Baylor AD Doug McNamee pens open letter on football head coaching search

After ending the six-and-a-half year Dave Aranda tenure on Sunday, Baylor AD Doug McNamee penned an open letter to the "Baylor Family" on Monday opening up on the Bears' impending coaching search. 

McNamee was hired last December after serving as president of the outdoor lifestyle brand Field & Stream, and got that job served as president of the Magnolia brand, of Fixer Upper fame. McNamee got on Chip and Joanna Gaines's radar as Baylor's senior associate AD of external affairs, making him a mixture of old- and new-school AD. He also holds a bachelor's and master's from Baylor. While most of what an AD does is invisible to the common fan, there's a good chance these next six weeks are the most important of McNamee's professional life, at least so far as his alma mater is concerned.

All that said, the timing here is where we'll lead with. Texas Tech hired Joey McGuire away from Baylor during the Bears' 2021 Big 12 championship run, and Baylor isn't going to turn around and do the same thing to someone else. "Realistically, the logistics of the football calendar dictate that it will likely be December before we are able to announce our new leader. While that is not far off, it is more time than is typical for a search like this one," McNamee said.

The last three Baylor coaches have won or played for Big 12 championships and, shocker, McNamee believes the school is well-positioned to make it four in a row. 

"Thanks to the generosity of the Baylor Family, any list of the nation's top football facilities must include ours. The combination of McLane Stadium, Allison Indoor and the Fudge Football Development Center creates a first-class daily experience for our student-athletes and staff. Our location in the Heart of Central Texas, within a 3-hour drive of over 80% of the population of Texas, gives us access to the best young student-athletes on the planet. And we will continue to work every day to ensure our program is funded to compete for conference titles and College Football Playoffs berths on a regular basis," McNamee said.

Baylor thinks of itself as something of the national university for the Baptist denomination -- all undergrads must obtain two chapel credits -- but in case onlookers harbor an assumption that some sort of puritan streak might prevent Baylor football from competing in the NIL market, well, the school sell shirts that boasts "WE PAY PLAYERS" with proceeds benefitting its NIL fund. 

(And, for context, Baylor was suddenly aggressive on that front after Aranda was flat-footed in the early days of NIL, as best evidenced by the Bears' 3-9 record the previous season. Aranda's successor is now positioned to benefit from that strategic misstep.) 

"In the roughly decade and a half since Baylor Football's infrastructure caught up to our peers, we have been a winning program. This is evidenced by our three Big 12 Championships being the second-most during that stretch. Using different blueprints, each of our past three head coaches led us to New Year's Bowl games, double-digit win seasons, and the doorstep of the CFP. This recent past success will help anchor our future success, and we will all create an exciting new era together," McNamee said.

If McNamee wants to be welcomed at future BU alumni tailgates, this hire needs to deliver on that promise.