Deion Branch Is Ready To Retire From Coaching After One Game

Former NFL wide receiver Deion Branch says he's ready to put an end to his head coaching career after one win.

He'll go down as one of college football's most successful coaches in history with a 100% win percentage (technically that's true).

Branch spent 11 years in the NFL playing for the Patriots and Seahawks. In January, he returned to his alma mater — the University of Louisville — as the football program's director of player development.

Coaching was not on his radar.

However, Lousiville head coach Scott Satterfield took a new job as the head coach at Cincinnati after their previous head coach, Luke Fickell, moved on to coach the Wisconsin Badgers.

This left the Cardinals in a bit of a bind ahead of their Fenway Bowl meeting with — of all teams — the Bearcats for a post-season Keg of Nails showdown.

Deion Branch and his Lousiville Cardinals celebrate their Fenway Bowl win over the Cincinnati Bearcats on Saturday. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)

Deion Branch's Head Coaching Debut Went Well To Say The Least

So, Branch stepped up and led the team to a 24-7 victory. Impressive stuff in his head coaching debut, but now Branch will turn over the program's reigns to incoming head coach Jeff Brohm, who announced his departure from Purdue a couple of weeks ago.

"It's so hard for you to practice on Tuesday, you come in on a Wednesday to practice and next thing you know, the coach that was in the room on Tuesday, he's been plucked away on Wednesday,” Branch told the Courier Journal after the Fenway Bowl. “And then the same exact thing happens on a Thursday. You lose another coach, and then you lose another assistant coach. That's tough on these young men. I feel for them.”

So does that mean he might look to go that route in the future?

“I'm pretty sure I'll get some phone calls to become some sort of head coach at some point,” he said. “But I think as of right now, I'm enjoying, I'm relishing in the moment. And yeah, as of now I'm retired.”

If that's the end of Deion Branch's coaching career what a (one game) journey it was.

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