Ted Tollner

Ted Alfred Tollner (born May 29 1940) is a football coach who has worked as a head coach in college football and as an assistant coach in the National Football League.

Playing career

He attended California Polytechnic State University, where he was a quarterback on the 1960 team that suffered a plane crash in which 22 people were killed.

Coaching career

High school

He began his coaching career as the offensive coordinator (and later head coach) at Woodside High School in California in 1963.

College

He then coached at College of San Mateo from 1968 to 1972. He served as the offensive coordinator for San Diego State from 1973 to 1980. He also served as the quarterbacks coach at Brigham Young in 1981.

He became offensive coordinator of the USC Trojans football program under head coach John Robinson in 1982, and succeeded to the head coaching position a year later when Robinson stepped down to take an administrative post at the university (Robinson departed soon afterward to become head coach of the Los Angeles Rams). During his four-year tenure Tollner compiled a 26-20-1 record. He led the Trojans to the Pacific-10 conference championship in 1984. That team defeated Ohio State in the 1985 Rose Bowl game. He was replaced as the USC head coach by Larry Smith after the 1986 season after going 1-3 in the UCLA-USC rivalry and 0-4 vs. Notre Dame in the Notre Dame-USC rivalry.

In 1994, he returned to San Diego State, this time as the head coach. He coached there for 8 years and led the Aztecs to a 43-48 record until his firing in 2001.

NFL

He served as the wide receivers coach for the Buffalo Bills from 1987 to 1988. He served as the offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers from 1989 to 1991. He served as the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams from 1992 to 1993. In 2002, he then became the quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers. After two successful seasons, he was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2004. When Dennis Erickson was fired as head coach, he was not retained. In 2005, he became the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions. When Steve Mariucci and several of his assistants were fired 11 weeks into the season, Tollner was demoted to Tight End Coach for the remainder of the season. [http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2239336]

In late 2006, he was listed as a potential candidate for the head coaching opening for the University of San Diego that later went to Ron Caragher [http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/usd/20061230-9999-1s30usdfb.html] [http://usdtoreros.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/010907aaa.html] .

In late 2007 it was announced that he would serve as offensive assistant for the San Francisco 49ers in a late season attempt to revive the lacking offense and is expected to help Jim Hostler in the play calling. [http://49ers.pressdemocrat.com/default.asp?item=702078]

In early 2008 Tollner was named quarterbacks coach/assistant to the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers to get a permanent role in the organization again. [http://49ers.pressdemocrat.com/default.asp?item=738070]

External links

* [http://www.detroitlions.com/bio.cfm?bio_id=263 Detroit Lions profile]