Vols assistant Brian Niedermeyer a rarity from Alaska fishing village [photos]

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Vols assistant Brian Niedermeyer a rarity from Alaska fishing village

KNOXVILLE - Before Brian Niedermeyer ever wore a pair of shoulder pads, he spent his summers during middle school sorting salmon in the commercial fishing industry on the banks of Bristol Bay in an area of southwestern Alaska accessible only by boat or plane.

More recently, Tennessee's 29-year-old first-year tight ends coach slogged through the college football ranks to build a prototypical rèsumè that made him deserving of a full-time opportunity on Jeremy Pruitt's staff.

His personal background just happens to be anything but standard for an assistant football coach in the Southeastern Conference.

Niedermeyer never would have played football if not for a decision made by his mother, Kate, as Brian finished middle school in the rural Alaskan town of King Salmon, about 4,000 miles from Tennessee.

Brian's father, Dennis, worked as the finance director for the Lake and Peninsula School District, which covers an area of remote territory with about the same square mileage as the state of Tennessee and a K-12 student population of roughly 320.

Those 320 students are spread throughout 14 schools, all located in tiny villages. King Salmon - home of the district's central office - has about 75 total students in its school. Wrestling and basketball are available.

Tennessee tight ends coach Brian Niedermeyer talks on the sideline during the Orange and White spring game at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, April 21, 2018 in Knoxville, Tenn.

Football, the sport Brian truly loved, is simply not practical in King Salmon.

"So his mother said, 'We're moving to Anchorage and he's playing football,'" Dennis Niedermeyer recalled in a phone interview this past week. "I said, 'OK, can I go? We moved, one, to get him into a larger high school academic-wise, and also to give him the opportunity to play football.

"We didn't realize this is how it would turn out, but we wanted to give him the opportunity."

Brian took the opportunity further than anyone in Alaska ever dreamed.

If he is not the only NCAA Division I assistant football coach from Alaska, Niedermeyer is one of very few. He could not be interviewed for this story, in accordance with Pruitt's policies, but already is a fan favorite in Knoxville.

Within a day of Pruitt's introduction as head coach at Tennessee in December, Niedermeyer exchanged the crimson he was wearing as Alabama's assistant director of recruiting operations for orange and was in Knoxville promoting the Tennessee program through social media. His work was vital in helping the Volunteers collect an impressive group of December signees.

"It's like winning the lottery, coming here and coaching at the University of Tennessee," Niedermeyer said at the signing day celebration in February.

Or like catching a prize salmon in the chilly waters of Bristol Bay.

Grasp of the game

One of Brian's uncles played at Miami, and his mother is a Notre Dame fan. Before Brian was born, his parents kept up with college football in King Salmon through VHS tapes mailed to them from Boston by Brian's uncle.

Though indigenous people lived in the region long before, King Salmon became a census-designated location in 1960 as a community sprang up around an Air Force base established at the beginning of World War II. The base closed in 1993, just a few years after the town's population grew to nearly 700. Today, there is estimated to be fewer than 400 people living in King Salmon, which is reliant on commercial fishing and the tourism industry.

The Alaska Travel Industry's webpage on King Salmon features a photo of a grizzly bear snagging a salmon from a rushing stream and touts the town's proximity to Katmai National Park and Preserve, which is "one of the best places in Alaska to view grizzly bears in the wild."

After Brian was born in 1988, King Salmon was outfitted with a cable network that allowed the Niedermeyer family to watch games on Saturday on the major networks.

He fell in love with the sport. Still, there was a learning curve when he put on football pads for the first time after the family moved to the Anchorage area, which is about 300 miles from King Salmon - a trip that takes about an hour by plane.

Ryan Landers, now the head coach at Chugiak High School, was volunteering as a coach with the program when Niedermeyer showed up as a freshman at Chugiak. The high school had about twice as many students as the entire town of King Salmon.

Landers remembered Niedermeyer as "a pretty wide-eyed freshman kid."

"He didn't know what was going on," Landers said. "I was a young coach and I was yelling and screaming and all that, and he told me later on years down the line that the first time he saw me that I scared the crap out of him because of my yelling and screaming."

But Landers remembered Niedermeyer as a quick learner who was self-motivated.

Brian Niedermeyer of Chugiak gains some yardage as a Service defender tries to bring him down. Service defeated Chugiak 20 to 14 on Saturday September 16, 2006. Niedermeyer was named King for the Chugiak Homecoming at half time. 060916

By his senior year, Duncan Shackleford, who was Chugiak's head coach at the time, believed Niedermeyer was the best football player in Alaska, proven by his standout performance at the All-Alaska camp that brings in the top players from throughout the state. During the regular season, he set the Chugiak school record for tackles for loss while also playing tight end on offense.

Achieving his dream of playing at the Football Bowl Subdivision level would still take some work, though.

"He was a very good athlete," Shackelford said. "But I'm kind of a realist. I know how many Division I kids there are in Alaska. There ain't many."

Shackelford pitched Niedermeyer on other playing opportunities at smaller colleges, but the player was set on developing further at a junior college in hopes of getting noticed by a Division I program with a long-term goal in mind. Niedermeyer told Shackelford he wanted to coach Division I football and eventually coach in the NFL.

Shackelford laughed as he recalled that exchange recently, and he said he chuckled during the exchange all those years ago.

"I said, 'OK, so really, what do you want to do, Brian?'" Shackelford recalled. "Because for the most part, coaching at that level is a good ol' boys club. Once you get in, you can pretty much make the grade and do some things. But I've known a lot of guys, a lot of great coaches that never got a break."

Niedermeyer has been in the right place at the right time to rise through the coaching ranks, landing entry-level opportunities at Miami, Georgia and Alabama before earning his full-time assistant coaching gig that pays $205,000 annually at Tennessee. He's also been deserving of the opportunities because of a tireless work ethic and intense hunger for football knowledge, according to those who know him.

"That's kind of been his philosophy," Shackelford said.

Series of colleges

Niedermeyer played first at Glendale Community College in Arizona, then transferred to Butte Junior College in northern California under the impression he would play tight end and fullback. At Butte, he played alongside several future Division I players on the school's 2009 team, including former Tennessee offensive lineman Darrin Gooch and former Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers.

"Brian actually ended up playing offensive line for us," Butte coach Rob Snelling said. "He made a sacrifice for the team, which was a tough decision. But for the betterment of the team, he made his move. His sophomore year being only a one-year guy, it was extremely unselfish."

Playing at Butte got Niedermeyer the Division I attention he craved, and he landed at Arkansas-Pine Bluff of the Football Championship Subdivision, where he played tight end in 2011 and 2012.

He stayed on at the historically black university of about 2,500 students in the Southwestern Athletic Conference for an additional year as a defensive student coach.

From there, he went to his uncle's alma mater, Miami, as a volunteer assistant in 2013 and then to East Texas Baptist as wide receivers coach in 2014. Then he landed a graduate assistant position at Georgia in 2015 when Pruitt was the Bulldogs' defensive coordinator.

Tennessee tight ends coach Brian Niedermeyer takes the field for the second half of the Orange and White spring game at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, April 21, 2018 in Knoxville, Tenn.

When Pruitt returned to Alabama as defensive coordinator in 2016, he brought Niedermeyer along as a graduate assistant, which morphed into the role he filled for the Crimson Tide last season as assistant director of recruiting operations.

"He's a football junkie," said Snelling, who keeps in touch with Niedermeyer through regular phone calls. "You don't do the things he's done, move around the country - he's just willing to work for the opportunity. It's very well-deserved. He's put in a lot time. Now to get that full-time opportunity as a position coach, I know he's thrilled."

Making Alaska proud

Back in Alaska, Niedermeyer's former coaches are thrilled for him.

"I've been in this game for almost 40 years, and he puts me to shame in some things," Shackelford said. "What has really set him apart and what people see in him is he has that old country work ethic. He's like an Alaskan country boy."

Shackelford credits that to Niedermeyer's upbringing in a remote fishing village.

"He had to learn how take care of himself, and he had to learn how to get along with a lot of different people, which does him well at Tennessee," Shackelford said.

Niedermeyer traveled back to Alaska last winter to serve as a keynote speaker at a statewide high school football coaches clinic attended by the coaches he once played for and against.

"I thought it was really cool," Landers said. "I've known him. I'm older than him. This is my 13th year now, and to have him come up and do that clinic was definitely eye-opening and enlightening. You see what the next level really, truly is just as far as how detail-oriented it is and that kind of stuff."

A guy who could be pompous about his improbable rise through the coaching profession was humble and patient, willing to teach the nuances of a game he had the opportunity to learn, thanks to his family's move just before Niedermeyer's high school years.

This week, Dennis Niedermeyer reflected on the decision to move to Anchorage that was spearheaded by his wife all those years ago. Though Dennis is taken aback by the amount of commitment his son's job requires, he said he is proud.

Tennessee tight ends coach Brian Niedermeyer uses a whiteboard on the sideline during the Orange and White spring game at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, April 21, 2018 in Knoxville, Tenn.

The parents are planning a journey from Alaska - and it is a journey - to Knoxville for Tennessee's home games against East Tennessee State and UTEP this September.

"We have our own outfits already," Dennis Niedermeyer said. "We've already dumped all the red and have gone to orange."

Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.