His knee weakened by three ACL tears and his dream of playing in the NFL squashed, Brennan Marion needed another road.

It was more than a decade ago and he was living in California, a long way from Homewood, his boyhood home. He had been a star athlete at Greensburg Salem and, later, at the University of Tulsa where he was a record-setting wide receiver.

Projected as a high NFL draft choice in 2009, he injured the knee while playing for Tulsa in the 2008 Conference USA championship game — on the last play of the game.

Undrafted, he went to camp with the Miami Dolphins and Montreal Alouettes in consecutive seasons, re-injuring the knee both times.

“I was really depressed and down,” he said.

Marion didn’t know it, but his fortunes were about to change and, eventually, bring him back to Western Pennsylvania where, at 33, he is the newest and youngest member of Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi’s staff. He was recently hired to replace wide receivers coach Chris Beatty, who left to join the Los Angeles Chargers.

Marion’s coaching career began when a friend hooked him up with the coach at James Logan High School in Union City, Calif.

Marion remembers the coach telling him to “just go out there with the kids and do that stuff you were doing at Tulsa.”

Marion had set an NCAA record by averaging 31.9 yards per catch, but he did so much more than teach kids how to get open, catch passes and score touhdowns.

He, actually, took them into his home, he said Wednesday while taking a break from Pitt’s spring football preparations.

“I had three or four kids living with me,” he said. “Those kids really came from rough environments. I had a kid from Oakland (California) living in a car with his dad and family. I said, ‘I’ll take you in. I can’t take your whole family in, but I’ll help you out.’

“I thought my life was hard.”

Marion knew football, but he said connecting with the players taught him how to be a football coach.

“Those kids really saved and changed my life. The football part has always been easy for me. I love that. I think about that nonstop all day. The relationship piece was what really got me into coaching.”

Marion could relate to his players’ hardships. He experienced homelessness for a spell while in junior college.

After high school, he left Greensburg to travel across the country to chase his dream. He enrolled at Foothill College and, later, at De Anza College, 45 miles from San Francisco.

There, promised housing never materialized and he ended up bunking with friends or sleeping in the press box and locker room at the stadium. Janitors left doors open for him.

Meanwhile, he attended classes and played football, eventually earning a scholarship from the University of Tulsa and its coach at the time, former Pitt coach Todd Graham.

“We were there to accomplish a dream, and we wouldn’t leave until we did that,” he told ESPN’s First Take in 2009.

Speaking Wednesday on a video conference call with local reporters, Marion said love for the game was his fuel.

“Like I teach all the players I come in contact with — my Mom kind of showed me this — I don’t operate on how I feel,” he said. “If you love something, you’re committed to it. I’ve been committed to football since I was 5 years old. I don’t operate on what’s going on in the midst of my circumstances. I just continue to keep pushing and going forward.

“For me, something happens, OK, you pray about it, you keep moving forward.”

Always faster and more athletic than the other kids, Marion started playing football at the age of 5. He said he was designing plays soon afterwards. By the time he got to Tulsa, he was making suggestions to offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.

Pitt is the 10th university or high school on Marion’s resume. Graham hired him to his coaching staff twice, first at Arizona State and last year as wide receivers coach at the University of Hawaii.

“Coach Graham, we related,” Marion said. “When I was young, I was really, really tough, hard-nosed. Coach Graham, when he was a young, energetic coach, he was all about toughness. That’s back when he was sleeping in the office.

”We really related from the work ethic and toughness standpoint.”

Along the way, Marion developed and wrote a book on offensive concepts that he labeled the “Go-Go Offense.”

He said the system offers quarterbacks several options and can mitigate weaknesses on the offensive line.

“If you’re not sound in the trenches, you’re going to really struggle,” he said. “For me, I’m too competitive to say, ‘We’re not good enough. We’re going to lose.’ I just want to find something that will give us the opportunity to win games.”

Will some of the Go-Go concepts surface in Pitt offensive coordinator Mark Whipple’s playbook? Marion already is opening his mouth at meetings.

“We share a lot of the same thought processes on things,” Marion said. “I come in and my input is valued.”

The work ethic he displayed as a player should serve him well in a profession that values hard work and long hours.

“The reason why I got hurt, honestly, is because I was a gym rat,” he said. “Nonstop, seven days a week. Two and three, four, five workouts a day certain days. Played basketball after I did football.

“I just never stopped working out and eventually that just tore my body up.”

Even the injuries helped shape Marion’s career.

“Getting hurt taught me patience,” he said. “I didn’t have much patience. It helped me to deal with things, with players and people.”

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