Khenon Hall's Journey Led Him to Baylor With Dave Aranda
By Jerry Hill, BaylorBears.com
WACO, Texas — As a Dallas native who played football at South Oak Cliff High School and still has family in the area, SMU seemed to be a dream school for Khenon Hall.
In his second season on the Hilltop as the running backs coach and first as run-game coordinator, the Mustangs put together a historic season with an 11-3 record, a win over 17th-ranked Tulane in the AAC Championship Game and the school's first outright conference title in 41 years.
Still riding that ultimate high of a conference championship victory, Hall got a call from Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, asking him if he was interested in joining the Bears' staff as running backs coach and associate head coach.
"When they called, I was a little shocked," said the 35-year-old Hall, a 13-year coaching veteran who spent seven seasons at his alma mater, Illinois State. "I was kind of taken aback. At first, I was a little bit hesitant. Just being there and knowing what we had built. . . . Everybody asks me, 'Why did you leave?' One reason: Dave Aranda."
Hall, who actually interviewed with Aranda for Baylor's Director of Recruiting position in January 2020, said he couldn't pass up the opportunity to "learn and grow and be groomed by someone like that, someone of that character and that type of head coach."
"This was just opportunity knocking," said Hall, who joins first-year offensive coordinator Jake Spavital (Cal), offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic (Michigan State) and tight ends coach Jarrett Anderson (UTSA) in an offensive staff reshuffling that left third-year receivers coach Dallas Baker as the lone holdover.
"Baylor is a big-time program. Like I tell all these recruits, the Baylor brand isn't just in Waco, it's big, it's national. I'm really excited to be here."
Aranda says Hall is "an extremely talented young coach who will have a great impact on our running backs room while also helping our recruiting efforts."
"His energy, love for the game and all-around feel for the state of Texas has earned him a huge amount of respect as a recruiter. I have zero doubt that Khenon will make a great impact on our team."
Recruiting in Texas, and particularly in his hometown of Dallas, Khenon said "it's still about relationships." At Illinois State, he brought in a top-10 FCS recruiting class in 2020.
"A lot of those coaches in Dallas, I either played for, played against or played with," he said. "So, it's not recruiting, it's family. For me, I don't know them just because I'm going in their school to recruit, I have known them for 25-plus years. And it's a little bit different when I walk in the door."
Coming from humble beginnings in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, in a single-parent home, Khenon has always seen coaches as father figures. While he had dreams of playing in the NFL, he always knew he wanted to be a coach.
"Just the impact that my coaches made on me and knowing where I came from and the impact that I'll be able to make, that was the plan," he said. "And I wanted to do social work, that was a big thing for me. Being a coach, I feel like you're hitting a little bit of everything – you're a social worker, you're a therapist, you're everything. I just always knew I wanted to be a coach."
A running back for most of his playing career, Khenon moved to defensive back as a senior with the influx of talent when neighboring Wilmer-Hutchins High School shut down after the 2004-05 school year.
"People forget this, but the 2005 season was when they shut down Wilmer-Hutchins," he said. "Some of their talent came to SOC, some of them went to Roosevelt High School. But we were loaded. We had a good season, but it could have been better. We had a good team, just a lot of different guys from different areas trying to come together."
District champions that year, the Golden Bears lost to Lancaster, 27-20, in the bi-district round of the playoffs.
Baylor, SMU and TCU were among the recruiting suitors before Hall suffered a neck injury during his junior season in high school. Going to Trinity Valley Community College to "re-prove myself," Khenon had an impressive sophomore season with 70 tackles, a team-best 66 solos, four tackles for loss and a safety.
With coaching changes at both SMU and North Texas, and Tulsa not a good fit for him, Khenon signed with Illinois State in 2008.
"It came down to a coach that I kind of patterned my coaching methods and philosophy after, (defensive assistant coach) Mike Menefee," he said. "He came down and just captured my attention. A lot of times, people will say not to pick a school because of a coach, but I knew he was going to take care of me."
That rang true six games into his first and only season with the Redbirds, when Khenon suffered a complete fracture of the C-2, C-3 and C-4 vertebrae in his spine. The first face he saw when he woke up from surgery was Mike Menefee.
"You have to have guys that care about you. You've got to have coaches that care about you," he said. "Because if something like that happens and that guy doesn't care about you, then you're up there lost and you're far away from your family. . . . To this day, I can call him and he'll pick up the phone and we'll talk."
Although Khenon could have potentially come back from the injury, with his daughter, Jazlyn, expected to be born at any time, "I decided it's not worth it," he said.
"I didn't want to be paralyzed and not be able to play and walk and do things with my kids," he said. "So, I had to walk away."
Even with a new coaching staff coming in, led by Brock Spack, Khenon was able to stay on as a student assistant during what would have been his senior year (2009) and then transitioned to a graduate assistant position in 2010, working with the secondary.
"I've always been the coach on the field, in all levels, from Pop Warner on up," he said. "I've always had a knack for football and getting guys lined up, the X's and O's, all that stuff. So, when I walked away from the game, I got right into coaching."
Since Illinois State didn't have paid football GA positions at the time, Khenon doubled as an academic counselor on top of his 40-plus-hour work week with coaching.
"And I had a newborn at the time," he said. "I tell these guys all the time, y'all don't know what being a GA means. You got it easy. I didn't get more than two, three hours a sleep every night for that first year or two."
Before returning to Illinois State as a full-time assistant, he was a defensive GA for two seasons at New Mexico under Bob Davie.
Wearing many hats with the Redbirds, Khenon was a defensive assistant for his first four years (2014-17). His list of pupils included second-team All-American Luther Kirk, who was the defensive MVP at the East-West Shrine Bowl; and Davontae Harris, who was the Cincinnati Bengals' fifth-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Running backs coach Lamar Conard, one of Hall's longtime mentors, left Illinois State after the 2017 season to take the same position with the University of Miami. That left an offensive opening for Brock Spack and offensive coordinator Kurt Beathard to fill.
"You never know when people are watching you," Khenon said. "They were looking for a running backs coach, and the offensive coordinator called the head coach and said, 'Why don't we just move Khenon over?' I was at the coaches' convention when Coach Spack called and said, 'Coach Beathard wants to move you over to running backs. How do you feel about that?'
"That was a chance for me to continue to evolve and grow, but I was also trying to help a young guy get a full-time job. One of my former players was a defensive GA for me, and he got moved up to full-time with the DBs. As you get to know me, you'll learn that I tend to try to help others. If you're not paying it forward, you're basically doing a disservice."
Leaving Illinois State after the COVID-affected 2020-21season, Khenon said joining Clarence McKinney's staff at Texas Southern in 2021 was the "best decision that I've ever made." Not only did he return to his Texas roots after 15 years away, he got the chance to work with "one of the sharpest offensive minds
Three years later, Khenon said his decision to join Clarence McKinney's staff at Texas Southern in 2021 is the "best decision that I've ever made." Not only did he get back to his Texas roots after 15 years away, he got the chance to work with "one of the sharpest offensive minds" and learn the Air Raid offense. McKinney was a Kevin Sumlin disciple who had been an assistant at Texas A&M before taking the Texas Southern job.
"If you think about it, if I hadn't made that sacrifice and taken that chance, taken that risk, I probably wouldn't be here today (at Baylor)," he said.
Joining Rhett Lashlee's staff at SMU in 2022, Hall helped the Mustangs post 18 wins over the two seasons and finish in the top 10 nationally this past season in first-down offense (fourth) scoring offense (sixth) and red-zone offense (10th) when he added the run-game coordinator title.
"Me and Coach Garin Justice (offensive line coach), we worked hand-in-hand," Khenon said. "The O-line coach, another sharp mind, he taught me a lot. I'm always trying to evolve and grow, so it was like another challenge for me. I don't have aspirations to be a coordinator, my aspirations are to be a head coach, because it's my way of just getting guys to play, bringing people together and leading. It was good for me just seeing it from a different lens."
At Baylor, Hall inherits a running backs room that includes 2022 Freshman All-American Richard Reese; Dominic Richardson, who rushed for over 1,000 yards in three seasons at Oklahoma State; and freshmen Bryson Washington and Dawson Pendergrass.
"It's a blank slate for me," Khenon said. "I'm a big earned, not given, guy. What's been done before I got here, I wasn't here. So, what you do from now until August, that's what matters. Great room, great kids. They're just business-like, very professional. You can tell that Coach Aranda has recruited the right guys."
Khenon, who earned a degree in University Studies from Illinois State in 2010, has three children, Jazlyn, Khenon Jr. and Khaydon, and is engaged to Gizelle Chevis.
Baylor will begin spring workouts next month, with the annual Green and Gold Game set for April 20 with a noon start at McLane Stadium. The Bears kick off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 with a home game against Tarleton State.
"I definitely get juiced (in the spring)," Hall said, "because you get to see what guys do, see how they grow and develop. Everybody's got something to work on, everybody's got some kind of growth to do. And I'm new in Coach (Spavital's) offense. So, I'm excited."