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Shiel Wood aims to be more than a distinctive name with Texas Tech football
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- Shiel Wood aims to be more than a distinctive name with Texas Tech football
Shiel Wood knows only two people with his given name. He's one. His father's the other.
To avoid the confusion of having two Davids under the same roof, David Shiel Wood Jr. has gone by his middle name since childhood. Might be a challenge for public-address announcers, but Wood wears it with family pride.
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"It is my maternal grandmother's maiden name," the new Texas Tech football defensive coordinator said. "It's a Scottish family name. ... It's unique, but I've enjoyed it."
The college football coaching fraternity has gotten increasingly familiar with the uncommon name over the past five years. Wood's known little but success as co-defensive coordinator at Army in 2021 and defensive coordinator for one year apiece at Troy (2022), Tulane (2023) and Houston (2024), which led Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire to hire him last week.
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Tech signed him to a three-year contract that starts at $1.2 million next year and increases to $1.25 million and $1.3 million the last two years.
"When coach McGuire reached out, it was something I felt like I needed to listen to," Wood said Thursday during an introductory press conference at Jones AT&T Stadium. "It was a great opportunity with the resource level here, the success he's already had with his program and the chance to come to a program that can compete to win a Big 12 championship, hopefully. Obviously, that's the goal.
"If you're doing that, you're in the 12-team (College Football) Playoff now. So that was a really great opportunity for me professionally and for our family."
Texas Tech football's Shiel Wood racing up the career ladder
Wood, 42, remembers as a young coach, looking at the profiles of veterans in the profession, seeing the long list of places they'd worked, and thinking, 'Golly, I couldn't imagine that ever being me.' "
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Now he's at his fifth program in five years, not because anyone fired him, but because other teams wanted to hire him. He's developed a reputation for improving defenses quickly.
Texas Tech football defensive coordinator Shiel Wood speks during his introductory press conference, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in the South End Zone Building at Jones AT&T Stadium.
In scoring defense, Troy went from 64th in the FBS the year before Wood arrived, allowing 26.1 points per game, to eighth (17.1 ppg) in his year with the Trojans . Tulane went from 32nd (22.2 ppg) the year before Wood to 23rd (20.5) in his year with the Green Wave . Houston has gone from 105th (31.5 ppg) without Wood last year to 47th (22.9 ppg) with him this year.
"I've been blessed to be with some really good coaches and some really good players," Wood said, "so any success that I've had has been a byproduct of being associated with great programs and being around great people. It's been a team effort.
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"I do think that, coming in, the system that I'm a part of is one that I've been a part of for a long time. It doesn't mean it's a better system than another, but it's one that I'm familiar with. We want to be in a position where we can give our guys a foundation early on where they can play really hard, and by doing that, they build confidence in what we're doing."
Wood coaches a multiple defense based out of a 3-4 front. That's not something he might have pictured for himself either.
Shiel Wood's college career started at Wofford, his hometown college
David Wood, the elder, worked at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, from 1997 through 2021, first as athletics director and then in the college's administration. Shiel was a blocking wide receiver in Wofford's run-oriented offense from 2001-05. In 2006, Wofford coach Mike Ayers had Shiel assist the defensive staff, thinking it would help the aspiring young coach be more well-rounded.
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Though Ayers made Wood the Wofford receivers coach from 2007-11, Wood never forgot his time with the defensive staff. He itched for a switch to that side, to the point Wood asked for the chance when defensive jobs opened up. Ayers balked the first time, relented the next.
"I think that opportunity to sit in with the defense and learn really piqued my interest that first year out of college," Wood said. "Nate Woody was a defensive coordinator there, unbelievable coach and mentor to me."
Wood reunited with Woody at Georgia Tech in 2018, and again at Army when Woody became defensive coordinator there in 2020.
Wood has coached only defense since Ayers gave him the chance. In addition to being a coordinator, he's divided his time about equally between safeties and inside linebackers.
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"I don't know that I really have a preference," he said. "They're both really fun positions to coach, because they're right down the middle of the defense and there's a ton of action going on. I just love coaching the game, and being in whatever role best fits our football team is what I'll look to do."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Shiel Wood aims to be more than a unique name for Texas Tech football
