Baylor Bear Insider
Growing up in Huntsville, Texas, where he was an all-district running back and linebacker at Huntsville High School and all-conference fullback at Sam Houston State University, Matt Powledge remembers feeling like "Big 12 football is everything."
"Where I grew up, the SEC was nothing," said the 32-year-old Powledge, who was hired as special teams coordinator and safeties coach on first-year head coach Dave Aranda's staff at Baylor. "I don't mean that in any sort of way, it's just that I grew up in Big 12 country. So, this opportunity to coach in this league, especially with what they've done over the last five to 10 years, it's been really exciting."
Powledge is reunited with Baylor defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, who filled the same role for the last two years at Louisiana University, where Powledge served as his outside linebackers coach and the Ragin' Cajuns' special teams coordinator.
"He's an unbelievable teacher," Powledge said of Roberts. "Not only does he do a great job teaching the players, he does a great job teaching and coaching the coaches. That's one area where I've developed. I feel like I've become a better coach after being with him for two seasons because of the things he's taught me based on his experiences."
At the same time, one of the things that drives Powledge to continue learning is seeing how Roberts is "open to learning new things."
"You know that old saying, 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks?''' Powledge said. "I'm not saying he's an old dog, but he's one of those guys who are always soaking up new things and trying to learn new things. That's encouraging for me as a young coach and other young coaches I'm around. If this guy is always looking to get better and looking to learn, then we should be doing the same thing. . . . His ability to get his players to play extremely hard on the field, and the product he puts out there, has always been really impressive to me."
A walk-on at Sam Houston State, Powledge started out as a safety, "grew into a linebacker" and eventually moved to the tight end, H-back and fullback positions "for playing-time reasons," he said.
"I made a lot of impact on special teams throughout my career, but I ended up starting as a sophomore, all-conference as a junior, and then my biggest accolade was probably being named team captain my senior year," he said. "I'm really appreciative of the opportunity that (then-head coach Todd Whitten) and that staff gave me. There were a lot of great coaches on that staff that are still coaching today."
Rising up through the coaching ranks, Powledge started as a grad assistant at Southeastern Louisiana (2010-11) and Kentucky (2013) and worked one year as the running backs coach at Northwestern State before returning to Sam Houston as the Bearkats' running backs coach and special teams coordinator in 2014 under K.C. Keeler.
Starting with his GA position at Kentucky, he's worked with special teams in each of the last seven seasons. Louisiana head coach Billy Napier said Powledge "played an integral part in establishing our identity on special teams and the overall culture of our team."
In his two seasons with UL, the Ragin' Cajuns were first or second in the Sun Belt Conference in kickoff return defense, kickoff returns and net punting and ranked in the top 25 nationally in each category. Last year, he mentored a pair of first-team All-Sun Belt honorees in kick returner Raymond Calais (28.47-yard average) and punter Rhys Burns (44.24).
Aranda, who worked with Powledge for several years through football camps in Louisiana, said he has "great respect for his intelligence and his work ethic."
"He is a great recruiter, as well as a great developer of special teams," Aranda said. "I was impressed with what he was able to do at Louisiana-Lafayette, turning their special teams unit into the best in the conference and one of the top in the nation. . . . I know he will improve our staff and do a great job of leading our special teams and safeties moving forward."
Both redshirt freshmen last season, Baylor kicker John Mayers was 51-of-51 on extra points and 16-of-19 on field goals, including a career-long of 51 yards in an overtime win over TCU; and punter Isaac Power had a 40.3-yard average with a long of 59. Josh Fleeks had a 22.9-yard average on kickoff returns with a long of 60.
"I couldn't be more fired-up to be the special teams coordinator here," Powledge said. "One, we've got really good specialists. Two, we've got unbelievable team speed. And three, we've got some guys with a knack for blocking kicks or returning kicks or returning punts. We've got all the key ingredients to be really, really good on special teams, so I'm excited to be working with these guys. I know our coaches are really bought-in to that phase of the game, and I think it will be a difference-maker in the future."
The safety position is a little more in flux after losing the starting trio of Henry Black, Chris Miller and Grayland Arnold, an All-Big 12 pick who declared early for the NFL Draft. But, the cupboard is certainly not bare with rising senior Jairon McVea, juniors Christian Morgan and JT Woods and redshirt freshman Will Williams, a converted linebacker.
Powledge, who has watched game tape from last season, said "it's a talented group with a lot of speed and athleticism."
"I think it's a group with a high football IQ, a willingness to learn, an eagerness to learn," he said, "so I'm really excited having the ability to coach those guys. (Williams) is a guy that I'm excited about, especially with the type of fall camp he had and where he was early on in the season."
Baylor football kicks off the 2020 season with a neutral-site matchup against Ole Miss in the Sept. 5 Texas Kickoff at NRG Stadium in Houston. For ticket information, go to the Football Tickets link.
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