Replacing Bailiff no easy task

By Bart Isley

San Marcos — In the last 12 months, Larry Teis hasn’t exaclty gotten a chance to coast.

While most athletic directors are busy people, Teis has had to take on the monumental task of hiring new leaders in both of the most visible sports at Texas State University.

Last spring it was men’s basketball, when Teis released Dennis Nutt after a 3-24 season and brought in Doug Davalos. Now, he faces what is perhaps an even tougher task — replacing David Bailiff, Texas State’s head football coach who, as Teis put it, has no enemies in the business.

“The football stuff is important but I’m more concerned about losing a friend here first,” Teis said of Bailiff’s departure on Thursday.

Bailiff became a community fixture in no time at Texas State, leading the Bobcats to the school’s most succesful season at the Division I-AA level and putting Texas State on the national map with a run to the national semi-finals.

Now Bailiff has taken on the task of turning Rice into a consistent winner and preventing the Owls from becoming a one-year wonder after last season’s 7-6 season that was a massive improvement over the 1-10 campaign in 2005. While Bailiff gets to work in Houston, Teis has already hit the ground running in San Marcos with the apparent hiring of Brad Wright.

Teis and University president Dr. Denise Trauth were trying to find a coach that they feel can maintain the foward momentum Bailiff created. The task wasn’t particularly easy, but according to both Trauth and Teis, Bailiff’s success and leap to Rice have both made the position more attractive to candidates. Just getting the scandal-plauged Bobcats back on the national scene was a battle for Bailiff in and of itself.

Teis’ criteria for a coach, predictably, didn’t start with X’s and O’s. He claimed he’d have to find someone who can not only maintain the Bobcats’ success on the field but also fill the void Bailiff’s departure leaves in the community. For many in San Marcos and regionally, Bailiff, perhaps even more than the Bobcat logo itself, was the face of Texas State.

“I’ll look for a good person first,” Teis said. “Then I’ll worry about the coaching aspect.”

He’ll need someone who is committed to the community, because Bailiff’s clout as a fundraiser can’t be undervalued. He and Ty Harrington’s Summer Bash was a major fundrasier for the athletic community at Texas State and the former coach also, quite simply, knew who to go to for financial help when the department needed it.

“He had a lot of friends and I’m hoping that they see what we’ve done because of their financial support and that they’ll continue (donating) no matter who is coaching,” Teis said. “If the community doesn’t step up and support what we do next we could take a huge step back.”

With the University in the midst of a campaign to upgrade all aspects of the campus and the academic community, Teis will need to make sure whoever he brings in to Texas State has some of Bailiff’s fundraising skills.

Obviously Wright’s Texas roots fit the bill.

Recruiting is also a concern with national signing day looming February 7, but Teis feels that he doesn’t have to hire someone just to get them in before that date.

“David said, just as classy as he is, that he’s not going to pull everybody out of here and leave the cupboard bare for you right now,” Teis said. “He said ‘I love Texas State and you keep some of these assistant coaches and get those kids on that campus.’”

It appears Bailiff also left the centerpiece of the next regime at Texas State in Brad Wright.

Teis discussed the possiblities of the search with Texas State’s players, some of whom committed to Texas State between the Bob Debesse and Manny Matsakis eras when there was no head coach. Most assured Teis that while Bailiff was a huge part of the program, they were excited about the future no matter who took the helm.

Teis, Trauth and the rest of the Texas State community that Bailiff left behind will soon find out if that’s the truth.



Rattlers still streaking

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