The first major hire of the Neal Brown era at North Texas was made on Monday when news leaked that Matt Powledge would become the defensive coordinator for the Mean Green. Powledge, 38, has spent the last three seasons at Baylor as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach, though head coach Dave Aranda called the plays on the defensive side of the ball for the last two seasons. 

Powledge played fullback at Sam Houston from 2005-09 and cut his teeth as a coach in Louisiana as a GA at Southeastern Louisiana and then as an offensive coach at Northeastern State. Powledge was at Kentucky with Neal Brown in 2013 before Powledge went back to Louisiana to work at ULM and then Louisiana until his first stint at Baylor as special teams coach in 2020. He’s been at Baylor since except for the 2022 season when he was the co-DC at Oregon. 

Powledge isn’t the only major hire for Brown behind the scenes. Multiple reports suggest that Texas’ director of scouting, Errin Joe, is expected to become the general manager of the Mean Gren. Before Texas, Joe was the general manager at Georgia Tech and has also worked at Alabama.