Tony Dungy, who won a Super Bowl as a player with the Steelers in 1979 and again as coach of the Colts in 2007, said he got a firsthand look at how good Nick Foles can be when Dungy's son Eric was a freshman at Oregon playing under Chip Kelly.
In September 2011, Foles was the quarterback at Arizona and completed 34 of 57 passes for 398 yards with three scores in a 56-31 loss to the then-No. 10 Ducks.
When Foles stepped in for the injured Carson Wentz this season, Dungy was one of the few who thought Foles still could lead the team to the Super Bowl.
"I thought he was going to be good. People laughed at me when I said they were still going to be good with Nick Foles," said Dungy, who is in his ninth year with NBC and will be part of the network's Super Bowl coverage Sunday. "I watched him play in college when my son was at Oregon. I saw him play for Chip Kelly. I know he's talented and they have a good offensive football team. I thought he would fit in and play well."
Dungy played QB for the Gophers from 1973 to 1976 and was an assistant coach at the U in 1980. He came back to Minnesota as the Vikings defensive coordinator from 1992 to 1995.
Dungy was surprised at how easily Foles was able to pass deep and create such a lopsided score in the NFC Championship Game against the Vikings.
Still, he thinks the Patriots defense isn't as good as the Vikings', and the Eagles can use that to their advantage.
"They have a lot of weaponry. They have the defense that can play physical and fast for 60 minutes," he said. "They can run the ball well and right now they have a belief in themselves. They have been the underdogs, and they don't care. I think they're going to give New England all they can handle.