Rams coordinator began career as a youth pastor

Nate Scheelhaase now directs one of the most efficient offenses in the National Football League.

The 35-year-old offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams was promoted to his current position last winter. His path to that role began in 2014, when he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to work with teenagers at Southeast Christian Church. The congregation is one of the largest megachurches in the United States. During that year, Scheelhaase visited dozens of high schools and volunteered as a chaplain for two football teams.

Scheelhaase had been a four-year starting quarterback at the University of Illinois, but he did not plan to coach immediately after his playing career ended. He married a few months after his college career concluded in late 2013. He questioned whether he wanted to raise a family in a profession with frequent job changes and instability. He contacted Jason Epperson, a local pastor who had served as the Illinois team chaplain. Epperson had just taken a position at Southeast in Louisville, where a youth pastor role was available.

Scheelhaase accepted the position, citing his background as a devout Christian who grew up outside Kansas City, Missouri. He focused on building trust with the young people he served. He drove an eighth-grade student, Nate Hobbs, to practices after the boy’s father died. Hobbs later became a defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers. Scheelhaase described Hobbs as one of his closest friends.

The experience at Eastern High School in 2014 changed Scheelhaase’s mind about coaching. He led a chapel service for the football players but received little response. When the school’s head coach delivered the pregame speech, the room reacted with energy. Scheelhaase said that moment triggered his desire to influence players through coaching. By the start of the 2015 football season, he was back at Illinois, coaching running backs.

He said the skills he developed in ministry transferred directly to the football locker room. He noted that coaches ask players to do difficult and counterintuitive things, such as blocking when they prefer to catch the ball. He believes that deep personal connection allows players to accept those demands. He said he enjoys seeing common ground between people from different walks of life. That approach mirrors the work he did in Louisville.

Scheelhaase became a coordinator at Iowa State in 2023. He left that position a year later to join Sean McVay’s staff in Los Angeles as an offensive assistant. He spent time using software to manually draw plays for McVay. McVay called him a rising star in 2025. Scheelhaase was promoted to offensive coordinator last winter, a move that placed him in charge of the Rams' offense for the 2026 season.