Dave Aranda taps into Wade Phillips' knowledge databank to grow Baylor staff
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Wade Phillips has a pedigree that could make even best defensive coordinators in the country jealous. He began his NFL career in 1976 with the Houston Oilers, coaching the defensive line, and has been active on the sidelines every year except 2014.
Included on the list of coaches who hold Phillips, 72, in high regard is Baylor’s Dave Aranda. The former defensive coordinator at Wisconsin and LSU, Aranda has been studying Phillips’ schemes and techniques ever since he broke into the business.
That’s why Aranda felt like he pulled off a major coup earlier this month when Phillips—the Dallas Cowboys head coach from 2007-10–accepted his invitation to speak to the Bears coaching staff via conference call.
Baylor defensive backs coach Brian Stewart. who spent two years as Phillips’ defensive coordinator with the Cowboys, said Phillips covered a wide array of topics during the chat.
“One of the big things that (Phillips) talked about, practice-wise, was just to talk to your players,” Stewart told SicEm365 Radio. “They’ve got to know what to do, they’ve got to know how to do it, and then, you know, then they’ve got to do it with 100-percent effort.
“You think about something like that, you’re saying well that’s obvious, but not everybody coaches like that. Not everybody thinks like that. And that’s football right there.”
New Baylor defensive coordinator Ron Roberts was tasked with replacing the majority of Matt Rhule’s staff that left to join him with the Carolina Panthers. Only outside linebackers coach Joey McGuire remains on the defensive side of the ball.
Still, the emphasis on coaching and teaching that Rhule’s staff promoted remains alive.
“(The players) knowing what to do, that’s on the coaches,” Stewart, who coached 16 NFL Pro Bowlers, said. “They need to know their alignments and they need to know their assignments. That’s on us. And then doing it with 100-percent effort, that’s on the players.
“(Phillips) talked about that, talked about other things as far as making sure that we have efficient movement, just how to practice, weekly game planning. Stuff like that. It was a great conversation for us.”