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First thing first, we now have official confirmation of Cris Dishman's hire, as well as his actual stated role. He's the safeties coach per Baylor's release of earlier this afternoon and will be stepping directly into the shoes of the new gilded weather event Brian Norwood. The link above contains several interesting pieces of information about Dishman's background as a coach and player, including the fact that our own Phil Bennett coached him at Purdue. That's the connection so many of us were looking for before.
Other moves included in the release was the official acknowledgement of Kendal Briles' elevation to Offensive Coordinator, former Ennis (and SMU) QB Tate Wallis to the role of Receivers Coach, and Jeff Lebby to Passing Game Coordinator and Offensive Recruiting Coordinator. Lebby's rise from GA to where he is now has been particularly meteoric, but I know he'll do a wonderful job and loves Baylor.
The release also announced four other new members of the staff, and I'll just quote directly from it:
Four were added to the operations staff, including three former NFL players Joe Jon Finley (offensive quality control), Brodney Pool (special team quality control) and former Baylor great Dominique Zeigler (player development). Michael Anthony was hired as an offensive analyst with the operations staff.
There's a bolded part in there that I want to make sure you don't miss, so I'll quote it again:
Brodney Pool (special team quality control)
You know what, let's drill down even further:
special team quality control
Listen, I can't be sure we've never had one of these before; we very well might. But I have to say that this might be the most exciting move of all. Pool, if you recall, played for Bob Stoops at OU, as did Joe Jon Finley (Kick 'em, Colts!). I know absolutely nothing about Michael Anthony, so I'm relying on lamron to help me out there.
If you didn't already know about Zeigler, get out. He's gone from GA to Player Development.
To all of our new gents, welcome! To the older faces in new roles, congratulations! As of today, this is our coaching staff per the official roster:
| Art Briles - Head Coach |
| Phil Bennett - Defensive Coordinator |
| Kendal Briles - Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks) |
| Randy Clements - Running Game Coordinator (Off. Line) |
| Chris Achuff - Assistant Coach (Defensive Line) |
| Carlton Buckels - Assistant Coach (Cornerbacks) |
| Cris Dishman - Assistant Coach (Safeties) |
| Jim Gush - Assistant Coach (Linebackers)/Def. Recruiting Coord. |
| Jeff Lebby - Passing Game Coordinator (Running Backs) / Offensive |
| Colin Shillinglaw - Assistant AD/Operations |
| Tate Wallis - Assistant Coach (Receivers) |
| Michael Anthony - Assistant Dir. of Football Operations/Off. Analyst |
| Joe Jon Finley - Assistant Dir. of Football Operations/OQC |
| Brodney Poole - Assistant Dir. of Football Operations/STQC |
| Beau Trahan - Director of Football Operations |
| Dominique Zeigler - Assistant Dir. of Football Ops/Player Development |