ELF: Madrid Bravos HC Rip Scherer wants his team playing with a chip on their shoulders – “If we ever think we have arrived, we’ll be gone”

Since taking over as head coach of the Madrid Bravos this season, Rip Scherer has definitely had an impact on the European League of Football.

The Bravos were a brand new team in Spain, a country that is outside the mainstream of football in Europe and that already had a team. But Scherer has his team in second place in the ELF West conference with a 5-1 record and has knocked off the defending champs.

Given his background in football, maybe this is not so surprising. He has been in coaching for nearly 50 years, with stops at both the collegiate and NFL levels.  In 2023, he served as a senior advisor to University of Alabama at Birmingham head coach Trent Dilfer.

Scherer has coached at three NFL teams, most recently with the Los Angeles Chargers, where he coached tight ends from 2018-2020.  He also was an assistant head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 2005-2008, as well as a quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator with the Carolina Panthers from 2009-2010.

He has a much more extensive background coaching collegiately. His first big role came at Georgia Tech, where he was the offensive coordinator from 1980-1986.  After stints as the offensive coordinator at Alabama and Arizona, he became the head coach of James Madison University in 1991, here he led the Dukes to multiple appearances in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.  Scherer was then hired at the University of Memphis, where he served as the head coach from 1995-2000.  

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Scherer played quarterback at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.  He got into coaching immediately following the conclusion of his playing days in 1973, and has remained in football ever since, although this is the first time he has coached outside of the United States.

AFI: This is your first year coaching in Europe with a brand new team and you have stunned the entire league. Has your early success surprised you?

Scherer: In our opener I had no idea what to expect. We were up on Barcelona 36 zip at the half which I never saw coming. Then we go to Dusseldorf and we are up 15-0 against the Fire and we were in command of the game although I don’t think they were ready to play against us right then.They definitely were the second time though. Still, the Rhein game gave me the idea that we could maybe compete in this league. I wasn’t delusional in thinking we got the best Rhein Fire team that day. We got it later. I had a sense that we could be more than competitive. Now whether we could be sitting here at 5-1 is another thing. As a football coach you have to go into every game thinking you are going to win.  We are by far not the most talented team but we play hard, we play very simple defensively. I think we do things offensively not better than everybody else but with a little different approach. It’s more of a true pro style approach offensively and there’s only a few teams in the league that do that. A lot of the teams are spread, wide open with four wides. So we have a little advantage in that we are different than most teams in the league and so they don’t get to see it that often. But it’s like I tell our team. We’ve gone from being the hunter to a little bit of the hunted.

AFI: With your vast coaching background, what has struck you the most about the football you have seen so far in Europe?

Scherer: Obviously it’s not as far along as back home but the game has clearly come a long way here. I run this team exactly like I would an NFL team. We take a little different approach than other teams in this league. Most teams practice Tuesday, Thursday, walk through Friday and then they play. We bring our skills guys in every Wednesday and we meet with them and we install our red zone and third down passing game and then we go out and have a 30-play 7-on-7 pass skeleton, trying to get an extra day, especially in the passing game. I think that’s the most difficult thing, getting your timing down and spacing. So we steal an extra day a week with our skill guys and they really enjoy it. We do things just like an NFL team. I don’t know what to compare it to. The detail, the expectation. We hold the players to a high standard and they try to reach it. But the thing that stands out to me is that it is refreshing to coach here. The entitlement you run into in college and high school football you don’t see here. These guys want to be coached. No matter how hard you coach them, not that you’re trying to break them, they don’t sulk, they don’t let it get to them. I had to tell the team once that when we correct you, you don’t need to apologize. That’s our job. To help you get better. It’s just refreshing. This is my 50th year in this business as well and my entire coaching staff almost have been doing this most of their lives and this guys here give you hope the way they respond.

AFI: What adjustments/improvements do you want to see in the Bravos as the ELF heads into the second half of the season?

Scherer: Well playing teams like Rhein and Paris who run the ball effectively, we’re not big up front, we have to move our guys around. We just have to keep making adjustments defensively to keep pace and then we have to continue to try to be creative offensively to stay ahead of the curve. We scout thoroughly and also know what our tendencies are. I don’t know how much other people do that with us but we do it with other teams. There’s good coaches in this league. I tell people that all the time. It’s not like we’re out coaching anybody because there are a lot of quality coaches in this league. Some from the US, some from Europe. They’re impressive. But we need to continue to adjust and try to stay ahead of the curve in terms of what we are doing without getting so cute that we kill ourselves. What strikes me about this league, especially after Week 9. is that it becomes a bit of a game of attrition. For whatever reason you can’t make an adjustment to your roster after Week 9. We just have to stay healthy and continue to play hard. We have to play with a bit of a chip on our shoulder every week because if we ever think we have “arrived” then we’ll be gone. Our confidence level is a lot different than it was seven weeks ago but there’s still guys on our team wondering how good we really are. I’m still not sure.

AFI: The ELF has some interesting rules including the kickoff rule, a version of which the NFL is adopting. What other rules changes, if any, would you like to see?

Scherer: The kickoff rule is interesting. I know it’s a safety feature. But the NFL will study it to a degree that no one else is capable of. They’re going to get creative with it and I think the rest of us will follow suit. Everybody steals from everyone else. I was surprised after a safety. I thought they were going to move it back but that’s not the rule. You get a safety and the ball is still kicked off from the same spot. So I am wondering what the benefit is of getting a safety.We go back and forth. Should we force the return and try to kick it between the 20 and 10, or the 10 and the goal line or do you just go and kick it out and take the ball on the 30 yard line and let it roll. It changes who you have on cover teams. We are putting more DBs and speedier guys on the cover teams to try to disrupt the return early. I would like to see two rule changes. I would like to be able to replace players after Week 9 and I think every team should be allowed to have two American quarterbacks, one sub ready to go because the game falls off significantly for every team when their starting quarterback goes down.