EXCLUSIVE: A decorated college coach explains why he sees Drew Brees in Denver Broncos’ QB Bo Nix

Utah’s head football coach Kyle Whittingham knows Denver Broncos‘ quarterback Bo Nix all too well.

On Oct. 28 last year, Nix led the 6-1 Oregon Ducks into Salt Lake City to face Whittingham’s 6-1 Utah Utes in a nationally televised battle between two top 15 teams in the country.

The battle, however, was over quickly, thanks in large part to Bo Nix.

“Boy, he did a number on us this year,” Whittingham told the DNVR Broncos Podcast, when asked what the 6-foot-2 quarterback brings to the Broncos. “He is tremendous.”

In Oregon’s 35-6 route over Utah, Nix threw for 248 yards on 77.4 percent completion—the exact same record-setting completion percentage he had over the entire season—and added three total touchdowns with not a single turnover.

“He’s, first of all, got that ultimate field general mentality that you want in a quarterback,” Utah’s head coach told DNVR.

After Nix sliced up Utah’s tough defense, it’s no surprise Whittingham dished out compliments about the Broncos’ new quarterback.

“Just as far as details, his completions percentage is uncanny. He does get the ball out quick, but he gets it out quick and puts it right where it needs to be,” Whittingham stated, thinking back to his two games facing Nix, in which Utah lost both. “I think he was about 80 percent this past season, completion percentage, which is off the charts. I mean, if you can get 65 percent, you’re doing really good. He’s a guy that was completing a bunch of balls.”

Nix’s 77.4 completion percentage was so good, in fact, it set the FBS single-season record. In his two years at Oregon, Nix had a combined mind-blowing 74.9 completion percentage.

“Tough to sack, obviously that goes hand-in-hand with getting the ball out quick,” Whittingham said. “Makes such quick decisions, such a quick processor that very seldom do you have a chance to get home.”

But Coach Whitttingham didn’t stop there.

The second-longest tenured head coach in the FBS took his praise and compliments toward Denver’s new quarterback one step further.

“I don’t know Drew Brees, all I did was watch him from afar, but there are some similarities there,” the experienced football coach said, comparing the rookie to the Hall-of-Fame quarterback. “I think Coach Payton is really going to like Bo and I think he’s probably going to find that there’s probably a lot of common ground between him and Drew Brees. Now, he’s got miles to go before he gets to that level. Obviously Drew Brees was one of the best to ever do it. But that’s the mold he comes from, in my opinion.”

That comparison is music to Sean Payton‘s ears after Denver’s coach helped mold Brees into one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the NFL.

When Payton and the Broncos used the 12th-overall pick on Nix, analysts across the country almost immediately began the Brees comparisons. But Coach Whittingham isn’t an analyst looking for clicks or attention. He’s an experienced head coach who has game planned against Nix twice over the past two seasons and lost both matchups. And he went out of his way to point out the similarities with Nix and Brees.

Coach Whittingham also pointed to Nix’s intangibles that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

“He is an alpha dog,” Whittingham stated. “I don’t know him personally, but you can just see it on the field. He exudes leadership. You can tell that he has great command of the whole offense. He is the focal point, all of the players rally around him.”

“Tremendous,” “Alpha dog” and “off the charts” were a few of the ways Coach Whittingham described the Broncos’ new quarterback. But the most eye-popping compliment Utah’s head coach gave Nix was comparing him to Sean Payton’s former quarterback Drew Brees.

It’s safe to say Bo Nix made quite an impression on Coach Whittingham during their time together in the Pac-12 Conference.