By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Long before a 47-year coaching career that's taken him to eight different schools and stints with three NFL teams, and even before he played freshman football for Andy Baylock at the University of Connecticut, George DeLeone was a self-described "college football nut."

"When I was in the sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, the greatest day of the year for me was the day the Street & Smith's Football Yearbook came out," said the 69-year-old DeLeone, in his first year as Baylor's offensive line coach. "I would be waiting at the drugstore at 8 o'clock in the morning when they'd open up, the day it came out in July. I would save up for the 75 cents to buy that book. And then, I would sit at the bus stop for five hours and read it, page by page."

Almost sheepishly, the New Haven, Conn., native admitted that his favorite team at the time was the Texas Longhorns with legends like Tommy Nobis, Duke Carlisle and James Street.

That was when the coaching bug first bit him. "I always wanted to be involved in football -- always, always, always," he said. When he got hurt at Connecticut, ending his playing career, the desire to coach grew even greater.

Hired as Southern Connecticut's offensive line coach when he was just 22 years old, DeLeone took the head coaching reins with the Owls six years later, compiling a four-year record of 15-24.

"I thought I had all the answers," he said. "At age 26, I thought I was the greatest coach in America, that I knew everything. I found out very quickly . . . we won my first game, the second game we got blown out by a school called AIC (American International College), up in Springfield, Mass., and they ran the Delaware Wing-T. I thought I had every answer to stop it, and we got beat, 40-0. I learned a great lesson, and that is humility is seven days away. I learned how to work at the game, and I was blessed to be around a lot of great people."

Now a coaching mentor himself, DeLeone rattles off the names of Dick MacPherson, Bill Parcells and Kevin Gilbride as some of his coaching influences. But there were also Ron Carbone, "who's a high school coach in Connecticut who no one knows,"; his own high school coach, Earl Lavery, who retired as the winningest coach in Connecticut schoolboy history; Baylock, his freshman coach at UConn, "a great influence on me,"; and former UConn basketball coach Dee Rowe, "an unbelievable mentor in terms of coaching and what was important about coaching."

Over and over, DeLeone talks about how blessed he's been in a coaching career that included 19 years at Syracuse with MacPherson and Paul Pasqualoni and NFL stops with the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins and most recently the Cleveland Browns (2014-15).

"In the NFL, you always worry about the prima donna, the guy who's not going to listen, the guy who's not going to do what you want," DeLeone said. "My experience has been the opposite. When I went there, I was going to call somebody up and say, `Hey, what should I do?' I said, `You know what, I'm going to do what I do.' I coached them like they're in the seventh grade. I coached them fundamentals, stance, start. And that worked for me.

"You also have to realize you're coaching men. They were more my co-workers than they were my players. The thing that I learned more than anything in that experience is if you're prepared and you can show them that you can help them, you'll win them over. If you try to BS your way through it, they'll run you out of town. It's that simple."

Returning to the college ranks last year at Temple University, DeLeone helped head coach Matt Rhule's Owls to their second straight 10-win season and first conference championship in 39 years.

"The greatest coaching job in the history of football is Bill Snyder at Kansas State, there's no doubt about that," DeLeone said. "Rivaling that, though, is the job Matt did at Temple. To win 10 games and beat a team like Penn State and should have beat Notre Dame the year they played them, all those things are incredible. He is gifted. I'm so proud of him, the way he's grown."

The roles have shifted. In 2006-07, when the two were together on Al Golden's staff at Temple, DeLeone was the boss as the offensive coordinator and Rhule served as his quarterbacks coach.

"I saw a football guy who loved football at the expense of everything else," DeLeone said of Rhule. "He was a great football guy, I knew that right away. I knew that he was special as a coach. What I found out later when I went to work for him at Temple is what a phenomenal job he does with the team. When he's in front of that group, in that meeting room, with that door shut, what he does with that team is unlike any other I've been around. He is very, very special."

DeLeone was recruiting at a high school in Wallingford, Conn., when he got the call from Rhule about coming to Baylor.

"The head coach was a phys ed teacher, and he's teaching swimming in the swimming pool," DeLeone said. "So, I'm in there waiting till the class is over, sitting in the bleachers at the swimming pool, and I get a call. It's Matt, and he says, `Coach, I'm taking the Baylor job.' I about fell off the stairs. I said, `What?' He said, `I'm taking the Baylor job. Would you like to come?' I said, `Coach, do me a favor, give me five seconds to call my wife. I'll call you right back.' I never called him back, but he knew I was coming."

At Baylor, DeLeone was tasked with rebuilding an offensive line that returned three starters and had only five scholarship players to work with in the spring. But, with converted tight end Sam Tecklenburg at left guard and true freshman Ryan Miller at center, he's developing a solid starting group.

"We've boosted our depth a little bit, and some of these freshmen have come in and really done a good job," DeLeone said. "All those freshmen, we could not function without them right now. We're still a work in progress. We're under construction like I-35, so we've got a ways to go yet."

Specifically since he's learning a new position, Tecklenburg said it's been "awesome" to train under someone like DeLeone, who's "coached some of the greats."

"He's been in this game a long time," Tecklenburg said. "So, us as young men, we're trying to take whatever we can from him and lean from him, because he has such a wealth of knowledge. We're just trying to soak it all in."

With classes starting, the Bears took Monday off, but will return to practice Tuesday in preparation for the Sept. 2 season opener against Liberty. Rhule will preview the Bears at Tuesday's 29th annual Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce Kickoff Luncheon at the Ferrell Center, with former NFL running back Justin Forsett as the featured speaker.

For football season or single-game ticket information, call the Baylor Athletics Ticket Office at 254-710-1000 or go online at www.baylorbears.com/footballtickets.