SicEm365 Exclusive: WR Coach Bob Bicknell talks settling into Baylor

During Baylor's Spring Break, new wide receivers coach Bob Bicknell sat down with SicEm365's Sean Cordy to discuss how he came into the position following Matt Lubick's departure and his experience before reuniting with Coach Matt Rhule.

Bicknell brings a decade's worth of NFL experience including a season with Baylor co-offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon last season with the San Francisco 49ers

Bicknell also had a stint with the Philadelphia Eagles coaching the likes of wide receivers DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin from 2013-15.

Before Bicknell started moved around the NFL circuit, coincidentally, he held a position at Temple coaching the offensive line in 2006. Of course, it was six years before Matt Rule came through town but both were hired by the same athletic director Bill Bradshaw.

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SicEm365: How did you come into this position? Did Coach Rhule contact you initially when he got the job?

Coach Bicknell: I can’t really remember. It wasn’t that long ago but I think I initially contacted him. You know, we had been let go (at San Francisco) so when Coach Lubick had left, just thought if there was an opportunity to work with Matt Rhule, I’d love to do it. I think I contacted him and we just talked about it and here I am.

SicEm365: And Chip Kelly, you’ve known him for a few decades after meeting him at a football conference. What kind of influence and relationship with him as helped you get to here?

Bicknell: He’s just a really innovative guy and he thinks a little outside the box or whatever you want to say. But he knows how to move the football and offensively, he knows how to get the ball going. So I think all of that and learning from him, and learning from the differences between college offense and pro offenses which I don’t think is a very big thing but there are some things you do a little differently.

SicEm365: But growing up under your dad coaching at Boston College and later playing for him had to be your biggest influence.

Bicknell: Without a doubt. He is my idol. Outstanding father, great family person- kind of showed you that’s truly what’s most important. Then just knowing everything about this business, what it was going to be like. Just everything. I wanted to do it because of what he did.

SicEm365: Then your first experience with Coach Rhule at Temple in 2006. What was that like?

Bicknell: The thing about Matt, I think the first time I met him, you just realized he’s probably the best straight-coach I had ever been around. In terms of teaching, meetings with the players, just an excellent teacher. So that’s something you remember when you first meet someone and obviously your friendships and all the time you spend together, it’s one of those things you get in this business. We’ve always stayed in touch. We’ve always talked football.

SicEm365: So that one-win season at Temple didn’t put a sour taste in your mouth? That’s an experience you draw from?

Bicknell: I think when we went there, we all said, “Hey, we’re gonna try to get a couple of wins here.” But that’s not where they were at the time. I had left because there was an opportunity to go to the NFL, I had kind of been involved in that. A lot of those guys stayed there and built a really good program.

SicEm365: Where do you feel the program’s at right now in relation to how the new staff felt at Temple?

Bicknell: I haven’t been around enough to see everything. I really don’t know. I think that we knew what the situation was with that program as we went through the whole offseason. But I’m watching some tape today to figure out exactly what we have.

SicEm365: Could you elaborate a little more on your role here? You’ve been a tight end and offensive line coach in the past. So does that help you better develop the receiver beyound running routes?

Bicknell: I coach the wide receivers here and that’s all I do. But it helps you with the background of why you’re doing certain things. Why and how you’re involved in the run game, the bubbles that you’re throwing or the blocking that you have to do or the way you catch the ball, the contested catches you make. The little things you do with your eyes, your shoulders and all that. All of that. Part of my time on defense when I first started coaching, I started in the secondary and linebackers. That’s what experience is. That’s the reality of it.