He kept the same mindset when head coach Marvin Lewis opted to hire Jay Gruden and then Jackson as coordinators while keeping him as the quarterbacks coach.
"I saw it as long as I was still contributing to the game plan and helping make our guys better and enjoying the relationships, it was what I wanted," Ken Zampese says. "The best job is the one you have."
You may not find two more different guys than Kenny and Ernie, but even though Ernie never helped him, they have the same outlook on family and jobs. Ernie, who had a hard time going to class at USC, ended up getting his degree when he got into coaching. In fact, even though legendary USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux wanted Ernie to try and play shortstop for him, it interfered with the start of the season at Santa Anita racetrack.
"Ken was a great student. I was terrible," Ernie says with some awe. "Never once did we have to check on him to do his homework. Never. We never had to tell him to do anything. He did everything without having to be told."
But they have this in common even though Ken says, "I stayed in my lane."
When Kenny was trying to figure out what was next after being a grad assistant coach at USC, he got a job at a bank. When he came home after that first day, Christine knew what was next.
"He ripped off his coat and tie and threw them down," she says. "And he said, 'I'm not going back. I can't do it. That's not me.' Two weeks later he was hired at Northern Arizona."
This is him: he doesn't like the track at Santa Anita, but he'll take the Santa Ana winds while lying on the beach listening to the surf and watching the waves. The sound track is supplied by, among others, his fellow San Diegans Blink 182, as well as Smashing Pumpkins. The Cure and The Clash.
It seems this scene is set just right for the Zampeses. Anthony graduates from St, Xavier in the spring. This Friday, Christine gets a scan to determine the latest state of her breast cancer, a disease she has staved off the past nine months through chemotherapy, radiation, a bullet-proof support system from the Bengals and her friends, and an insurmountable will. They love the University of Cincinnati Barrett Center cancer program, where she is in a clinical trial, and now they know why they stayed.
"(The job) comes at the right time," Christine Zampese says. "We'll miss Hue. Hue was a great friend. Ken loved working with him.
"God has blessed us so much with his plan. The kids were able to stay all through high school and I get to stay with my wonderful doctors and all the people that have supported me."
