and now passing game coordinator at Kentucky, said Scheelhaase brought "confident humility" and never assumed teenagers would listen because he had started at quarterback in college.

One moment pushed him toward coaching. At a 2014 chapel service for Eastern High School players, Scheelhaase delivered what he thought was a relatable talk and got little response. Then the head coach stood to give a pregame address, and "everybody was on the edge of their seat." He began weighing what a coach could influence.

That year he also drove Nate Hobbs to practices and attended them after the boy's father died. Hobbs now plays defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers and, in Scheelhaase's words, counts among his closest friends.

By the 2015 season Scheelhaase was coaching running backs at Illinois. Recruiting and player development, he said, mirrored the trust-building he had done in Louisville. "Connection, fortunately for me, it's how I'm wired," he said. He became a coordinator at Iowa State in 2023, then left a year later for Sean McVay's staff as an offensive assistant, drawing up the plays McVay wanted called. In 2025, McVay called him "a special coach" and "a rising star, without a doubt."

The last four Rams offensive coordinators have gone on to head coaching jobs. While interviewing for NFL head coaching positions last winter, Scheelhaase called interim Stanford coach Frank Reich to discuss that school's opening. Reich, a former NFL quarterback and head coach, attended seminary, a route shared by Rocky Seto, a longtime Pete Carroll assistant who later pastored at Evergreen Baptist Church near Los Angeles.

Scheelhaase was named Rams offensive coordinator last winter. His life in Louisville revolved around Sundays; his current job still does.