A CAREER THAT ALMOST WASN’T
1/29/2021 1:38:00 PM | Football
Mateos Rejoining OC Grimes After Stops at LSU and BYU
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Eric Mateos has had his share of breaks in a career that began 10 years ago as a student coach at Southwest Baptist, an NCAA Division II school in Bolivar, Mo., where he had been a team captain and the Bearcats' starting center.
But, it was a career that almost didn't happen.
Unable to get his foot in the door as a graduate assistant, Mateos graduated from Southwest Baptist in December 2011 with a degree in public relations and accepted an entry-level position in the medical wing of a staffing company. His mom bought him two new suits for the job and paid for a celebratory dinner at Fogo de Chao.
"I actually decided I wasn't going to coach, and that was the job I accepted," he said.
Just days before his start date, though, Mateos got a call from his former head coach at Hutchinson Community College, Rion Rhoades, offering him a coaching position. After initially turning it down, Mateos eventually said yes when Rhoades had several of his assistant coaches "reach out to me, basically recruiting me," he said.
"I made a couple hundred bucks a month and lived in the dorm as a tight ends coach," said Mateos, who was hired as Baylor's offensive line coach earlier this month after stops at Arkansas, LSU, Texas State and BYU. "I got my (commercial driver's license), so I could drive the team bus, and I was washing laundry, kind of a bottom-of-the-totem-pole job.
"My dad really had the biggest impact on me. He's worked for an honest living in the trucking industry his whole life. And he made the comment: 'I've never gone to work and been like, this is my dream job. What do you have to lose to go try it?' So, I said, 'OK, I'm going to do it.' And the rest is history. It's amazing how it's all worked out."
Kicked out of a youth soccer game for refusing to wear shin guards, Mateos gravitated from T-ball and soccer to football by the time he was 8 years old, "and that became my thing."
From Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kan., where he was teammates with former Baylor offensive lineman James Barnard, Mateos went on to play at Hutchinson CC and Southwest Baptist.
While neither of his parents had graduated college, Mateos was motivated to get his degree.
"One of my best friends had a pool. And as silly as that sounds, that was one of my goals: I'm going to go to college, because I want to get a pool," he said. "I thought my mom set a good example for me because she went back to the local junior college as a working mom to get some education. That made it more of a priority for me."
Until he got to Southwest Baptist, Mateos had never given much thought to coaching. But, his offensive line coach, Ben Blake, went to various coaching clinics and "would bring me back these new techniques to work on," he said.
"That was really the first time where I was like, 'I think I might want to be a college coach,''' Mateos said. "My head coach, Keith Allen, was the guy who actually started footballscoop.com. So, those were two guys that were good college coaches that kind of exposed me to the profession, to the idea of being a college coach."
Needing an extra semester to graduate, Mateos stayed on with the football program at Southwest Baptist and worked with the special teams while also helping coach the offensive line.
At Hutchinson, he joined a staff that included current Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley as the defensive coordinator. Originally hired as the tight ends coach, Mateos was promoted to offensive line coach in December and then left in February to take a GA position at Arkansas working with current Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman.
"I learned more football in one year with Sam and (then-offensive coordinator) Jim Chaney than I had in my whole life prior to that," Mateos said. Pittman gave the young GA "ownership and said, 'We're going to coach these guys together and I'm going to give you the opportunity to coach.' And he gave the confidence that I could do it. That meant everything to me."
At another crossroads when Pittman left to take a job at Georgia at the end of the 2015 season, Mateos interviewed for offensive line coaching jobs at a couple lower-level schools. But, when he didn't get a full-time job, he sent out resumes to what he deemed the 20-best offensive line coaches in the country and asked for an opportunity to be a GA.
That's when he first met current Baylor offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, who was the offensive line coach at LSU. Before that, "it was just a blind email," Mateos said.
When Les Miles was let go four games into the 2016 season, interim head coach Ed Orgeron asked Grimes, "Do you think Eric can coach our tight ends?"
"He took over coaching our tight ends literally overnight," Grimes said. "And he did an incredible job. Both of those guys ended up going on to the NFL."
Nervous about taking the position, Mateos said his first thought was not that he was grateful, "it was that I need to go get the playbook out and make sure I know our whole passing game by tomorrow's practice."
"Sunday night, I was probably at the office at LSU until 3:30 in the morning, teaching myself the passing game," he said. "That way, on Monday, when the tight ends came in the room, it wasn't going to look like I didn't know what I was talking about. I had to make sure I knew everything that they needed to know before I could coach that. It was just a wild change in the middle of the season."
Ready for his first full-time job, Mateos moved on to coach the offensive line for two seasons at Texas State before rejoining Grimes at BYU in 2019.
"You're kind of learning on the run," he said. "I'm 27 years old, coaching an FBS-level O-line. I'm screwing things up, and that's OK. The maturing process is big, acknowledging the mistakes you're making, learning from them and trying to figure out your style and who you are as a coach."
Mateos said he doesn't "coach the game the same way" he played it.
"When I played, I screamed and yelled, yelled at my teammates. I was kind of a jerk, honestly," he said. "Now, I have some maturity and just handle the game differently as a coach than I did as a player. I think those years as you start your career are important in figuring out who you are as a coach. Now that I've done it for four years, I feel like I'm in my groove and I know who I am as a coach."
Hitting his stride at BYU, Mateos helped develop left tackle Brady Christensen into a consensus All-American and projected NFL first-round draft pick. With an offense that ranked in the top 15 nationally in 10 different statistical categories, including No. 3 in scoring (43.5 ppg) and No. 6 in total offense (522.2 ypg), the BYU offensive line was one of 11 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award that recognizes the nation's top group.
"That says something about him," Grimes said of Mateos. "I'll always have some input with the offensive line because that's what I've done my entire life, but he is a great line coach. And we'll see, I know we need to, but we will see marked improvement with our offensive line with him."
Because of the respect he has for Grimes and Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, who was LSU's defensive coordinator during his time there, Mateos calls Baylor a "perfect recipe for me."
"These guys need to realize and believe how important and amazing it is that you play O-line for Baylor," Mateos said. "If you're an O-lineman in this conference, you're one of the best O-linemen in the country. And that's how you need to walk and talk and think. . . . I'm going to build you up, build you up, build you up, but there's also going to be a standard here that everybody has to meet, including me. It starts with me."
The day after his hiring was announced at Baylor, Eric got married on Jan. 9 in Pleasant Grove, Utah, to former BYU Athletics Department staffer Gillian Chavez. Engaged the day after BYU beat Navy, 55-3, in a Monday night game, they were initially scheduled to get married on Dec. 12, but had to push it back when the Cougars scheduled a game that same day against San Diego State.
"It was great getting that game, but the call to her to say, 'Hey, we're going to have to change . . .''' he said. "The joke was that if we made it to the national championship game, because it was Monday night (Jan. 11), we're going to have to reschedule. And she said, 'No, we're not. We're getting married on January 9. If you've got to miss a walk-through or something, then so be it.'''
A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Gillian is an event specialist with doTERRA International, a multi-level marketing company based in Pleasant Grove that sells essential oils and other related products.
"It's been a wild journey," Eric said. "She's been in Utah for 15 years, so I thought it was important that when Gillian and I do make our first move that we go somewhere where she has good support and good friends and family around. So, it's just been the perfect storm."
Baylor Bear Insider
Eric Mateos has had his share of breaks in a career that began 10 years ago as a student coach at Southwest Baptist, an NCAA Division II school in Bolivar, Mo., where he had been a team captain and the Bearcats' starting center.
But, it was a career that almost didn't happen.
Unable to get his foot in the door as a graduate assistant, Mateos graduated from Southwest Baptist in December 2011 with a degree in public relations and accepted an entry-level position in the medical wing of a staffing company. His mom bought him two new suits for the job and paid for a celebratory dinner at Fogo de Chao.
"I actually decided I wasn't going to coach, and that was the job I accepted," he said.
Just days before his start date, though, Mateos got a call from his former head coach at Hutchinson Community College, Rion Rhoades, offering him a coaching position. After initially turning it down, Mateos eventually said yes when Rhoades had several of his assistant coaches "reach out to me, basically recruiting me," he said.
"I made a couple hundred bucks a month and lived in the dorm as a tight ends coach," said Mateos, who was hired as Baylor's offensive line coach earlier this month after stops at Arkansas, LSU, Texas State and BYU. "I got my (commercial driver's license), so I could drive the team bus, and I was washing laundry, kind of a bottom-of-the-totem-pole job.
"My dad really had the biggest impact on me. He's worked for an honest living in the trucking industry his whole life. And he made the comment: 'I've never gone to work and been like, this is my dream job. What do you have to lose to go try it?' So, I said, 'OK, I'm going to do it.' And the rest is history. It's amazing how it's all worked out."
Kicked out of a youth soccer game for refusing to wear shin guards, Mateos gravitated from T-ball and soccer to football by the time he was 8 years old, "and that became my thing."
From Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kan., where he was teammates with former Baylor offensive lineman James Barnard, Mateos went on to play at Hutchinson CC and Southwest Baptist.
While neither of his parents had graduated college, Mateos was motivated to get his degree.
"One of my best friends had a pool. And as silly as that sounds, that was one of my goals: I'm going to go to college, because I want to get a pool," he said. "I thought my mom set a good example for me because she went back to the local junior college as a working mom to get some education. That made it more of a priority for me."
Until he got to Southwest Baptist, Mateos had never given much thought to coaching. But, his offensive line coach, Ben Blake, went to various coaching clinics and "would bring me back these new techniques to work on," he said.
"That was really the first time where I was like, 'I think I might want to be a college coach,''' Mateos said. "My head coach, Keith Allen, was the guy who actually started footballscoop.com. So, those were two guys that were good college coaches that kind of exposed me to the profession, to the idea of being a college coach."
Needing an extra semester to graduate, Mateos stayed on with the football program at Southwest Baptist and worked with the special teams while also helping coach the offensive line.
At Hutchinson, he joined a staff that included current Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley as the defensive coordinator. Originally hired as the tight ends coach, Mateos was promoted to offensive line coach in December and then left in February to take a GA position at Arkansas working with current Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman.
"I learned more football in one year with Sam and (then-offensive coordinator) Jim Chaney than I had in my whole life prior to that," Mateos said. Pittman gave the young GA "ownership and said, 'We're going to coach these guys together and I'm going to give you the opportunity to coach.' And he gave the confidence that I could do it. That meant everything to me."
At another crossroads when Pittman left to take a job at Georgia at the end of the 2015 season, Mateos interviewed for offensive line coaching jobs at a couple lower-level schools. But, when he didn't get a full-time job, he sent out resumes to what he deemed the 20-best offensive line coaches in the country and asked for an opportunity to be a GA.
That's when he first met current Baylor offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, who was the offensive line coach at LSU. Before that, "it was just a blind email," Mateos said.
When Les Miles was let go four games into the 2016 season, interim head coach Ed Orgeron asked Grimes, "Do you think Eric can coach our tight ends?"
"He took over coaching our tight ends literally overnight," Grimes said. "And he did an incredible job. Both of those guys ended up going on to the NFL."
Nervous about taking the position, Mateos said his first thought was not that he was grateful, "it was that I need to go get the playbook out and make sure I know our whole passing game by tomorrow's practice."
"Sunday night, I was probably at the office at LSU until 3:30 in the morning, teaching myself the passing game," he said. "That way, on Monday, when the tight ends came in the room, it wasn't going to look like I didn't know what I was talking about. I had to make sure I knew everything that they needed to know before I could coach that. It was just a wild change in the middle of the season."
Ready for his first full-time job, Mateos moved on to coach the offensive line for two seasons at Texas State before rejoining Grimes at BYU in 2019.
"You're kind of learning on the run," he said. "I'm 27 years old, coaching an FBS-level O-line. I'm screwing things up, and that's OK. The maturing process is big, acknowledging the mistakes you're making, learning from them and trying to figure out your style and who you are as a coach."
Mateos said he doesn't "coach the game the same way" he played it.
"When I played, I screamed and yelled, yelled at my teammates. I was kind of a jerk, honestly," he said. "Now, I have some maturity and just handle the game differently as a coach than I did as a player. I think those years as you start your career are important in figuring out who you are as a coach. Now that I've done it for four years, I feel like I'm in my groove and I know who I am as a coach."
Hitting his stride at BYU, Mateos helped develop left tackle Brady Christensen into a consensus All-American and projected NFL first-round draft pick. With an offense that ranked in the top 15 nationally in 10 different statistical categories, including No. 3 in scoring (43.5 ppg) and No. 6 in total offense (522.2 ypg), the BYU offensive line was one of 11 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award that recognizes the nation's top group.
"That says something about him," Grimes said of Mateos. "I'll always have some input with the offensive line because that's what I've done my entire life, but he is a great line coach. And we'll see, I know we need to, but we will see marked improvement with our offensive line with him."
Because of the respect he has for Grimes and Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, who was LSU's defensive coordinator during his time there, Mateos calls Baylor a "perfect recipe for me."
"These guys need to realize and believe how important and amazing it is that you play O-line for Baylor," Mateos said. "If you're an O-lineman in this conference, you're one of the best O-linemen in the country. And that's how you need to walk and talk and think. . . . I'm going to build you up, build you up, build you up, but there's also going to be a standard here that everybody has to meet, including me. It starts with me."
The day after his hiring was announced at Baylor, Eric got married on Jan. 9 in Pleasant Grove, Utah, to former BYU Athletics Department staffer Gillian Chavez. Engaged the day after BYU beat Navy, 55-3, in a Monday night game, they were initially scheduled to get married on Dec. 12, but had to push it back when the Cougars scheduled a game that same day against San Diego State.
"It was great getting that game, but the call to her to say, 'Hey, we're going to have to change . . .''' he said. "The joke was that if we made it to the national championship game, because it was Monday night (Jan. 11), we're going to have to reschedule. And she said, 'No, we're not. We're getting married on January 9. If you've got to miss a walk-through or something, then so be it.'''
A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Gillian is an event specialist with doTERRA International, a multi-level marketing company based in Pleasant Grove that sells essential oils and other related products.
"It's been a wild journey," Eric said. "She's been in Utah for 15 years, so I thought it was important that when Gillian and I do make our first move that we go somewhere where she has good support and good friends and family around. So, it's just been the perfect storm."
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