Baylor Looks for New Director of Football Strategy After Losing him to Big Ten School

Baylor now looks for a new director of football strategy after former director Connor Killian signed with a Big Ten school. Who will take over and lead this position in this revamped Bears team?

Jan 1, 2022; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baylor Bears helmets on the sidelines in the first quarter of the 2022 Sugar Bowl at the Caesars Superdome. | Chuck Cook-Imagn Images

After joining the staff last year in March of 2025, Baylor was excited to have a Texas-born native as their director of football strategy. Connor Killian was a former assistant coach for multiple colleges and played TE/FB in college for Texas Tech. Killian specifically worked with the offensive line and was an interim special teams coordinator at Texas Tech.

Prior to Killian coming over to Baylor, he served as the assistant offensive line coach at North Texas the last two seasons. He spent a season as the assistant tight ends coach at Louisiana Tech in 2022, prior to the North Texas job.

With USC's defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn departing after two seasons, USC was expected to have a largely new staff, and they will be adding Connor in this offseason. But USC has been able to keep multiple coaches distinctively because they know they can do better than what they were last year.

USC Took More Than Just Killian Away From the Bears

Baylor lost more than just one staff member to USC. CB coach Paul Gonzales was rumored to be a target for the Trojans after being ranked 49th this previous year in defense — that rumor turned into a reality. USC looks to improve its defense, and Gonzales is definitely qualified to do that. With their new defensive coordinator, former Baylor consultant, Gary Patterson. This is arguably a good jumpr for Gonzales, going from coaching at UC Davis to a major BIG-10 team like the Trojans is an offer you can't deny.

Bears Add Former NFL Corner to Staff to Fill Gonzales' role

Jeremy Modkins will be taking over the duties as the cornerback coach. Jeremy was a standout corner in college, playing for TCU, and has multiple years of coaching corners and defense at the college and professional level. Serving as a Defensive Analyst for the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, and was also an assistant corner coach at Rice for the last three years.

Baylor should not be worried about the loss of the staff, because Modkins is tremendous with developing physical and athletic corners and should continue to do so with the Bears. Baylor was a top 40 defense when it comes to passing yards per game, and with Modkins, I only expect Baylor's defense to continue to play at that level.

With a program like Baylor, there will be some blue bloods poaching assistants — it's just the nature of the game.