Feb. 17, 2001
Waco, Texas - Paul Jette, a Texas native with nearly 25 years of college football coaching experience, has been hired as Baylor's new defensive backs coach, Head Coach Kevin Steele announced Saturday.
"In talking with our coaches, we decided as a staff to try and fill this position with the most experienced person we could," Steele said. "With Paul's ties to the state of Texas, our entire staff felt that this was the best direction for us. Paul has a reputation, one that I've witnessed first hand, for being a first-class football coach. He does a great job of coaching defensive backs and will work well within our staff.
Steele and Jette coached together as assistants at Oklahoma State in 1984.
Steele also announced new responsibilities within his coaching staff. Assistant head coach Scott Smith gets the additional title of special teams coordinator and moves from defense to offense to coach tackles tight ends, while Lonnie Hansen, who has worked with the tight ends that last two seasons, takes over the Bears' defensive tackles.
"Scott Smith had indicated a desire to devote more time and energy to our special teams," Steele said, "and since that's a third of the game, I wanted to make it possible for him to focus on the kicking game. This move allows him to do just that. "We're fortunate to have someone like Lonnie Hansen, who has worked his entire coaching career on the line scrimmage."
"I'm excited about the direction that this football program is headed in," Smith said. "Every decision that Kevin and this coaching staff makes has only one goal in mind, and that's to make this football team better. I'm proud to be a part of that."
Jette comes to Baylor from East Carolina, where he spent seven seasons as defensive coordinator and secondary coach. He has been defensive coordinator at four division I-A schools, including Oklahoma State (1984), Miami, Fla. (1985) and Texas (1986-88).
"I'm very excited about the opportunity to join a program like Baylor that has a lot of tradition," Jette said. "It's a school that I've followed for years going back to when Grant Teaff was coaching. I look forward to the challenge of getting Baylor back into that winning category. If I didn't think it was possible to be successful at Baylor, I wouldn't have taken the job."
Following graduation from Texas in 1977, the Devine, Texas-native spent two seasons as a graduate assistant for the Longhorns. Jette's first full-time coaching position came at Oklahoma State, where he spent six seasons coaching linebackers (1979-82) and defensive backs (1983-84). In 1985, Jette joined Jimmy Johnson at Miami as defensive coordinator and secondary coach.
Jette returned to his alma mater in 1986 as defensive coordinator and spent three seasons in that position. In 1990, he began a two-year stint as secondary coach for Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin before returning again to the Lone Star State as TCU's secondary coach (1992-93).
Jette, 46, and his wife Vicki have five children - Allison, 19, Katharyn, 16, Quinn, 11, David, 9 and Will, 9.
