Baylor Bear Insider
Jake Brown wasn't looking to go anywhere after spending just one season as the offensive coordinator at Division II West Texas A&M.
But like Mike Caputo, a former All-America safety at Wisconsin who was the safeties coach last year at Utah State, Brown left an on-field coaching job to take a quality control position with first-year Baylor head coach Dave Aranda.
"I wasn't looking to leave West Texas, and it came out of nowhere," said Brown, an Ennis, Texas, native who spent two years as a grad assistant at TCU and one as director of high school relations for the Horned Frogs. "I had been an analyst before at TCU, so I wasn't looking, but this job was unique. I think it's an analyst job that I couldn't pass up."
A former defensive GA under Aranda at LSU, Caputo said the chance to reunite with Aranda was "probably a majority of the reason" he made the move from Logan, Utah., to Waco, Texas.
Taking that GA position at LSU after initially signing with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent was "probably one of the best things I could have done for my coaching career," Caputo said, "because being at that place taught me so much just about how to coach."
"You had a bunch of great coaches at that school (LSU) who I could call . . . and they would give me the honest truth," Caputo said. "That's the mentality that was built there, and I think that's what triggered Coach Aranda to want to be a head coach, because he wanted to build on top of that as well and have that at Baylor. That was really eye-opening for me on how to carry myself in this profession."
Brown and Caputo are part of a small army of off-field quality control coaches that includes former Oklahoma State offensive lineman Zachary Crabtree, Aman Anand from Penn State and staff holdovers Josh Bookbinder, Kirk Bryant and Omar Hales.
Aranda said the quality control coaches assist the 10 full-time assistant coaches by breaking down game film for both self-scouting and opponent scouting, game plan preparations, practice prep and player development.
With spring football shut down due to COVID-19, the quality control coaches are getting ahead of the curve by scouting the 2020 opponents and "giving us a cheat sheet of a game plan moving forward," Aranda said.
"That piece is big," Aranda said. "And then, having the ability with the technology that we've got, pushing a button, we can get the information set up so that we can get some self-scout numbers spit back at us when we do hit the grass."
The Bears were days away from "hitting the grass" for spring football when the NCAA suspended and then canceled all spring competition and practices.
Brown, who is currently working from his home in Canyon, Texas, said he's trying to make the best of the situation and looks at it as a positive from the standpoint of spending extra time with his young family. Jake and his wife, Brittany, an elementary school principal in Canyon, have a 3-year-old daughter, Harper.
"The past couple years, we've moved a lot at this time of the year, so I've been apart from my family," said Brown, who also coached running backs at Stephen F. Austin University. "I'm looking at it as a chance that I'm getting to move and take on a new job that we're really excited about, but I'm not having to spend three months away from my family. I'm getting to spend time with my daughter that you don't get to do in this profession very much."
Following on the heels of Graham Harrell at Ennis High School, Brown quarterbacked the Lions to the 2004 state championship and was a walk-on defensive back at North Texas before starting his coaching career.
"Growing up in Texas, that's kind of all you know, especially in a town like Ennis," he said. "(Winning a state championship) was something you dream of when you're in first grade and going to the games every Friday night. It's one of the rings that mean the most to me."
In four years coaching in the high school ranks, he worked with a pair of future No. 1 overall draft picks. He was the receivers coach at Lake Travis High school for quarterback Baker Mayfield's senior season, then served as the defensive line coach at Arlington Martin when Myles Garrett racked up 19 ½ sacks.
"With Baker, I didn't think at the time, 'OK, this guy is going to be a No. 1 draft pick.' But, I knew he would do well in whatever he did. He just had that mentality that he was going to win," Brown said of the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner. "Now, with Myles, I had never seen anything like that in my life. Way more believable at the time. He was something else."
As an offensive GA working with the receivers at TCU, Brown was on the opposing sidelines at McLane Stadium on Oct. 11, 2014, when Baylor rallied from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Frogs, 61-58.
"I tell people all the time, that was probably one of the loudest football games I've ever been in," he said. "We would score and then we'd sit on the bench, and then the place would just erupt because Baylor had just scored again. It was an awesome game to be a part of. I'm just excited to be on the other side now."
Brown said it's a "great career move," getting the chance to work with a staff that includes former North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora as the offensive coordinator. "There's just so much learning on and off the field that I saw in this opportunity," he said.
Like Crabtree, Caputo got at least a taste of the NFL with a training camp invite from the New Orleans Saints and a free-agent contract with the Rams prior to the 2016 season. But, when he got the call from Aranda about being a GA at LSU, he jumped at the chance to get into coaching.
"I had a lot of injuries in college, I was pretty banged-up," said Caputo, an All-American safety at Wisconsin who earned defensive MVP honors at the 2016 East-West Shrine all-star game. "When I gave it up, it was hard mentally, but I got over it real quick. I'm not running into other guys full speed anymore. I just get to sit down and watch and coach and still do what I love to do."
After his two-year stint at LSU, Caputo got a full-time coaching job at Utah State and was reunited with his former Wisconsin head coach, Gary Andersen.
"His experience at Utah State is going to be a great asset here," Aranda said. "I think he will be a point guy for (defensive coordinator Ron Roberts), and he will assist with the defense staff on a lot of the opponent scout/self-scouts that will be taking place."
Caputo, who said he "speaks the same language" as Aranda, just wants "to be a better coach and a better teacher, too."
This is Crabtree's first foray into coaching after starting 46 games in four seasons as an offensive lineman at Oklahoma State and spending one year on the injured reserve with the Los Angeles Chargers.
"As a kid, I always dreamed about playing in the NFL, yes," said the 25-year-old Crabtree. "But the other big dream I always had was being a college football coach. That's always been one of my big aspirations. Me and (offensive line coach Joe Wickline) talked about that when he was recruiting me. Coaching has always been a big passion of mine."
Reunited with Wickline, who recruited him to OSU, Crabtree said his final decision came down between the Cowboys and Baylor.
"I thought they were always tough, they played hard. I thought it was a place that wanted to win," he said. "And I just felt like with the location of it, between Dallas and Houston and San Antonio, this is a place where you can definitely win. You've got a chance to be really special."
Placed on IR for the 2018 season, Crabtree had a second and career-ending knee injury in 2019.
"In a year's span, you spend 22 weeks on crutches," he said. "I was ready to be able to get out of bed without feeling pain, stand up and walk around. I tore a bunch of the cartilage from the left half of my knee, so it was easier. I rehabbed last year and then got into this."
Crabtree sees his role as doing anything and everything he can to "take off (the assistant coaches') plates."
"Those coaches have a lot on their plates, so anything you can do to help them with that and help this program win and be as good as we can be," he said.
Aranda said Crabtree has a "humble heart" to do whatever work needs to be done and a knowledge of the game to be able to "really conceptualize and communicate" to the players and staff. "So, he has been a great asset."
Baylor football kicks off the 2020 season with a neutral-site matchup against Ole Miss in the Sept. 5 Texas Kickoff at NRG Stadium in Houston. The deadline for renewing your season tickets has been extended to April 15. For ticket information, go to the Football Tickets link.
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