Meet Lou Ayeni, the “great” Denver Broncos’ coach that’s crucial to RJ Harvey’s success and a potential Super Bowl run

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — What makes an NFL team good on the road? What’s a young quarterback’s best friend? What gives a team a shot for a deep playoff run? What allows teams to have success in bad weather?

Ask Sean Payton any of these questions and he’ll likely have the exact same answer to all of it.

A good defense and a good run game.

For the Denver Broncos, Vance Joseph has the first one covered. He’s led an elite defense through the first four months of the season.

The second one, however, hasn’t been as straightforward.

For the first 10 games of the season, J.K. Dobbins was that guy for the Broncos. Before suffering a potential season-ending Lisfranc injury in Denver‘s Week 10 win against the Las Vegas Raiders, Dobbins was one of the best running backs in the entire NFL, showing off his elite potential.

At one point shortly before his injury, Dobbins was the NFL’s third-leading rusher, only behind Jonathan Taylor and James Cook.

Without Dobbins down the stretch and likely into a significant portion of a playoff run, all eyes turn to second-round back RJ Harvey to take the reins and lead Denver’s all-important ground game.

But behind the scenes, there’s a key figure that’s leading the transition from the experienced Dobbins to the inexperienced, yet ultra-talented rookie that will be heavily relied upon during the team’s playoff run.

Meet Broncos’ running backs coach Lou Ayeni.

Or, as Harvey and the running backs room calls him, “Coach Lou.”

“He’s a great coach,” the rookie running back said. “Coach Lou, he always has us prepared. You know, we meet for a long time. Protections, the run game, he always has us prepared. I’m very thankful for him because I came a long way when I first got here to now. He’s been a big help for me. All respect for Coach Lou for sure.”

It’s no surprise why Harvey has come a long way in such a short time when you understand Coach Lou’s approach to coaching.

“I just think that coaching is teaching,” Ayeni told DNVR in an exclusive interview. “And I think the best thing for me, from my experience in this whole thing, I never had the elite, elite guys, you know? Always had to develop guys. And the cool thing for me is watching them grow and reach their full potential, whatever it’s a David Montgomery or Kareem Hunt, some of these guys who have transitioned to the NFL and done good things.”

“You get RJ, he’s still in that college mold. He can kind of still kind of mold him into becoming a pro and the habits and the details and the discipline it takes,” Ayeni added.

As much as Coach Lou has been a teacher, Harvey has been a student of the game, and a student of Ayeni. The student-teacher dynamic has been a match made in heaven between the two.

“The best thing about that kid, he’s a sponge. And he loves to learn. He loves to work,” Ayeni stated. “He’s willing to stay up here all night, or whatever, he’ll—I remember when he was living in the hotel, he would get the script from me, and he’d be walking through the plays in the hotel ballroom, and then he would call me and be like, ‘Hey, my footwork on this. What is it again?’ He’d be on FaceTime, walking through the footwork and stuff like that. It’s that important to him. And it’s really cool as a coach to know, that it means so much to him, because you know that he’s gonna reach his full potential.”

Ayeni has a high bar for Harvey’s potential too.

While Payton’s been talking about the 2025 Broncos as a potential Super Bowl team since the spring, Coach Ayeni has been talking about another award since that time.

“First thing he told me once I got here, he said, ‘You want to win Rookie of the Year? I said, ‘Yeah,'” Harvey stated. “He just wants me to be great.”

With that goal in mind, Coach Ayeni hasn’t taken it easy on Harvey. The rookie isn’t upset with that one bit.

“He’s been on me hard, for sure,” Harvey said, when asked if Coach Ayeni has coached him any different since Dobbins went down.

The hard coaching has paid off.

Harvey’s production has taken off since he became the Broncos’ lead back. In the first two games without Dobbins, Harvey ran for 65 total yards on 2.7 yards per carry.

In the third game, Harvey had his first 100 yard game in the NFL, including 75 yards on the ground, while running for 4.4 yards per carry.

“Feel more comfortable each and every day,” Harvey said, crediting the Raiders game as a taking-off point for him.

On Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Harvey ran for 50 yards on an impressive 7.1 yards per carry average. He also set a new career high with 121 yards from scrimmage.

Harvey’s 11 touchdowns from scrimmage is the most by any rookie in the NFL.

“It’s been a really interesting year for him,” Ayeni said, diving into the unseen parts of Harvey’s rookie season. “He came in as a [draft pick], and the room was kind of like, ‘Hey, you’re kind of the guy. You’re getting all these reps.’ Then after we go through spring OTAs, J.K. Dobbins shows up—And J.K.’s an alpha. You know what I mean? So [Harvey] took a backseat a little bit, but he kept developing, like, the pass game. He kept developing his pass protection and whatnot. So when J.K. went down, now it’s like back up for you to take this thing over. He’s done a good job. The reps have really helped him. You know, the live reps in the games and then the practice.”

One reason Coach Lou knows the right buttons to press within his running backs room, specifically with a rookie back, is because of his background.

Before Payton hired him on his initial staff when he became the head coach in 2023, Ayeni had exclusively coached at the collegiate level. Starting as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Northwestern, in 2008, Ayeni moved up the coaching ladder.

He got his first opportunity as a running backs coach at Toledo in 2010, where he helped develop Kareem Hunt into a third-round pick. Ayeni then jumped to Iowa State in 2014, where he developed David Montgomery into a third-round pick as well.

Before joining the Broncos, Ayeni went back to his alma mater in 2018 to be Northwestern’s running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. Then, Payton brought him up to the big leagues. Two years later, the Broncos used a second-round pick on a running back for Ayeni and the offense.

With Ayeni’s extensive collegiate coaching background, Harvey had the perfect coach to help him transition to the NFL and take over the league.

“I just think the sky’s the limit for this kid because he really—he ran three plays in college and like three routes. And you watch him catch the ball, he’s got outstanding hands. You watch him change directions, he can run routes. He can make people miss, he can do all those things. We’re just starting to see the surface,” Ayeni said, with conviction behind every word.

“I mean, I don’t care who you are, you score [11] touchdowns in a season, that’s impressive,” he added. “He’s scored [11] touchdowns and we’re not even talking about the other three or four he could have had. You know what I mean? So it’s a lot of fun watching him grow. He’s embraced this opportunity. We miss J.K. dearly, but this kid’s doing a good job trying to fill in his shoes.”

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Leading, coaching and teaching the running backs room is Coach Lou’s primary job. But he’s added a secondary role to the team too. One that’s a “secret sauce” to the team’s success.

“When you watch our team, I think our ball security is excellent. Lou [Ayeni], our running back coach, kind of heads that up,” Joe Lombardi said, praising Coach Lou. “Thursdays are the day where we have a ball, security circuit and just the way he teaches how to carry the football, what to do when you’re in traffic, how to fall down with the ball. A lot of fumbles happen when you’re hitting the ground, and you go to protect yourself. He does a fantastic job with that.”

It’s no surprise Ayeni took over this role since he got to Denver. It’s been in his DNA since his coaching days at the college level.

“I think for me, the places I’ve been in college, those have been kind of our secret sauce,” Ayeni said. “Like, Iowa State, in 2015. We became a really good team and we led the country, we had no forced fumbles in the regular season. We lost one on the last drive of the bowl game. It was crazy… We ended up winning. It was [David] Montgomery. It was funny. He extended the ball in the goal line when he shouldn’t have on first down and he knew it too.”

“But then I left, I went to my alma mater Northwestern the next year. In ’18, we led the country again. We had three [fumbles]. It was all the quarterback. I’m not going to say who,” he added with a chuckle. “We ended up going to the Big Ten Championship and playing J.K. Dobbins and the Buckeyes.”

While the sixth-ranked Buckeyes beat Northwestern 45-24 in that 2018 Big Ten Championship game, Ayeni’s backs ran for 154 yards on an impressive 8.6 yards per carry and two touchdowns. Northwestern did have one fumble lost, but it was their quarterback, Clayton Thorson. Ayeni, with a chuckle, made it pretty clear quarterback’s ball security isn’t truly in his power.

Coach Lou’s secret sauce of ball security has been extra special for the Broncos.

“It’s been a point of emphasis for me ever since I’ve been here. It’s been cool. We’ve done a really good job with it,” Ayeni said. “I mean, obviously, [in Week 15 against the Green Bay Packers]. So unfortunately, on the first drive, RJ’s in the middle of the field. Parsons damn near hip drops him. We got to hold on the ball. We know that.”

After the Broncos’ win over the Packers, Payton excused Harvey for the fumble. The head coach said it was a great defensive play with no ball security issues by the rookie back.

“We ended last year, 10 in a row—10 straight games without a fumble,” Ayeni said proudly. “We started pretty fast [this year]. Troy [Franklin] had that controversial one in London, and whatnot, and that this last one here. I’m not counting the two punt returns. The quarterbacks do their own thing. You know, ’cause we had two punt return [fumbles].”

“The guys are really taking to it. They’ve done a really nice job,” he added. “I think the biggest thing you just try to really reiterate to those guys is if we possess the ball, if we end every drive with a kick, whether it’s a field goal, extra point, punt, with our defense? We’re going to win a lot of games. We’re going to win a lot of games because we’re not putting them in bad situations.”

Thanks to Ayeni’s secret sauce, the Broncos are among the best in the NFL in holding onto the rock.

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Following my initial conversation with Harvey about Coach Lou, the rookie went a step further to give love to his coach. After I had left the Broncos’ locker room, he went out of his way to find me and pull me aside again. Did I ask a question he didn’t like? Did he want one of his answers from our interview redacted? Nope. He just wanted to sprinkle a little more praise on his coach.

“He always got me prepared for anything. Just want to shout him out. He’s a great coach,” Harvey said with purpose.

Coach Lou has been more than just an Xs and Os coach to Harvey. He’s been a mentor during the rookie’s transition from UCF to the NFL.

“Great person to talk to just about anything, really. Always there for me. Always checking up on me,” Harvey added. “Always have me prepared. We meet a lot.”

When Dobbins was signed and Harvey had to take a back seat to the “alpha” veteran, Ayeni talked to the RJ about how to handle the situation.

“You just try to let him understand the situation, understand what the NFL is, you know? It’s a business. And we’re trying to win these games, and it’s not about you. It’s about the team. You know what I mean,” Ayeni said. “And just, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening here. Boom, boom, boom, boom.’ So when you get your opportunity, you got to take advantage of it. So now you become that guy. And now you’ll get more opportunities to play and whatnot. And then, you just kind of fall into a role as the season goes.”

Coach Lou’s guidance is exactly what happened. As the season progressed, Harvey developed into the Joker role—an elite receiver out of the backfield, as Payton describes it—before becoming the workhorse back when Dobbins went down.

Fortunately for Harvey, Ayeni isn’t focused on jumping ship.

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Having spent the first 15 years of his career as a college coach, does Ayeni have the itch to go back to his roots after spending three years in the NFL?

“Listen, there’s a lot of stuff going on in college right now, it’s wild too,” he said, emphasizing “wild” a number of times.

After his first year with the Broncos, the college game actually wanted him back.

“It’s funny. My first year here, big-time big school in the Big Ten who won the National Championship, they tried to get me to go back to college,” Ayeni revealed. “And I kept saying to myself, ‘I coached in college all my life to come here, you know?'”

That big-time school was The Ohio State University. Ayeni would have had the opportunity to coach two of the top backs in the country, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, if he took the job.

But the opportunity in Denver was too good to leave, for a number of reasons.

“The best thing about being here is, first of all, the City of Denver is unbelievable. My family loves it here,” Ayeni said convincingly. “This ownership group is unbelievable. All right? I don’t know what anybody else’s ownership group is, but this thing is unbelievable. And then starting with George [Paton], Sean [Payton], and our staff. We got good people in the building. Our players, great people to coach and teach. I don’t know how it can get any better.”

This offseason, the college game tried to pull him back again. Twice. Two Big 10 blue blood schools tried to poach him.

But once again, Couch Lou was and is completely focused on the opportunity that the 2025 Broncos have right in front of them as they sit atop of AFC with a 12-3 record.

“I’m embracing this. I’m soaking this up, and then we want to maximize this season, and then let’s figure it out from there. You know what I mean,'” he said. “Because, listen, we got these [two] games left, and then we’re in the playoffs. But, to me, it’s not just about getting there. It’s about, getting the whole thing. We want to win the whole thing. We got to figure out these next three weeks, how are we going to be mentally, physically ready to go win this whole thing. And that’s what I’m always focused about.”

Ayeni, RJ Harvey and the Broncos’ running game will play a big role in the Broncos chasing a Super Bowl this year. Just ask Sean Payton.

Fortunately, with Coach Ayeni’s background, teaching abilities and “secret sauce,” he’s the perfect coach to jumpstart Harvey’s development as the team enters the playoffs and looks to bring the fourth Lombardi Trophy back to the Mile High City.