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January 26, 2007 > News > Texas State coach replaces Graham

Texas State coach replaces Graham

By Nathan Bledsoe | Thresher Editorial Staff

Seven days after former head football coach Todd Graham left for the University of Tulsa, the Athletic Department hired David Bailiff as Rice’s 18th head football coach on a five-year contract.

“When we found out that Coach Graham was going to Tulsa, we assembled a committee in a timely fashion,” Athletic Director Chris Del Conte said. “It was a situation where we wanted to make a hire in a relatively quick fashion because we wanted to keep the momentum.”

Bailiff comes to Rice from NCAA Division I-AA Texas State University, where he went 21-15 in three years as head coach. In 2005, Bailiff led the Bobcats to the I-AA semifinals, by far the deepest into the playoffs the school had ever gone. Bailiff’s tenure at Texas State was marked by an increase in graduation rates to 75 percent.

Del Conte said when Bailiff became head coach at Texas State, he entered a program in a situation different than Rice’s.

“At Texas State, they were coming off a whole bunch of problems,” he said. “Here we’re coming off the euphoria of a bowl game.”

Prior to coaching at Texas State, Bailiff spent three seasons at Texas Christian University — the last two as defensive coordinator. In one of those years, 2002, TCU led the nation in total defense.

Del Conte said the selection committee included current players, community members and members of the Board of Trustees. The committee interviewed several candidates, but Bailiff stood out because of his experience and Texas roots.

“Rice University as a whole is a global university, but Rice football is Texas,” Del Conte said. “You look, and over 95 percent of our student-athletes in the football program are from Texas, so we wanted to make sure he has recruiting ties, loyalty to the state, understands the culture of Rice and appreciates what we’re all about.”

Bailiff was born in the Dallas area and played high school football in San Antonio before playing collegiate football at Texas State.

Following the success of the 2006 season, Del Conte said the committee was looking for a coach who could be held to an expectation of continued improvement.

“Expectations are great, and that’s the beautiful thing about Todd [Graham],” Del Conte said. “He taught us to expect to win, and that’s the expectation now that you’ve won.”

Although Bailiff comes in with a longer and more impressive resume than Graham, his arrival in some ways is much quieter.

But quarterback Chase Clement said the players are already beginning to trust Bailiff.

“There’s really been a lot of speculation about whether or not we can trust another coach again, after what happened,” Clement, a Jones College redshirt sophomore, said. “But [Bailiff] came in here, and I really think they got a guy that we can trust and has a lot of fire behind him.”

While a few coaches from Graham’s staff decided to stay at Rice, Bailiff has brought in new coaches to fill most of the positions. In his introductory press conference, Bailiff said he is bringing in Tom Herman, Blake Miller and Craig Naivar from Texas State. Herman will be offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach — duties similar to those he held at Texas State. Herman, a 1997 graduate of California Lutheran University, will continue the trend of young offensive coordinators set by Major Applewhite. Herman’s Texas State offense led the Southland Conference in total offense for the past two seasons, and he employed a spread passing system similar to the one employed by Applewhite.

Miller will coach the offensive line, and Naivar will be co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

The Athletic Department announced several more hirings Wednesday. Chuck Driesbach was named assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator, Darin Eliot was named defensive line coach and Jason Washington will coach cornerbacks.

The most notable of these coaches is Driesbach, who comes to Rice after spending the past two seasons as the secondary coach at Michigan State University. Driesbach has coached for 28 years at the collegiate level and has been a defensive coordinator in 5 different conferences for 15 seasons.

Returning from last year’s staff are wide receivers coach David Beatty and running backs coach Michael Smith.

Del Conte also announced Wednesday that director of strength and conditioning Yancy McKnight — who initially left Rice for Tulsa with former head coach Todd Graham — will return next season.

Varsity athletes from all sports, not just football, wanted Del Conte to try to bring McKnight back, Del Conte said.

“The idea is not necessarily where he’s coming back from,” Del Conte said. “The idea is that our kids, no matter what sport, wanted to see him here.”

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