HOUSTON (AP) -Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub seemed comfortable and confident enough last season, leading the NFL with 4,770 yards passing.
But offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is gone now. He left to join his father, Mike, the new coach of the Washington Redskins. The Texans have brought in Greg Knapp, who coached Schaub in Atlanta.
Knapp and Schaub have picked up their relationship where it left off, cracking jokes and testing each other with movie trivia during meetings. The hardest part now might be making sure they don’t ruin a good thing, since the Texans had the league’s No. 1 passing offense in 2009.
“We’re staying with what we do, because it was effective and it was good,” Schaub said. “We just want to polish up some things and maybe be a little more consistent. But we’re not going to change what we do.”
Schaub was drafted by Atlanta in 2004, and Knapp was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator from 2004-06. Schaub was Michael Vick’s backup until the Texans acquired him to become their starter in March 2007.
and became available when coach Jim Mora was fired. Houston coach Gary Kubiak had never worked with Knapp, although both served as quarterbacks coach for Steve Young in San Francisco in the 1990s.
“We brought him in here because of his relationship with Matt,” Kubiak said. “But I also knew that people spoke very highly of him. I’m impressed with how he coaches – very detailed, great relationship with his players, a lot of information when he talks to them.”
Schaub said Knapp’s arrival gave him a head start on preparations for this season.
“We didn’t have to get adjusted to each other at all, personality-wise,” Schaub said. “Right away, it was like, ‘Let’s get in the room and start working and watching film.’ We just click, so it was full-speed ahead.”
Schaub wouldn’t seem to need much help after completing 68 percent of his passes and throwing 29 touchdown passes with only 15 interceptions a year ago.
Knapp made the same assumption about Young, a Hall of Famer and two-time Most Valuable Player, who was nearing the end of his playing career when Knapp became San Francisco’s quarterbacks coach in 1998. Young is two years older, but to Knapp’s surprise, he was the one asking for guidance.
“He pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, I need to be coached,”’ Knapp said. “From that point on, I thought that if this guy – a two-time MVP who has more knowledge and experience than I’ll ever have – wants me to coach him, then no matter who I coach, I feel like I can help.
“You can always improve a guy’s game,” Knapp said. “Matt loves that, too, I think. He wants to be trained, he wants to be corrected. Hopefully, I can do that.”
Schaub respects whatever advice Knapp has to offer.
“There are always things you look back on the previous season and you want to improve,” Schaub said. “You never have everything down, and there were a couple things with my footwork and we worked on them.”
Knapp realized in Atlanta that he and Schaub meshed well because they can stay calm under pressure.
“We both think through things pretty clearly in the battle zone,” Knapp said. “You won’t (get) much screaming from me, and you won’t see much emotion from him. I think we’re both cerebral-type guys when it comes to this job, and I think that fits together well.”
Schaub said they also share similarly dry senses of humor. To add some levity in meetings, the two will often test each other with movie trivia.
“It makes us work that much harder to stump the other one,” Schaub said. “It cuts down on the grind of everything. It makes everything more enjoyable. It makes it all more fun.”
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