Pepper Rodgers

Pepper Rodgers
Sport(s)	Football
Biographical details
Born	October 8, 1931 (1931-10-08) Atlanta, Georgia
Playing career
1951–1953	Georgia Tech
Position(s)	Quarterback, kicker
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1958–1959 1960–1964 1965–1966 1967–1970 1971–1973 1974–1979 1984–1985 1995	Air Force (assistant) Florida (assistant) UCLA (assistant) Kansas UCLA Georgia Tech Memphis Showboats Memphis Mad Dogs
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
2001–2004	Washington Redskins (director of football)
Head coaching record
Overall	73–65–3 (college) 19–19 (USFL) 9–9 (CFL)
Bowls	0–2
Statistics College Football Data Warehouse
Accomplishments and honors
Championships 1 Big Eight (1968)

Franklin C. "Pepper" Rodgers (born October 8, 1931) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Kansas (1967–1970), University of California, Los Angeles (1971–1973), and the Georgia Institute of Technology (1974–1979), compiling a career college football record of 73–65–3. Rodgers was also the head coach of the United States Football League's Memphis Showboats from 1984 to 1985 and of the Canadian Football League's Memphis Mad Dogs in 1995. He also served as the Washington Redskins director of football from 2001 to 2004. At 69, he was considered for the Redskins' head coaching position before Norv Turner's eventual firing during the 2000 season.

Rodgers played college football at Georgia Tech, where he was a member of the Yellow Jackets' 1952 national championship team as a backup quarterback and placekicker. As a coach, he led the Kansas Jayhawks to the Big Eight Conference title in 1968, the program's most recent conference championship. With the Memphis Showboats of the USFL, Rodgers was the first professional coach of future Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White.

Rodgers is the author of Fourth and Long Gone, a fictional book published in 1985 that is a bawdy roman à clef of his experiences as a college football coach and recruiter. He also wrote an autobiography: Pepper, written with Al Thomy. Rodgers graduated from Georgia Tech in 1955.

Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs	Coaches#	AP°
Kansas Jayhawks (Big Eight Conference) (1967–1970)
1967	Kansas	5–5	5–2	T–2nd
1968	Kansas	9–2	6–1	T–1st	L Orange	6	7
1969	Kansas	1–9	0–7	8th
1970	Kansas	5–6	2–5	T–6th
Kansas:		20–22	13–15
UCLA Bruins (Pacific-8 Conference) (1971–1973)
1971	UCLA	2–7–1	1–4–1	8th
1972	UCLA	8–3	5–2	2nd		17	15
1973	UCLA	9–2	6–1	2nd		9	12
UCLA:		19–12–1	12–7–1
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Independent) (1974–1979)
1974	Georgia Tech	6–5
1975	Georgia Tech	7–4
1976	Georgia Tech	4–6–1
1977	Georgia Tech	6–5
1978	Georgia Tech	7–5			L Peach
1979	Georgia Tech	4–6–1
Georgia Tech:		34–31–2
Total:		73–65–3
#Rankings from final Coaches' Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll.

External links

• Official site
• Georgia Tech profile
• Pepper Rodgers at the College Football Data Warehouse