Just over a decade ago, East Texas Baptist put their offense in the hands of a bright 23 year old offensive coordinator named Scotty Walden. Three years later, at the age of 26, Walden took the reigns as the head coach of the program and the youngest head coach in all of college football and now after stops at Southern Miss and Austin Peay, Walden is the head coach at UTEP.
Yesterday, the program announced a similar move, handing the reigns of the offense to another bright young mind.
Calvin Ruzicka, who took over the program in 2022 after a handful of seasons as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, has named Jeb Spinney the new offensive coordinator.
The school's release shares that Spinney has coached for ETBU as a student coach on both the offense and defense sides of the ball since 2021, learning "the nuances of the top defenses and offenses in the American Southwest Conference and how to coach against them."
It feels safe to say the Tigers will be the only program in college football where their offensive coordinator will go from studying to graduate to studying defenses to win, as Spinney just recently finished his Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology back in December.
"Being a part of ETBU the past seven years, I wanted to find an offensive coordinator that was Tiger Football. Someone who knew ETBU, our offensive identity, the desire to develop relationships with the players and staff, and what it meant to be East Texas Tough. is that person," head coach Calvin Ruzicka shared.
Spinney will take over an ETBU offense that led the league in four categories - yards per game, rushing yards per game, passing yards per game, and offensive efficiency.
Offensive line coach Donald Kinchen will play a big role in assisting Spinney, as Kinchen added the run game coordinator title yesterday as well.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.