Bo Nix, the Broncos' starter as a rookie, was born to be a quarterback

One could say Bo Nix was born to play quarterback.

Nix is the son of Patrick Nix, an Auburn star quarterback from 1992-95 who led the Tigers to an 11-0 season in 1993. He then went into coaching, and Bo was born in 2000.

Patrick Nix went from job to job, including being head coach at Henderson State in Arkadelphia, Ala., where Bo was born. Then he was an assistant at Samford in Alabama, Georgia Tech, Miami of Florida and Charleston (S.C.) Southern. All the while, Bo Nix was preparing himself for a football career.

“My grandfather (legendary Georgia high school coach Conrad Nix) was a coach, and my dad was a coach, and really from the moment I can remember, football is what I wanted to do, and I wanted to play quarterback,’’ Nix said.

It has worked out quite well for Nix. He went on to become an Alabama high school star and play in college at Auburn and Oregon and on Sunday at Seattle he will become just the second Broncos rookie quarterback to start a season opener. The first was John Elway in 1983.

“Not many people have this opportunity,’’ said Nix, taken with the No. 12 pick in the April draft. “So, you definitely want to make the most of it and see if you can’t make it run for a long time.”

Nix, 24, has been preparing for this moment for a long time, and his father played a key role in his development.

“He knew that was my goal (to be a quarterback) and sometimes as a young kid I didn’t necessarily have the work ethic to pursue that goal,’’ Nix said. “So, he was very disciplined in how he raised me and he’s a big reason what got me here.”

By the time Nix was in the third grade, discussions at the kitchen table often revolved around quarterback techniques. He watched game film.

His father worked with him on throwing drills. Often a field for that wasn’t even needed.

“He taught me drops and coverages and footwork,’’ Nix said. “I remember taking drops in the living room. I remember going over coverages at a young age. When I was in the fifth, sixth grade I started being his ball boy at Charleston Southern, shagging for the guys. That’s where I learned the game more and more. In the sixth grade, I would sit in the press box and watch the game from up there and listen to the coaches.”

Patrick Nix was an assistant coach at Charleston Southern from 2010-12, including serving as offensive coordinator his final two seasons there. But in 2013, when Nix was in the seventh grade, he took over as head coach at Scottsboro (Ala.) High School.

By the next season, Nix was an eighth grader at Scottsboro Junior High School. The high school team had an injury at quarterback, and Nix was called upon by his dad to take over the starting job.

“We didn’t really have anybody else,’’ Nix said. “I got the call out of the bullpen and went out there and played.”

Did he ever.

While in the eighth grade in 2014, Nix threw five touchdown passes in a playoff game against heavily favored Clay-Chalkville. The Cougars won 85-50 but then Clay-Chalkville coach Jerry Hood will never forget Nix’s showing.

“We knew he could run, and we were trying to make sure we kept him in the pocket,’’ said Hood, now head coach at Leeds (Ala.) High School. “He took a beating, but he just kept throwing and kept on completing passes. You could tell then that this kid was going to be a great, great football player.”

Nix became the regular starting quarterback for Scottsboro High in the ninth and 10th grade. Then his father took the head position at Pinson Valley (Ala.) High, and his son followed him there.

Nix rewrote Alabama high school records and led the Indians to a 28-1 record in two seasons while winning two state titles. As a senior in 2018, he threw for 3,795 yards and 50 touchdowns.

“He and his dad would sit around, and draw plays up all night,’’ Michael Turner, the principal at Pinson Valley, said about Bo and Patrick Nix, who has been head coach at Phenix City (Ala.) High School since 2020. “Interestingly, I would go to the (football offices) and Bo would be in there with the coaches, the offensive line coach, the running backs coach and the receivers coach. He’d be on the board drawing plays and I thought it was pretty intriguing the quarterback was actually coaching the coaches. It showed how he was years ahead in maturity and playing ability.”

Turner said Nix was a “4.0 student” and “an ambassador” for the school while being the No. 1 dual quarterback recruit in the nation. With his stats at both schools combined, he set Alabama high school records with 12,497 yards of total offense, 10,386 passing yards and with 161 touchdowns accounted for, including 127 through the air.

Put it all together and then-Auburn coach Gus Malzahn knew he had to land Nix.

“We had known when he was going into the ninth grade, he was going to be really good and, of course, his dad was an Auburn legend, so we started recruiting him then,’’ said Malzahn, who was at Auburn from 2013-2020 and is now Central Florida’s coach. “Any opposing coach you talked to back then would tell you he was the best high school quarterback they had ever seen. When he came to Auburn, it was one of the biggest things that happened the whole time I was there from a recruiting standpoint.’’

Nix had an immediate impact for the Tigers. In his first college game as a true freshman in 2019, he threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Seth Williams with 9 seconds left to give 16th-ranked Auburn a 27-21 win over No. 11 Oregon in Arlington, Texas.

Malzahn called it a game “that established his legacy.” But Kenny Dillingham, then the offensive coordinator at Auburn, said there was another side to Nix’s debut.

“That game was probably one of the most bittersweet things that happened to him,’’ said Dillingham, now head coach at Arizona State. “That game rose the expectations for him really, really quickly. It definitely put more pressure on him to produce.

“I can’t put into words how much pressure was put onto this kid. He was expected to be the savior of Auburn football. Your dad played there. You were the number one recruit in the country. The expectations were for him to win the national championship and to win the Heisman Trophy.”

Nix was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2019, throwing for 2,542 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions as the Tigers went 9-4. But he didn’t take off in the next two years as much as some had anticipated.

In 2020, the Tigers slipped to 6-5, with Malzahn being fired before their bowl game. Nix threw for 2,415 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Malzahn said it was a “weird year” because of the coronavirus affecting football.

The next year was an even bigger challenge for Nix under new coach Bryan Harsin. The Tigers went 6-7 with Nix being benched during a portion of one game and missing the final three games due to a broken ankle. In the 10 games he played, he did throw for 2,293 yards with 11 touchdowns and three interceptions.

Still, after the season Nix said he was “miserable” playing under Harsin and he announced his intention to transfer.

“I had three great years at Auburn,’’ Nix said after he joined the Broncos. “It was a dream come true. It was what I wanted to do my entire life. I was able to do it, and we had a lot of exceptional games, great days. I think at the end of the day when I graduated, I just wanted a chance to play for a championship.”

Enter Dillingham again. After the 2019 season, he became offensive coordinator at Florida State from 2020-21 and then took that position at Oregon in 2022. He became aware of Nix being in the transfer portal.

“When I got to Oregon, we needed a quarterback,’’ Dillingham said. “Obviously, he had his struggles at Auburn and never really progressed from his freshman year. But I knew the type of player he was and the type of mindset he had, and I thought, ‘This dude is a first-rounder.’ I said to (Oregon coach Dan Lanning), ‘This is the guy I want to lead our offense.’ Then I called Bo, and I said, ‘Listen, I believe in you.’”

Nix was thrilled at the chance to be reunited with Dillingham and transferred to Oregon for the 2022 season.

“Coach Dillingham had a vision of, ‘This is what we want to do. We want to give you the keys and let you go drive the car,’’’ Nix said.

After Nix arrived on campus, Dillingham worked with him on protections and running checks and also brought a lighter side to his teaching.

“I loosened him up,’’ Dillingham said. “I’m a jokester. That’s my personality. I tried to get him to relax and and enjoy the game again.”

That worked in 2022, when Nix threw for 3,593 yards with 29 touchdowns with just seven interceptions. And the next year Nix was even better.

Dillingham in 2023 left to take over the Sun Devils. But under new offensive coordinator Will Stein, Nix threw for an astounding 4,508 yards with 45 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He set an NCAA record by completing 77.4% percent of his passes and finished third in voting for the Heisman as the Ducks went 12-2.

“We just carried over what we started (in 2022), and we had another great season,’’ Nix said.

In his five seasons at Auburn and Oregon, Nix started a college-record 61 games at quarterback. Looking back at his time at Oregon, Lanning was thrilled with how it worked out.

“I 100% always felt like every game I was walking on the field with another coach who just happens to play for us, and I think that’s where his maturity shows up. … It was a really healthy marriage,’’ Lanning said. “Bo worked his tail off every single day, and he took advantage of his great skill set. He was surrounded by some other great players. He was excited to be surrounded by people who believed in him.”

One of those who believed in Nix was wide receiver Troy Franklin, his favorite receiver at Oregon. After Nix was selected by Denver on April 25 in the first round of the draft, Franklin was taken by the Broncos two days later in the fourth round.

“Bo’s the type of quarterback that you would want on your team,’’ Franklin said. “He leads the offense. He knows what everybody else is doing, including on defense.”

Those in Denver are starting to see what Franklin means. Nix battled Jarrett Stidham for the starting quarterback job in spring drills and at the start of training camp, but once preseason play began, he won the job easily.

Playing the first two of Denver’s three preseason games, Nix completed 23 of 30 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns. Shortly after the second preseason game, Broncos coach Sean Payton did the obvious and named Nix his starter. And on Wednesday he announced that teammates had voted Nix one of Denver’s six captains.

“It’s a first for me (to have a rookie captain),’’ said Payton, in his 17th season as an NFL head coach. “I think it is what it is. I think it’s a credit to him, and I think his teammates felt that he belonged in that position.”

Ever since Nix showed up at Broncos Park last spring, teammates have been talking about his maturity. That is something Nix has taken pride in.

“It’s just a situation I’ve put myself in,’’ Nix said. “I’ve been through a lot and am old for my situation. But I’ve played a lot of games in high school, a lot of games in college. I guess it’s the experiences. It just kind of shows through in my demeanor.”

After all, Nix was born to be a quarterback.