Whenever the Texas High School Coaches Association board of directors got together for a meeting, some would refer to
Bob Wager by a nickname.
“We spent a ton of time together in those board meetings, and we always sort of affectionately referred to him as Pitbull,” Rodney Webb told
Inside Nebraska on Friday. “I’m not much of a pop music guy, but he bares a fairly strong resemblance to Pitbull when he’s up there — has his head shaved and he’s got his sunglasses on.”
According to a report from Matt Stepp of TexasFootball.com on Friday, Wager, a longtime head coach at Arlington Martin, is joining
Matt Rhule’s
Nebraska staff to coach tight ends and assist special teams coordinator
Ed Foley.
On Friday, Wager announced on social media that he was leaving Arlington Martin:
Wager, who's originally from New York and attended Springfield College in Massachusetts, is a major figure in Texas high school football.
He went a combined 206-100 at Arlington Martin, where he’s been since 2006. Wager’s program never missed the playoffs in his 17 years there and won at least 10 games in eight seasons. He also served as the THSCA senior director for his region of Texas, which was the Dallas-Fort Worth area and was the head coach of the 2022 Under Armor All-American game.
“He’s been a very outspoken and influential coach throughout the state,” Webb said.
Webb, who served a stint as the president of the THSCA, is currently the athletic director at Highland Park in Texas, but before that he was a longtime Texas high school football coach with stops at Denton Guyer, Rockwall, Mesquite Horn and Royse City. He won 160 games against just 78 losses in 19 seasons as a head coach, and his teams made the playoffs 18 consecutive years.
The 52-year-old Wager is a dear friend of Webb’s.
The first time Webb met Wager was when the two were both small-school coaches in the state — Wager at Kaufman and Webb at Royse City. They had a preseason scrimmage against each other.
“It was a very contentious scrimmage,” Webb recalled. “Pretty chippy. Couple really, really good teams. That’s where we first met each other, and we have competed against each other off and on over the years.”
Webb went on to play Wager-led Arlington Martin teams while he coached at Rockwall and Mesquite Horn. A few traits about Wager’s teams always stood out to Webb.
“Oftentimes we say that a team takes on the personality of its head coach, and with Bob’s teams, they were always tenacious, extremely intense, very blue-collar," Webb said. "You knew beyond a shadow of a doubt they were going to play tremendous special teams. They worked harder to win games in the special teams phase than anybody else I’ve been around.”
Webb hasn’t talked to Wager in a few weeks, but he had heard rumblings that Wager was thinking about taking the next step in his coaching career, rising from the high school to college ranks.
In Wager, Nebraska is getting a relationship-first coach.
“The first thing you need to know about Bob Wager is, he is all about relationships,” Webb said. “Professional relationships with his fellow coaches, which is going to give him a tremendous leg up as a recruiter. And then coach-player relationships. One of his hallmarks at Arlington Martin was his ability to get the most out of his players, and he did that because of a very intentional relationship he had with all of his kids, and that he demanded from his coaches toward the kids as well.”
The potential addition of Wager gives Rhule a well-known and respected recruiter in Texas. The Huskers dipped into the state to sign four recruits to the 2023 class, including Argyle defensive lineman
Riley Van Poppel, Cypress linebacker
Dylan Rogers, Bay City receiver
Brice Turner
and Manor defensive end/outside linebacker
Princewill Umanmielen.
With Wager in the fold, the Lone Star State is going to see plenty of scarlet and cream.
“I would think, without question, that would be one of the chief reasons to hire a guy like Bob, is to be able to recruit the state of Texas,” Webb said. “Bob is not a native Texan, but he has coached his entire professional career down in Texas and he’s got about as good of relationships statewide as there is down here in our state.”
When Rhule was hired at Baylor, he had never coached in the state of Texas outside of American Athletic Conference games at SMU and Houston. He needed to know his new surroundings better, so he hired a trio of high school coaches to help him in Joey McGuire, David Wetzel and Shawn Bell.
McGuire went on to get the Texas Tech head coaching job and just beat Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss team in the Texas Bowl Wednesday night. Wetzel and Bell are still with Baylor, working under Dave Aranda — Wetzel as the associate AD for football relations and Bell the quarterbacks coach.
Webb knows all three of those coaches well and has stayed in contact with them over the years. Does Webb see Wager taking a similar path McGuire took?
“Joey really hit the jackpot,” Webb said. “There are a bunch of high school coaches in Texas who feel like they can be the next Joey McGuire, and they’re looking for that opportunity to get into the college game and kind of follow his footsteps. I can’t really speak for what Bob’s aspirations are as a head coach, but I’ll tell you this much about him for sure — you’re going to get the best he’s got as an assistant coach, regardless of whether that leads to any greater opportunities or not.”
Wager becomes the eighth known full-time assistant on Rhule's staff. He joins
Marcus Satterfield (OC and QBs),
Tony White (DC),
Ed Foley (ST coordinator),
EJ Barthel (RBs),
Donovan Raiola (OL),
Terrance Knighton (DL) and
Evan Cooper (DBs).
The Huskers still need to fill the coaching roles for receivers and linebackers.
Wager has a son, Gage, who played for him at Arlington Martin and graduates in 2023.