Texas A&M-Commerce football: New head coach David Bailiff vows to compete for national titles

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MCKINNEY -- Texas A&M-Commerce introduced David Bailiff as the 20th head coach in program history on Wednesday at an event at McKinney ISD Stadium, where the Division-II national championship game will be held in four days.

Those around the program didn’t waste any time setting expectations for the future. One TAMUC administrator joked that the university hopes to be back at the title game site in about 53 weeks.

“We’re going to do it where national championships are the standard, graduation is the standard, being big pillars of the university is the standard,” Bailiff said. “Those pillars are already there. Now it’s my job to maintain that.”

The Lions had a difficult task replacing Colby Carthel, who left Commerce for FCS Stephen F. Austin as the most beloved coach in program history. Carthel led the Lions to a national championship in 2017. Athletic director Tim McMurray acknowledged that both he and Carthel were emotional when SFA offered the job, but it was too good to pass up.

Texas A&M-Commerce went 10-3 in 2018 with a trip to the FCS playoffs. It was the worst season since 2015. The standard has changed in Commerce, and Bailiff, a longtime FBS coach in the state, is eager to be on the front lines.

“This is the first job I’ve ever taken where you’re not creating a blueprint, you’re following a blueprint,” Bailiff said. “He’s agreed to take my calls and make my transition even smoother.”

Few active coaches in the state of Texas are as iconic as Bailiff. He played offensive line in the Lone Star Conference under Jim Wacker at Southwest Texas State in the 1970s; coaching at Texas A&M-Commerce is a homecoming of sorts.

Everywhere Bailiff has gone, he has won and left the program better than he found it. Bailiff led his alma mater, Texas State, to its only two FCS wins in program history as the Bobcats made the national semifinal. He won 10 games twice at Rice; the program had only accomplished it one other time. More impressive, Bailiff coached Rice to its only outright conference championship since 1957.

Bailiff gave Tom Herman his first coordinator job at Texas State and David Beaty his first collegiate assistant job. He coached with Kliff Kingsbury’s dad at New Braunfels. He coached under Gary Patterson at TCU. His history is intertwined with the history of football in this state.

“We have a great culture at Texas A&M-Commerce,” TAMUC president Mark Rudin said. “We have such a storied past in athletics. I think [this hire] ranks among anything in athletics.”

McMurray reached out to Bailiff about the job and there was quickly mutual interest. Bailiff visited Commerce, Texas, and saw a school – and a town – that is poised for big things. The university is planning to build a brand new football locker room. The fan base ranked No. 5 in attendance nationally in 2017. Commerce is building a tradition. 

Bailiff, 60, earned more than $5 million as the head coach at Rice alone. He could have retired happily and spent the rest of his life on a beach. But after getting fired by Rice in 2017, Bailiff spent the 2018 season consulting with Big 12 and Pac-12 teams. He’s a football coach at heart – he wants to keep coaching. And he wants to win.

“Maybe it’s a product of being around 18- to 22-year-old men, but I don’t feel like I’m more than 30,” Bailiff said. “Heck, I want to be like [Bill] Snyder! Coach until I’m 80.”

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