When Neal Brown was hired as North Texas’ next head football coach in December, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire wasted little time reaching out with a congratulatory text.
The two crossed paths in the Big 12 during Brown’s tenure at West Virginia, and McGuire wanted to welcome him back to Texas for a third coaching stint in the state — along with a bit of unsolicited advice.
“I sent him a text, and I said, ‘Hey, congratulations. You don’t need my help, but I would hire Ray Gates,’” McGuire said.
The advice was well-received. Already intent on adding a DFW-area high school coach to his staff, Brown began calling trusted contacts — including Texas’ Chris Gilbert and Baylor’s David Wetzel — for recommendations. One name kept surfacing: Gates, the longtime North Crowley head coach, who had just led the team to a state championship in 2024.
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“The doors that began to open and the ones that began to close, I felt God was pushing me and leading me this way,” Gates said. “It just led to affirmation like this is where I needed to be.”
After 17 years in high school football, Gates joined Brown’s staff as North Texas’ defensive line coach. He became the first in a longer-than-usual list of prominent Dallas-area high school coaches to make the jump to college football this cycle. Soon after, Southlake Carroll head coach Riley Dodge and South Oak Cliff defensive coordinator Kyle Ward left their programs for roles on Rhett Lashlee’s staff at SMU, while Argyle Liberty Christian coach and former Dallas Cowboy Jason Witten joined Oklahoma as its tight ends coach.
The pipeline from Texas high school football to the college ranks is nothing new. McGuire and UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor — the longtime Gilmer High School coach — are among the most visible examples of what high school coaches can become when given an opportunity at the next level.
As college football continues to evolve and recruiting grows increasingly complex, coaches across the state are seeing greater value in strengthening ties to local high schools. One of the most effective ways to do that, they’ve found, is hiring from within those ranks.
“I’ve always thought the best coaches in the world are high school coaches,” Lashlee said. “Pro coaches, they’re gurus, but they also have the best players. Us, we have good players, but in high school, that’s the purest form of coaching.
“They do it for the right reasons, and I think that’s what value they add.”
Southlake Carroll head coach Riley Dodge talks with a referee after being stopped at the goal line on fourth down during the fourth quarter of a Class 6A Division II state semifinal game against DeSoto, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Mansfield. DeSoto defeated Southlake Carroll 57-44.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Breaking barriers
Days after Gates announced his move to North Texas, Lashlee publicly praised the hire — and acknowledged how SMU always keeps its eye on some of the area’s top high school coaches.
“Definitely there’s a short list of guys that if the right job on our staff came open, I would definitely consider,” Lashlee said.
Within weeks, those openings materialized, and SMU added two Texas high school coaches to its staff.
Lashlee hired Ward, who helped lead the SOC to three state titles in five consecutive championship appearances dating back to 2021, to become SMU’s safeties coach.
He also brought on Dodge, longtime Southlake Carroll head coach who led Carroll to a state runner-up finish in 2024.
Dodge started his coaching career as the quarterbacks coach at Texas for two seasons in 2013-14 before spending the next dozen years at the high school level. His name had been mentioned in a number of college coaching searches in recent years, but he was waiting for the right opportunity — and felt like that would be at SMU.
“[SMU has] always been one that I’ve kind of told myself, if the right opportunity presented itself at the right time, then I was going to really entertain it,” he said. “I really believe in [Lashlee] and the culture at SMU.”
The belief goes both ways. Lashlee said trust is often the biggest hurdle high school coaches face when moving up.
“The question is always, ‘Well, has he done it before?” Lashlee said. “All of us at some point in time had that said of us until someone gave us a chance to do it.”
Brown once had six former high school coaches on his staff at Troy who followed him to West Virginia. McGuire currently has eight at Tech. Whether it’s adjusting to scholarship limits, navigating the transfer portal or settling into a smaller role, the head coaches agree there’s a transition.
The football, however, is rarely the concern.
“I go in all the time to [special teams coordinator] Kenny Perry, who was a head coach at three different places, [director of player development] Dave Martin, who was a head coach for 17 years, and say, ‘OK, take your special teams coordinator hat off and put your head coaching hat on,’” he said. “They have a reference point that they can draw on.”
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire holds the trophy after their victory against the BYU in the Big 12 Championship football game at AT&T Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Arlington.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
A strong bond between levels
The path from high school head coach to college head coach in Texas predates McGuire and Traylor.
Art Briles won four state championships at Stephenville in the 1990s before becoming head coach at Houston (2003-07) and later Baylor (2008-15). Chad Morris led Lake Travis to back-to-back 16-0 title seasons in 2008 and 2009 before beginning his long journey at the college level with stops as head coach at SMU and Arkansas. Riley’s father Todd Dodge made the rare leap from high school head coach to college head coach at North Texas in 2007 before later returning to the high school ranks.
Now, McGuire has led Tech to its first Big 12 title and College Football Playoff appearance. Traylor led UTSA to consecutive Conference USA titles in 2021 and 2022.
They’re proof the gamble can pay off.
Texas High School Coaches Association Executive Director Joe Martin — who said he knows of three other high school coaches who turned down college jobs this cycle — says the hires come down to the relationships and similarities between coaches at both levels in Texas.
Texas is the only state where high school football is played under NCAA rules, and the 16-week season mirrors the current college calendar.
“We have a really good relationship because we communicate,” Martin said. “We have a program in Texas called straight line recruiting, and we ask those college coaches to go through our high school coaches to recruit our high school players and not to go through an agent or somebody else.”
That transparency keeps high school coaches current on recruiting changes — knowledge college coaches increasingly want on staff.
“It has been a while since I’ve been recruiting in Texas,” Brown said. “I wanted someone that was really locked in, especially to the D-FW area, that was well-respected by his peers and that would have a good feel for what’s going on in high school football.”
College head coaches in the state are hopeful their hires will pan out like previous ones have. Their new assistants are eager to prove, once again, Texas high school coaches belong on any staff.
“When you get a coach out of the state, you’re getting someone that’s prepared and that’s ready and can make the jump,” Gates said.
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