BACK IN TEXAS ROOTS
2/28/2023 4:17:00 PM | Football
Powledge Getting Chance as DC to Mentor under Aranda
First published in the Baylor Insider Magazine from the Baylor Bear Foundation
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Even as he worked his way up as a special teams coordinator at four different schools, including Baylor (2020-21), Matt Powledge got more and more involved on the defensive side and knew he wanted to lead a defense one day.
"There are some special teams coordinators that that's all they ever want to be. And for the majority of their careers, that's their end-all, be-all for them," said the 35-year-old Powledge. "While I was a special teams coordinator, I wanted to be the best one I could possibly be. But for the future, I definitely saw myself wanting to be the leader on defense."
To a certain extent, Powledge got that chance last year as the co-defensive coordinator at Oregon under head coach Dan Lanning. They were on staff together at Sam Houston State in 2014 and "were best friends . . . really close."
"The opportunity to go up there with him, work for one of your really good friends who you believe in, getting out of the special teams game and being able to solely focus on defense, I felt like I was able to grow in a calendar year a whole lot faster," he said.
"That was really fun being more involved in the defensive game plan, being more involved with the day-to-day decisions of, 'Hey, what are we going to do on defense?' Whether that was schematically, personnel-wise, whatever that looked like."
But he shared the title with former Alabama DC and NFL defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi, helping the Ducks to a 10-win season and Holiday Bowl victory over North Carolina with a defense that ranked 10thnationally with 16 interceptions.
Now, Powledge comes to Baylor as the defensive coordinator.
"I'm just really blessed and grateful that Coach (Dave) Aranda thought highly enough of me and thought that I was ready for this opportunity here when it opened up," he said. "Tons of respect for (former Baylor DC Ron Roberts), who sat in this seat before me and tons of respect for Coach Aranda. I'm just excited to be here."
When Aranda made the decision after the 2022 season to let Roberts go, he wasted no time in selecting Powledge as the successor, with the announcement made the day after the Holiday Bowl.
"Matt is an elite defensive mind who has a great understanding of our system, on and off the field," Aranda said. "His experience both on our staff and elsewhere, paired with his understanding of person over player and his ability to connect with student-athletes, make him an ideal fit to serve as our defensive coordinator."
In this role for the first time, Powledge couldn't ask for a better adviser and mentor than Aranda, one of the top defensive minds in the game and the DC on LSU's 2019 national championship team.
"I try to be as humble as I possibly can, but I think you do have to have some confidence about yourself in these positions," Powledge said. "And I'm extremely confident in my ability. But at the same time, I think (Aranda) is going to be a great asset, confidante and sounding board, all of that."
As he's told the rest of the staff and the players he's talked with, Powledge doesn't see this as "my defense, it's not going to be somebody else's defense, it's going to be our defense."
He plans to use a "good mixture of things that me and Coach Aranda really believe in that we've done here in the past," along with a few of the intricacies and subtleties he picked up in his one year at Oregon.
"We want to have an identity on defense, and I think the defense might change a little bit," he said. "More than anything, we want to highlight our players, we want to play with relentless effort and play for each other, and we want to attack the ball."
Off of a 2021 Baylor team that won the Big 12 championship and beat Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl, senior linebacker Matt Jones is the only defensive starter that's still around. But rather than focusing on what he doesn't have, Powledge is excited about the "pieces" of the puzzle that the Bears do have.
"You do have the Gabe Halls, the TJ Franklins, the Garmon Randolphs, the Matt Joneses that were key pieces. So, we have pieces," Powledge said. "And then you have guys like AJ McCarty, Chateau Reed, Jackie Marshall, those guys were at least there, and they saw it.
"They may have been on the sidelines or redshirting, but the day-to-day habits that Jalen Pitre had, that Terrel Bernard had, the way they led, the way they went about their business in the classroom, in here in the meeting rooms, their study habits, they saw that."
As a part of that defensive staff in 2021, Powledge remembers talking specifically about how it would be a disservice "if we don't make our younger players see exactly how Jalen and Terrel and Dillon (Doyle) go about their day-to-day and go about the process."
Taking the younger guys under their wings, Baylor veterans like Pitre and Bernard would bring the young players in for extra film study or keep them after practice to hone their defensive skills.
"Some of that is still there, it's just they're in a bigger role now and it's time for them to step up," Powledge said. "I think it's like 60% of the defensive roster that was here that season are still here."
That group includes Hall and Franklin as returning starters in the defensive line, Randolph and Jones at linebacker and rising sophomore Devin Lemear at safety. Five other players have started at least one game, including seventh-year linebacker Bryson Jackson.
"A lot of the guys have a chip on their shoulder," Powledge said. "Some of them have a sour taste in their mouth of how last season ended. And then, there is also some motivation of knowing how close we came to making the playoffs in 2021. One more loss on Championship Saturday, things could have gotten interesting. I think the combination of that can get us back to where we want to be."
Powledge, a Huntsville, Texas, native who played fullback at Sam Houston, is also back in his Texas roots. He and his wife, Karina, got married last January and have a 4-month-old daughter, Zoe.
"We got married in Katy, Texas, about a mile from the high school stadium," he said. "I thought football had to be part of it, somehow."
Baylor will open the 2023 season with four-straight home games, kicking it off Sept. 2 against Texas State, and will play a program-record eight home games at McLane Stadium. You can purchase tickets at the 2023 Football Tickets link here.
"I've been really impressed with how they've attacked the weight room and just the energy they've had and the effort they've given," Powledge said. "If we can continue to climb every day throughout the winter workouts and conditioning leading into the spring, then we'll be in a good spot coming out of spring."
The Bears' spring training workouts begin the week after spring break and will conclude with the annual Green & Gold spring game on April 22 at McLane Stadium. Kickoff time will be set at a later date. The game, presented by TFNB, will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Even as he worked his way up as a special teams coordinator at four different schools, including Baylor (2020-21), Matt Powledge got more and more involved on the defensive side and knew he wanted to lead a defense one day.
"There are some special teams coordinators that that's all they ever want to be. And for the majority of their careers, that's their end-all, be-all for them," said the 35-year-old Powledge. "While I was a special teams coordinator, I wanted to be the best one I could possibly be. But for the future, I definitely saw myself wanting to be the leader on defense."
To a certain extent, Powledge got that chance last year as the co-defensive coordinator at Oregon under head coach Dan Lanning. They were on staff together at Sam Houston State in 2014 and "were best friends . . . really close."
"The opportunity to go up there with him, work for one of your really good friends who you believe in, getting out of the special teams game and being able to solely focus on defense, I felt like I was able to grow in a calendar year a whole lot faster," he said.
"That was really fun being more involved in the defensive game plan, being more involved with the day-to-day decisions of, 'Hey, what are we going to do on defense?' Whether that was schematically, personnel-wise, whatever that looked like."
But he shared the title with former Alabama DC and NFL defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi, helping the Ducks to a 10-win season and Holiday Bowl victory over North Carolina with a defense that ranked 10thnationally with 16 interceptions.
Now, Powledge comes to Baylor as the defensive coordinator.
"I'm just really blessed and grateful that Coach (Dave) Aranda thought highly enough of me and thought that I was ready for this opportunity here when it opened up," he said. "Tons of respect for (former Baylor DC Ron Roberts), who sat in this seat before me and tons of respect for Coach Aranda. I'm just excited to be here."
When Aranda made the decision after the 2022 season to let Roberts go, he wasted no time in selecting Powledge as the successor, with the announcement made the day after the Holiday Bowl.
"Matt is an elite defensive mind who has a great understanding of our system, on and off the field," Aranda said. "His experience both on our staff and elsewhere, paired with his understanding of person over player and his ability to connect with student-athletes, make him an ideal fit to serve as our defensive coordinator."
In this role for the first time, Powledge couldn't ask for a better adviser and mentor than Aranda, one of the top defensive minds in the game and the DC on LSU's 2019 national championship team.
"I try to be as humble as I possibly can, but I think you do have to have some confidence about yourself in these positions," Powledge said. "And I'm extremely confident in my ability. But at the same time, I think (Aranda) is going to be a great asset, confidante and sounding board, all of that."
As he's told the rest of the staff and the players he's talked with, Powledge doesn't see this as "my defense, it's not going to be somebody else's defense, it's going to be our defense."
He plans to use a "good mixture of things that me and Coach Aranda really believe in that we've done here in the past," along with a few of the intricacies and subtleties he picked up in his one year at Oregon.
"We want to have an identity on defense, and I think the defense might change a little bit," he said. "More than anything, we want to highlight our players, we want to play with relentless effort and play for each other, and we want to attack the ball."
Off of a 2021 Baylor team that won the Big 12 championship and beat Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl, senior linebacker Matt Jones is the only defensive starter that's still around. But rather than focusing on what he doesn't have, Powledge is excited about the "pieces" of the puzzle that the Bears do have.
"You do have the Gabe Halls, the TJ Franklins, the Garmon Randolphs, the Matt Joneses that were key pieces. So, we have pieces," Powledge said. "And then you have guys like AJ McCarty, Chateau Reed, Jackie Marshall, those guys were at least there, and they saw it.
"They may have been on the sidelines or redshirting, but the day-to-day habits that Jalen Pitre had, that Terrel Bernard had, the way they led, the way they went about their business in the classroom, in here in the meeting rooms, their study habits, they saw that."
As a part of that defensive staff in 2021, Powledge remembers talking specifically about how it would be a disservice "if we don't make our younger players see exactly how Jalen and Terrel and Dillon (Doyle) go about their day-to-day and go about the process."
Taking the younger guys under their wings, Baylor veterans like Pitre and Bernard would bring the young players in for extra film study or keep them after practice to hone their defensive skills.
"Some of that is still there, it's just they're in a bigger role now and it's time for them to step up," Powledge said. "I think it's like 60% of the defensive roster that was here that season are still here."
That group includes Hall and Franklin as returning starters in the defensive line, Randolph and Jones at linebacker and rising sophomore Devin Lemear at safety. Five other players have started at least one game, including seventh-year linebacker Bryson Jackson.
"A lot of the guys have a chip on their shoulder," Powledge said. "Some of them have a sour taste in their mouth of how last season ended. And then, there is also some motivation of knowing how close we came to making the playoffs in 2021. One more loss on Championship Saturday, things could have gotten interesting. I think the combination of that can get us back to where we want to be."
Powledge, a Huntsville, Texas, native who played fullback at Sam Houston, is also back in his Texas roots. He and his wife, Karina, got married last January and have a 4-month-old daughter, Zoe.
"We got married in Katy, Texas, about a mile from the high school stadium," he said. "I thought football had to be part of it, somehow."
Baylor will open the 2023 season with four-straight home games, kicking it off Sept. 2 against Texas State, and will play a program-record eight home games at McLane Stadium. You can purchase tickets at the 2023 Football Tickets link here.
"I've been really impressed with how they've attacked the weight room and just the energy they've had and the effort they've given," Powledge said. "If we can continue to climb every day throughout the winter workouts and conditioning leading into the spring, then we'll be in a good spot coming out of spring."
The Bears' spring training workouts begin the week after spring break and will conclude with the annual Green & Gold spring game on April 22 at McLane Stadium. Kickoff time will be set at a later date. The game, presented by TFNB, will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
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