Career highlights include working for seven collegiate programs and four professional teams, as one of eight defensive coordinators in NFL history to coach in a Super Bowl involving two different teams (New England and Balitmore), and as a coach at the Site of men like Lou Holtz, Nick Saban, Gary Pinkel and Bill Belichick. Then there are the trainers that Pees – himself – was involved in raising.
At the start of the 2022 season, there were 12 defensive coordinators in the NFL who had served on Pees’ staff at some point.
Currently: Josh Boyer (Miami) | Patrick Graham (Vegas) | Don Martindale (giants) | Leslie Frazier (Buffalo) | Steve Spagnuolo (Kansas City) | Teryl Austin (Pittsburgh) | Shane Bowen (Tennessee) | Mike MacDonald (Baltimore)
Past: Matt Eberflus (former Indy defensive coordinator, now Chicago head coach; played and coached for Pees) | Joe Cullen (Jacksonville defense coordinator, not retained after Urban Meyer was fired but now with the Chiefs) | Todd Grantham (former Cleveland defensive coordinator, now collegiate-level coach) | Ted Monachino (former Indy defensive coordinator, now Falcons OLBs coach)
Expanding that list to include coaches who went on to be collegiate-level defense coordinators brings the total to 20. Then changing the parameters a bit, the number jumps even higher when you include former players like John Harbaugh and Mike Vrabel (which you should see since both NFL head coaches played for Pees).