Natural progression

McDaniels always possessed skills for speedy rise

When a wide receiver who is averaging 20 yards per reception tells you he's open, as a coach you have to listen. But it wasn't courtesy that compelled Greg Debeljak to pay attention to Josh McDaniels. It was something more. The kid knew what he was talking about.

"As a coach, you tend to not listen to most guys at receiver because they just want the ball, but when Josh talked, he talked coverages and what he thought was open and he knew what he was talking about," said Debeljak, who was the wide receivers coach at John Carroll University from 1995-98. "He was a guy on the field you could trust.

"Anybody around him knew that he knew what he was doing, and if he got into coaching, he was going to be a great coach."

The rise of McDaniels through the coaching ranks might seem meteoric - in 1998, he was averaging 20.2 yards per catch for John Carroll, a Division 3 school outside Cleveland, and less than 10 years later, he is the offensive coordinator of the undefeated Patriots, a team that set NFL records for most touchdowns (75) and points (589) in a season. He is one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the National Football League. But like the offense he orchestrates, McDaniels's coaching progression has been carefully planned and executed, following a design of both prodigy and progeny.

That's why the 31-year-old McDaniels waved off the advances of the Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons, both of whom sought permission to interview him for their head coaching vacancies during the Patriots' playoff bye week, saying all his efforts are focused on preparing the Patriots for tonight's Divisional game at Gillette Stadium against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The in-demand apprentice of New England coach Bill Belichick will guide his own NFL team someday soon - Belichick called McDaniels one of the best coaches he's worked with - but he's too circumspect to follow blind ambition.

What's the rush? McDaniels has always been ahead of schedule.

Getting an education

In 1999, McDaniels, who switched from quarterback to wide receiver at John Carroll and in two seasons had 41 receptions for 732 yards and seven touchdowns, averaging 17.9 yards per catch, elected to forgo his final season of eligibility to join the coaching staff of Michigan State as a graduate assistant under Nick Saban. McDaniels was 23.

"We were trying to keep him. It's like when you lose a guy going into his senior year for the NFL draft," said Tony DeCarlo, the head coach at John Carroll from 1987-99. "In an academic setting like John Carroll, a number of kids pass up football and work on a master's degree or ended up going to medical school or business school. We did lose some kids, but I don't know of anyone else to do it for coaching, that's for sure."

DeCarlo tried to change the kid's mind, but he knew it was fruitless. Coaching was in his blood. McDaniels's father, Thom, is a legendary figure in Northeast Ohio high school football.

In 33 seasons on the sidelines, Thom McDaniels has a 201-69 record, and that's after going 4-6 this season, his first at Jackson High in Massillon. He spent 25 years as coach at Canton McKinley, winning a state title in 1997, and then moved on to Warren Harding High, where he coached Maurice Clarett.

McDaniels, who played quarterback for his father at McKinley, had actually taken a year off from football in 1996 to coach with him. McDaniels played six games at quarterback for John Carroll in 1995, but then lost the starting job to Nick Caserio, now the Patriots' wide receivers coach.

That was a tough blow for the diminutive McDaniels, who always had compensated for his lack of size (5 feet 10 inches, 160 pounds) with uncanny decision-making.

"You would wonder how he was going to stand up and deliver the ball," remembered Debeljak, who recruited McDaniels and is now the coach at Case Western Reserve. "But in high school, he just made play after play, and always the right play to make. That stood out on film. It wasn't his arm or how fast he was, it was, 'Look, that's another great decision.' "

It was on the Michigan State coaching staff that McDaniels met his avenue to New England, another young coach, Brian Daboll.

After the 2000 season, Belichick had promised Daboll that he could move up from Patriots coaching assistant to wide receivers coach if he could find a suitable replacement who would be willing to take over Daboll's grunt work. Daboll, who left the Patriots last offseason to become the Jets' quarterbacks coach, recommended McDaniels, who had been out of football in 2000, selling plastics.

McDaniels joined the Patriots in 2001, just in time to witness the birth of an iconic quarterback in Tom Brady and a budding dynasty. After three seasons as a defensive coaching assistant, breaking down tape and making charts, McDaniels was named quarterbacks coach in 2004.

At the controls

It was the big question in 2005: Just who was pulling the strings of the Patriots' offense? Charlie Weis, who had game-planned the Patriots to three Super Bowl victories, had gone to wake up the echoes at Notre Dame, and Belichick was spending an awful lot of time with the offense.

Putting Brady under the auspices of a 29-year-old coach with one year as a position coach was like handing the keys to a Lamborghini to a 16-year-old who just got his license. However, that's exactly what Belichick did, although not publicly. Publicly, the Patriots' masthead remained conspicuously absent of an offensive coordinator.

The Patriots were seventh in total offense in the NFL in 2005 (352 yards per game) and 10th in points per game (23.7).

McDaniels, who retained the title of quarterbacks coach, was officially named offensive coordinator last season. However, his job got harder when the Patriots lost wide receiver David Givens to free agency, then traded wide receiver Deion Branch to the Seattle Seahawks one day after the season opener. The Patriots dipped to 11th in the NFL in total offense (335.6), but rose to seventh in scoring (24.1).

This season, with the offseason upgrade at wide receiver - which brought Wes Welker, who set a franchise record and tied for the NFL lead with 112 receptions; Donte' Stallworth; and Randy Moss, who set an NFL record with 23 touchdown receptions - McDaniels has been the maestro of the one of the greatest offenses in NFL history.

The Patriots led the league in total offense at 411.3 yards per game and scored 36.8 points per game, the second-best average in NFL history. Brady threw an NFL-record 50 touchdown passes.

"I believe it is the best offense I've seen since I've been involved with the NFL, as a player, an analyst, in any role, and that goes back to 1973," said ESPN's Ron Jaworski. "It has every dimension that you would want in an offense."

No longer a callow coordinator, McDaniels has become a confident orchestrator.

"I think Josh has done an extraordinary job," said backup quarterback Matt Cassel, who spends a lot of time with McDaniels in the quarterbacks' meetings. "You can especially see his development from year one to year three - his confidence, his ability to put together a game plan, his ability to explain it, the demanding of attention that he gets when he comes into the room.

"Everybody respects what he's able to do and how he's able to do it. When he comes into the room and he's saying something, there's a lot more authority - not that he didn't have it before - but obviously, with his accomplishments over the last few seasons, it holds a tremendous amount of weight when he speaks."

On-the-job training

It is only this season that McDaniels has been given a chance to craft his public persona, as Belichick, who has traditionally subscribed to the one-voice theory of management, has allowed his coordinators, McDaniels and Dean Pees (defense), to meet the press.

Looking every bit the part of a head coach at the dais that is usually the domain of Belichick, McDaniels has been engaging, but rarely revealing. It's just another step in his education as a coach.

On Thursday, the first time he'd addressed his situation since he released a statement Jan. 3 saying he wasn't interested in pursuing head coaching positions at that time, McDaniels brushed off questions about how close he came to interviewing for those jobs. Just like his days at quarterback, he took in all the information he was given and made the best decision for him.

"It was really that simple. I love my job here right now," said McDaniels.

The feeling is mutual, but it's only a matter of time before McDaniels follows in the footsteps of another John Carroll alumnus, Don Shula, and becomes an NFL head coach. Shula, whose name graces John Carroll's stadium, was 33 when he was hired by the Baltimore Colts. McDaniels will be 32 in April.

He's still on schedule.

"I don't know how much age matters," said Shula. "I think it's just a matter of who fits where and whether or not people perceive you as the guy for the job, and you just have to have the confidence to go out and do it."

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com.