Kyle Coats almost talked himself out of the College Park head football coaching job.
School principal Dr. Mark Murrell brought Coats in for an interview last spring in front of a panel. Murrell offered Coats a chair to sit in.
Coats did not oblige.
“I never sat down,” Coats recalled at the 47th annual Conroe Noon Lions Club Pigskin Preview on Wednesday afternoon. “I started talking about what I wanted the program to be, my vision, boom, boom, boom. I never let them ask any questions. Never let the panel get me into a corner. I tried to run the whole thing.”
Fortunately for Coats, Murrell was not dismayed. He was impressed.
“Afterwards, he told me, ‘Hmm, it’s not what I wanted but, you know what, you took charge and that’s good,’” Coats said, laughing.
Coats is one of two new head football coaches this upcoming season in Conroe ISD. He is the third coach to lead College Park, which started varsity football play in 2006.
The other newcomer is Shaun McDowell, who heads Grand Oaks. McDowell spent the last 10 years guiding Foster High and is the third head coach in the short five years of Grizzlies football.
“I can’t tell you how fired up I am to be at Grand Oaks High School,” McDowell said. “It is an amazing community. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever lived outside of Fort Bend County, and now that I live in Montgomery County, I’m so excited.
“I’m literally all-in on Grand Oaks.”
Coats is goal oriented. He has an idea of what he wants, and when he wants it.
“When my wife and I started dating, we dated for exactly six months and I proposed to her,” Coats said. “I was ready to get married, said, ‘Let’s go.’ I had my mind made up. I was a college coach for nine years. My last stop was at the University of Texas. I was on Tom Herman’s staff. I told myself, hey, I want to be a part of football, but I don’t know if this is it. It’s a dream, I got here, but I don’t know if this is what I want to do. I wrote down on a piece of paper, ‘Head coach by 35.’ I turn 36 in September. So, I really appreciate the opportunity.”
As co-defensive coordinator, Coats helped lead DeSoto to the Class 6A, Division II, state championship last season.
He is bringing the same values he taught there to College Park.
“We talk about toughness, discipline and effort,” Coats said. “It’s something we instill in our kids each and every day. We lift a lot, we run a lot, we have a lot of tempo in everything we do.
“We’re the No. 1 academic school in Montgomery County, so I’m around smart kids all the time. It makes it really easy to get my message out to those guys.”
The Cavaliers return substantial experience offensively.
Senior tight end Cole Snodgrass is a TCU commit.
“He looks like he’s chiseled from marble,” Coats said of the 6-foot-5, 225-pounder. “A Greek god.”
Senior Connor Dunphy is a four-year varsity starter at receiver. The first play on Dunphy’s highlight tape is a 75-yard touchdown against perennial power Westfield as a 14-year-old.
“He’s the backbone of our team, and kind of has been the last four years,” Coats said. “We’re going to find a lot of ways to get that guy the ball.”
College Park will do a little bit of everything offensively.
“Multiple formations, multiple plays, multiple sets,” Coats said.
Defensively, the Cavaliers will be aggressive. They intend to be violent.
“We want to blitz, we want to hit your quarterback,” Coats said. “We want to hit him early and often. We want to see what he’s made of.”
Coats praised junior quarterback Kam Montgomery, who is 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds after standing 6-foot, 160 pounds last year; junior running back Eugene Burnett; junior defensive tackle Rema Nwosu; junior safety Tim Thomas, a standout track and field athlete who was on the Cavs’ 4×400 state relay team in the spring; and sophomores Marco Beltran and Jordan Styles.
McDowell, meanwhile, takes over a young Grand Oaks team.
“We finished 4-6 last year but our plans are to do much, much, much better,” he said.
The spread offense—think current Tennessee or old-school Baylor under Art Briles—starts with 6-foot-3, 180-pound sophomore quarterback Grant Smith, who only played four varsity games last year but already holds offers from Texas A&M and TCU due to a terrific offseason and summer.
McDowell said Smith is cerebral and football savvy.
“He can sling it,” McDowell said. “I coached a kid named CeeDee Lamb (current Dallas Cowboys receiver) and am looking for another one of those. I haven’t found him yet but I’m hoping I have a quarterback that’s very similar.”
Junior tight end Ty Rupe is 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds.
“I had to figure out what that position was in my offense, because usually those guys play defensive end or tackle or something like that,” McDowell joked. “This guy can run and catch, and he’ll be highly recruited.”
Offensive lineman Jamarion Johnson is a two-year starter. Sophomore Devon Wallace, who runs good routes and has strong hands, has moved from running back to receiver.
McDowell said he will have 3-4 sophomores start on offense, but all have experience after seeing playing time last season.
“The team I’m talking about right now is the team I’m going to talk about next year and the year after that,” he said. “It’s really exciting.”
Defensively, Grand Oaks will go from a 4-3 front to 3-4 to stop the run and force teams to throw over the top.
The unit is anchored by senior defensive back Ikenna Agoh, who holds a ton of Ivy League offers.
“He’s one of the best kids I’ve ever been around,” McDowell said. “One of the smartest kids I’ve ever been around. He’ll probably be president one day and we’ll all be voting for him. He’s that type of kid.”
Senior linebacker Zach Lunn and junior defensive lineman Tyler Grant are other stalwarts of the defense.
“Grand Oaks is only five years old, so a lot of these (college) coaches have never been to Grand Oaks,” McDowell said. “When they come up there, I’m recruiting them to not only see our players but to come back. We’re coming on the map, for sure.”
