Oklahoma State Offensive Coordinator Sean Brophy Played for Two Big 12 Head Coaches

Sean Brophy’s quarterbacking career took him farther than most, but in some ways its remarkable that a guy who played at the FCS level was coached by two Power Conference head coaches.

We had learned some of Brophy’s backstory this spring, when Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris told the story about how one of his first major interactions with Brophy was to bench him as Incarnate Word’s starting quarterback.

Well, it turns out that before that, Brophy was playing for Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham in high school. Sports360AZ released an excellent piece this week detailing how Brophy, now OSU’s offensive coordinator, played under Dillingham at Chaparral High School in Arizona.

“He was my first quarterback that I ever coached when I was the freshman offensive coordinator at Chaparral High School,” Dillingham told Sports360AZ. “Sean Paul Brophy was the quarterback for the team. And then my first job as the varsity OC, he was my quarterback.”

After that stint at Chaparral, Dillingham began his college coaching career as an offensive assistant at Arizona State in 2014 before climbing the ladder with stints at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon before getting the head job at his alma mater.

Following his time at Chaparral, Brophy went to Glendale Community College for a year before transferring to Incarnate Word ahead of the 2017 season. Brophy threw for 1,277 yards and 11 touchdowns in 11 games in that first season at UIW, but then Morris got to town. Morris turned to freshman Jon Copeland to be the Cardinals’ starter in 2018.

“Our relationship started off not very good,” Morris said in the spring. “Not for anything he did or anything in particular, but one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had as a coach was when Sean was the starting quarterback at Incarnate Word before I got there. He was the starting quarterback all through spring ball. We had a true freshman come in and gave us a chance to be a little more mobile.

“The first time I had a sit-down with Sean was to tell him he wasn’t the starting quarterback a couple weeks before his senior season. I think there are a lot of tears shed in that.”

In some ways, that tough conversation started Brophy’s coaching career, as a few days later, Brophy was back in Morris’ office talking about how he’s going to be the best teammate possible and find ways to help the team.

Morris said he tried to talk Brophy out of coaching, saying he could make a lot of money in the business world, but Brophy wasn’t having it. Morris brought Brophy on as a quality control coach in 2021 at Incarnate Word and then took Brophy with him to Washington State as a graduate assistant in 2022.

Brophy earned his first full-time role as North Texas’ quarterback coach in 2023 and has steadily climbed up to UNT’s passing game coordinator in 2025 and is now OSU’s offensive coordinator just a few short years later.

As far as offensive minds go, Morris and Dillingham are two good names to have learned under.

As either a head coach or offensive coordinator, Morris’ and Dillinghams’ offenses have been in the top 10 in the country in yards per game a combined nine times since 2013.

Morris’ offenses have spiked at No. 1 twice, at Texas Tech in 2016 and at North Texas last season. Dillingham’s peak in the stat came when he was the OC at Memphis in 2018, leading the Tigers to the fifth-most productive offense in the nation.

Coaching under one of his former coaches, Brophy will coach against another of his former coaches when Oklahoma State travels to Arizona State on Nov. 21.

“It’s been so fun to watch his career,” Dillingham told Sports360AZ. “He’s a stud, and to see him just flourish like he’s done, I was just at his wedding, it’s super, super cool.”