​Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley starts his day before sunrise with a Shipley Do-Nuts cold brew, Dave Matthews Band and questions about how to improve Houston’s early-down offense. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)
It’s about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday when Nick Caley walks out the door of his Missouri City home and hops into his car for work, running on less than five hours of sleep. The sky is still dark, and there’s barely anyone on the road at this hour. It’s probably the most peaceful time he’ll have all day. On the 20-minute drive to Reliant Stadium, he stops at a Shipley Do-Nuts near his house and orders the same thing he always does: a caramel cold brew with light ice. He takes a sip, turns up the radio and listens to the sweet sounds of the Dave Matthews Band on Spotify as he ponders how he can help the Texans offense get better on early downs. The Texans are 3-5 for the second time in two seasons as they try to climb back into playoff contention. They travel to Cleveland this weekend – an hour from where Caley grew up – to face the Browns at noon on Sunday.The biggest difference between this season’s 3-5 start and last year’s is that Houston’s offense, rather than its defense, is keeping the team afloat. The Texans rank third in the NFL in passing yards per game and 11th in points per game, far ahead of where they were a year ago. And this feels like the tip of the iceberg for this offense and its 43-year-old play-caller. 
Quarterback C.J. Stroud has thrived this season as the passing game unintentionally became the Texans’ strength under Nick Caley after they made moves to improve the rushing attack in the offseason. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)
One notable thing about Caley is that he isn’t your typical offensive coordinator. He didn’t come from money. He wasn’t the son of a football coach. He didn’t play in the league. He didn’t have any connections when he began his career. But what he did have was a drive, persistence and an intense desire to achieve his dream of being a coach one day. He did it the hard way, taking several graduate assistant jobs in college, working long hours for free and earning two master’s degrees while stocking shelves and cleaning floors at a Marshalls and HomeGoods store three days a week. “I’m sure he had to eat a lot of cereal, let’s put it that way,” his mother Patti Caley said. Those who know Caley best say he’s a football junkie. He’s in the building before the sun rises and well after it goes down. He’s all ball, all the time, studying, tinkering with formations, asking others for their thoughts and figuring out how to maximize his players’ abilities. He fits DeMeco Ryans’ mantra of “joyful intensity” to a T. But the biggest thing that stands out about Caley – and he’ll be the first to tell you – is that it’s never about himself. He doesn’t want the credit. “He doesn’t have an ego,” said quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski, who has worked with Caley for a decade. “He’s not a