Texarkana Liberty-Eylau on Thursday named Tyler Legacy offensive coordinator Brad Willard as the Leopards next head football coach replacing Dewaksi Davis who stepped down shortly after the end of the 2023 season.

Willard spent two seasons as the head coach at Mount Vernon in 2021 and 2022 where he posted an impressive 23-4 overall record leading the Tigers to the state semifinals in 2021. Willard has ties to several prominent offensive masterminds associated with Texas High School Football, most notably Chris Ross who was recently named offensive coordinator at Stephen F. Austin University and former Baylor head coach Art Briles.

Willard in the past has served as a graduate assistant at Baylor and was an offensive coordinator at Class 5A Red Oak and at Mount Vernon, before being named as Briles’ replacement at Mount Vernon in early 2021.

In his lone season at Tyler Legacy working with first-year head coach Beau Trahan, Willard helped Tyler Legacy to a 6A playoff appearance, a major improvement from a 2-8 mark the Red Raiders posted in 2022.

Willard steps into a situation at Liberty-Eylau that looks promising on paper, the Leopards are dropping down to 3A-Division I and always are rich with talent if Willard can get all invested parties on the same page at Liberty-Eylau, the city of Texarkana could end up with three elite programs within the city limits.