TEACHER AT HEART
3/18/2021 5:55:00 PM | Football
Former All-American, NFL Safety is Coaching Baylor Cornerbacks
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
When Kevin Curtis looks at Dave Aranda, he sees the same guy he met 20 years ago when the Baylor head football coach was a 24-year-old defensive graduate assistant at Texas Tech.
"You are who you are," said Curtis, a former All-American safety at Tech who Aranda hired last month as Baylor's cornerbacks coach. "He's always been a great human being. He's a thinker, he's a teacher. Sometimes in coaching, people yell and yell and yell, and you're not saying anything, you're just yelling. He's a teacher. I wanted a chance to learn from him. I love his demeanor."
The way that Curtis describes Aranda also fits the 40-year-old Curtis, who played five years in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans before a 13-year coaching career that started as the secondary coach at Navarro College.
Following in the footsteps of his mother, Joyce Curtis, who was a school teacher in Lubbock, Kevin Curtis has "become a great teacher of the game," Aranda says.
"Kevin has always been that guy that was a great player and an even better person," Aranda said. "He's gone on to really learn and grow in the game of football. I really appreciate that he teaches football as a platform to grow as a person."
Curtis' credentials as a player have never been questioned. A Wing-T quarterback at Lubbock Coronado High School, he moved to safety in college when then-secondary coach Dean Campbell told him that "safety is where you can get on the field the earliest."
Campbell, who had a son on the Coronado team, saw the potential in Curtis, "he would see me move around, he would see the athleticism."
"I just wanted to play, wherever you want to put me," he said. "And Coach Campbell was right. I was the only one that didn't redshirt and got to start some games toward the end of my freshman year. The first game I started was Texas, and that was back when they had Ricky Williams. It was a good game for me – 13 tackles, three pass breakups and an interception. That was my welcome to college football."
Quickly developing into one of the Big 12's top defensive backs, Curtis was a three-time All-Big 12 pick and second-team All-American as a junior and season. He's third on Tech's all-time list with 430 career tackles.
"A lot of times for a safety, you're in open-field one-on-one situations," Curtis said. "If you're a home-run hitter, you'll knock some people out, but you'll also swing and miss. And in that position, you can't miss, because a 10-yard gain becomes a 60-yard gain. That just can't happen. I had to be a sure tackler, whatever way you can get them."
A 6-2, 215-pound safety, Curtis was a fourth-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2002 NFL Draft. But, his career was shortened by injuries, as he suffered a PCL tear his first year, had an ACL tear in the same knee the next year and by his fifth year, "I couldn't do it anymore."
"I can't even lie, it still bothers me," Curtis said. "As an athlete, you always want to prove yourself. Your whole life, you're proving, you're proving, proving. I was understanding it and getting it while I was there, and I thought I had a chance to be really good, and injuries derailed that. But, my comfort is that God has a perfect plan. Maybe if I keep playing, I don't come back and get into coaching. Yes, my bank account would be bigger, but the effect that I've had on young men I've been able to coach over the last 14 years, it's not even close. God has the perfect plan."
While he got his degree in restaurant and hotel management from Tech in 2002, Curtis said he "knew I could always coach."
Getting his start as the secondary coach at Navarro College under Nick Bobeck, Curtis helped the Bulldogs win back-to-back conference championships with a two-year record of 21-2 while leading the nation in interceptions.
"We lost twice to Blinn in the conference championship game, or we would have gone to the national championship," Curtis said. "One year, we lost to Cam Newton. We beat him the first time, and then the second time they were like, 'All right, we're not going to do drop-back passing. We're going to do play-action, run and all that stuff,' and they got us."
Moving to Louisiana Tech with former Tech assistant coach Sonny Dykes, Curtis' secondary was third in the nation in interceptions in 2011, and the Bulldogs were 9-3 the next year. In a three-year run at his alma mater (2013-15), Texas Tech went to two bowl games, with the 2015 defense ranking 24th nationally with 24 takeaways.
After a two-year stint back at Louisiana Tech, where he worked under Skip Holtz, Curtis rejoined Dykes with SMU three years ago and helped lead the Mustangs to a 10-3 record in 2019. Last year, Brandon Crossley ranked among the national leaders with four interceptions, while converted running back Brandon Stephens had a team-high 11 pass breakups and was invited to the NFL Combine.
Other than getting back into the Big 12, Curtis saw an opportunity at Baylor to "work with a brilliant football mind like Coach Aranda at a great program like Baylor."
"I wanted the chance to learn from him," Curtis said, "a chance to be under a defensive-minded coach, but just the chance to learn and understand his vision."
Curtis was also attracted by Baylor's faith mission.
"I could feel from the start that your faith is embraced, and that's special to me as a man of faith," he said. "I'm not saying we're pushing our faith on anybody, but you can be open with it.
"We want our players to be better people. If they're better people, they'll be better players, because it's all about their integrity, what you're doing when people aren't watching. That's what you're trying to build. When you're in a place that embraces that, that's what you're going to attract, you're going to attract men of faith."
Curtis inherits a group of Baylor cornerbacks that includes returning starters Raleigh Texada, Kalon Barnes and Mark Milton, along with veterans Al Walcott, Byron Hanspard Jr. and Zeke Brown.
"You have athleticism, you have speed, but you also have some length with it," Curtis said. "They have all been willing to learn and listen, and that's what you want. Even if you're an All-American, you still want to be coaches. They're all buying in, and they're listening, and I've been happy with the group."
As for long-range goals, Curtis said, "You would always love to be a head coach, you would always love to be able to spread a culture," but he's more of an in-the-moment guy.
"I've been able to learn from a lot of different people," he said, "but I've learned a lot in my first few days here. I feel like Coach Aranda has a demeanor a lot like mine, and it's good to learn from somebody like that. It's like Tony Dungy, some people are like, 'Uh, I don't know if he can do it.' But, you can. You can hold people accountable without yelling and screaming and doing it out of fear."
Curtis and his wife, Kayla, have a 3-year-old son, Kevin, "Baby Kev." Kayla, a teacher, is "finishing up in Dallas and then they're moving here," he said.
Baylor football is scheduled to begin spring training workouts next week. The Bears will open the 2021 season on the road Sept. 4 at Texas State and play seven home games at McLane Stadium, including BYU, Texas and Oklahoma.
Baylor Bear Insider
When Kevin Curtis looks at Dave Aranda, he sees the same guy he met 20 years ago when the Baylor head football coach was a 24-year-old defensive graduate assistant at Texas Tech.
"You are who you are," said Curtis, a former All-American safety at Tech who Aranda hired last month as Baylor's cornerbacks coach. "He's always been a great human being. He's a thinker, he's a teacher. Sometimes in coaching, people yell and yell and yell, and you're not saying anything, you're just yelling. He's a teacher. I wanted a chance to learn from him. I love his demeanor."
The way that Curtis describes Aranda also fits the 40-year-old Curtis, who played five years in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans before a 13-year coaching career that started as the secondary coach at Navarro College.
Following in the footsteps of his mother, Joyce Curtis, who was a school teacher in Lubbock, Kevin Curtis has "become a great teacher of the game," Aranda says.
"Kevin has always been that guy that was a great player and an even better person," Aranda said. "He's gone on to really learn and grow in the game of football. I really appreciate that he teaches football as a platform to grow as a person."
Curtis' credentials as a player have never been questioned. A Wing-T quarterback at Lubbock Coronado High School, he moved to safety in college when then-secondary coach Dean Campbell told him that "safety is where you can get on the field the earliest."
Campbell, who had a son on the Coronado team, saw the potential in Curtis, "he would see me move around, he would see the athleticism."
"I just wanted to play, wherever you want to put me," he said. "And Coach Campbell was right. I was the only one that didn't redshirt and got to start some games toward the end of my freshman year. The first game I started was Texas, and that was back when they had Ricky Williams. It was a good game for me – 13 tackles, three pass breakups and an interception. That was my welcome to college football."
Quickly developing into one of the Big 12's top defensive backs, Curtis was a three-time All-Big 12 pick and second-team All-American as a junior and season. He's third on Tech's all-time list with 430 career tackles.
"A lot of times for a safety, you're in open-field one-on-one situations," Curtis said. "If you're a home-run hitter, you'll knock some people out, but you'll also swing and miss. And in that position, you can't miss, because a 10-yard gain becomes a 60-yard gain. That just can't happen. I had to be a sure tackler, whatever way you can get them."
A 6-2, 215-pound safety, Curtis was a fourth-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2002 NFL Draft. But, his career was shortened by injuries, as he suffered a PCL tear his first year, had an ACL tear in the same knee the next year and by his fifth year, "I couldn't do it anymore."
"I can't even lie, it still bothers me," Curtis said. "As an athlete, you always want to prove yourself. Your whole life, you're proving, you're proving, proving. I was understanding it and getting it while I was there, and I thought I had a chance to be really good, and injuries derailed that. But, my comfort is that God has a perfect plan. Maybe if I keep playing, I don't come back and get into coaching. Yes, my bank account would be bigger, but the effect that I've had on young men I've been able to coach over the last 14 years, it's not even close. God has the perfect plan."
While he got his degree in restaurant and hotel management from Tech in 2002, Curtis said he "knew I could always coach."
Getting his start as the secondary coach at Navarro College under Nick Bobeck, Curtis helped the Bulldogs win back-to-back conference championships with a two-year record of 21-2 while leading the nation in interceptions.
"We lost twice to Blinn in the conference championship game, or we would have gone to the national championship," Curtis said. "One year, we lost to Cam Newton. We beat him the first time, and then the second time they were like, 'All right, we're not going to do drop-back passing. We're going to do play-action, run and all that stuff,' and they got us."
Moving to Louisiana Tech with former Tech assistant coach Sonny Dykes, Curtis' secondary was third in the nation in interceptions in 2011, and the Bulldogs were 9-3 the next year. In a three-year run at his alma mater (2013-15), Texas Tech went to two bowl games, with the 2015 defense ranking 24th nationally with 24 takeaways.
After a two-year stint back at Louisiana Tech, where he worked under Skip Holtz, Curtis rejoined Dykes with SMU three years ago and helped lead the Mustangs to a 10-3 record in 2019. Last year, Brandon Crossley ranked among the national leaders with four interceptions, while converted running back Brandon Stephens had a team-high 11 pass breakups and was invited to the NFL Combine.
Other than getting back into the Big 12, Curtis saw an opportunity at Baylor to "work with a brilliant football mind like Coach Aranda at a great program like Baylor."
"I wanted the chance to learn from him," Curtis said, "a chance to be under a defensive-minded coach, but just the chance to learn and understand his vision."
Curtis was also attracted by Baylor's faith mission.
"I could feel from the start that your faith is embraced, and that's special to me as a man of faith," he said. "I'm not saying we're pushing our faith on anybody, but you can be open with it.
"We want our players to be better people. If they're better people, they'll be better players, because it's all about their integrity, what you're doing when people aren't watching. That's what you're trying to build. When you're in a place that embraces that, that's what you're going to attract, you're going to attract men of faith."
Curtis inherits a group of Baylor cornerbacks that includes returning starters Raleigh Texada, Kalon Barnes and Mark Milton, along with veterans Al Walcott, Byron Hanspard Jr. and Zeke Brown.
"You have athleticism, you have speed, but you also have some length with it," Curtis said. "They have all been willing to learn and listen, and that's what you want. Even if you're an All-American, you still want to be coaches. They're all buying in, and they're listening, and I've been happy with the group."
As for long-range goals, Curtis said, "You would always love to be a head coach, you would always love to be able to spread a culture," but he's more of an in-the-moment guy.
"I've been able to learn from a lot of different people," he said, "but I've learned a lot in my first few days here. I feel like Coach Aranda has a demeanor a lot like mine, and it's good to learn from somebody like that. It's like Tony Dungy, some people are like, 'Uh, I don't know if he can do it.' But, you can. You can hold people accountable without yelling and screaming and doing it out of fear."
Curtis and his wife, Kayla, have a 3-year-old son, Kevin, "Baby Kev." Kayla, a teacher, is "finishing up in Dallas and then they're moving here," he said.
Baylor football is scheduled to begin spring training workouts next week. The Bears will open the 2021 season on the road Sept. 4 at Texas State and play seven home games at McLane Stadium, including BYU, Texas and Oklahoma.
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