Paintball, recruiting and 27 days: Dallas Baker readies for first season at Baylor
Dallas Baker had turned down big-money coaching jobs before.
Two offers in 2019. Two more in 2020.
He’d consider them and their pay raises, pray about them, discuss them with his wife, Vanessa, and their daughter. And then, he’d say, “No, thanks.”
“If it doesn’t feel right and it’s not of God, I’m not doing it,” Baker said.
From 2017 through 2020, he loved coaching wide receivers at Marshall. When his staff was let go after the 2020 season and Buffalo scooped him up, he enjoyed coaching there, too.
But another offer arrived earlier this year. It felt right.
Now, Baker is entering his first season as the receivers coach at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and it’s his biggest job ever — his first in a Power Five conference. The Bears open their schedule against Albany on Sept. 3.
"I'm extremely excited," Baker said.
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Even during his high school playing days, he dreamed of being a coach.
He and one of his buddies often spent lunch periods at New Smyrna Beach High School drawing up plays on sheets of paper. Baker created the offensive plays. His friend scribbled the defensive ones. They called a coach over to critique them and judge which would win.
He looked up to his high school coaches and his uncle, Wes Chandler, who played 11 NFL seasons and then coached for two decades on the college and professional levels.
“That was my goal more than playing in the NFL,” Baker said.
He went on to the University of Florida, where he won the 2006 National Championship and caught passes from Chris Leak and Tim Tebow, before a pro career of his own. He picked up a Super Bowl ring with the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers and also suited up in the Canadian Football League and Arena Football League.
Then, his dream came true.
Baker took over as the receivers coach at Warner University in Lake Wales in 2015. He moved to Marshall in 2017 and Buffalo in 2021 before he got a phone call last winter.
It was from Joe Cauthen, Buffalo’s defensive coordinator, telling Baker that Baylor head coach Dave Aranda had been asking around about him. Cauthen told Baker to expect something from Aranda soon.
Sure enough, in late January, Baker stepped off a plane in Tampa for a recruiting trip and noticed he had a message from Aranda. Aranda, whom he had never met, invited him to interview for Baylor’s vacant receivers coach position.
Baker accepted the job a few days later.
He liked that Baylor is a Christian university. He felt comfortable in Texas after living in San Antonio while playing in the Arena League. And with the Bears in the Big 12, one of the NCAA’s top conferences, he craved the elite competition.
Most of all, though, Dave Aranda served as the deciding factor.
“He remembers what it is like to be an assistant coach, and he’s a great human being,” Baker said. “If you ask about him, everybody is going to tell you the same thing.”
After Baker relocated to Waco, he lived alone until Vanessa and their daughter, Angelina, finally joined him this month. His new job filled the time.
He coached spring ball, hit the recruiting trails and acclimated himself to the school, and it kept him busy. Between official recruiting visits, camps and spending time with the players already on his team, Baker worked 27 consecutive days in June.
He inherited a talented but inexperienced receiver group that returns only four players who caught passes last season. Yes, he’s focused on skills like route releases, catching and blocking, but mainly, he wants to build relationships as quickly as possible.
Since he started the new job, he has hosted his players at his house, taken them out to eat and watch movies, gone bowling with them and even competed against them at Top Golf.
He owns a Playstation and an Xbox and uses them to bond with his guys and potential recruits, sometimes posting his gamer tag on social media. His players have latched onto his shoe collection, featuring his favorite Jordan brand kicks, too.
“You always want to have relationships with the guys you coach,” Baker said. “I’ve done more stuff with this group here than I’ve ever done.”
Part of that is resources that come from a powerful program like Baylor. Baker has the financial security to do more. Another part is what he has learned at all his stops as a player and coach.
He’s leading people, not just football players.
That’s what he had been set on since his days in New Smyrna Beach.
Baker still has family in four different Florida counties, and he comes back to visit when he can.
“I love the state of Florida,” he said. “Not just the football but that place.”
But he has embraced Texas quickly, as well. Last weekend, he attended a Texas High School Coaches Association event with the rest of the Baylor staff.
Monday, he headed home. He was going to take his players paintballing. Fall practice starts in a couple weeks.
"I know the season is going to have its ups and downs," Baker said. “It’s just everything I prayed for."
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Dallas Baker now a Big 12 coach at Baylor University under Dave Aranda
