Like salmon, more Texas high school football coaches are swimming upstream into the college ranks at an unprecedented level. Jeff Traylor, a long-time head coach at Gilmer High School, led UTSA to a Conference USA championship in 2021. Joey McGuire, a three-time state champion head coach at Cedar Hill, was named Texas Tech head coach late in 2021.
Two of the 12 top jobs at FBS programs in Texas belong to a former high school coach. Add Sonny Dykes (TCU) who spent a year at J.J. Pearce and Rhett Lashlee (SMU) who started at the high school ranks in Arkansas after his college career, and that number grows to 25 percent.