Texas A&M-Commerce enters the 2022 season as one of the newest members in FCS football after joining the Southland Conference this offseason. The Lions were an accomplished team in the Lone Star Conference at the Division II level and were the 2017 Division II National Champions after beating West Florida in the National Title game.
Head coach David Bailiff spoke with Zach McKinnell of The Bluebloods at Southland Media Day in Lake Charles, LA and had this to say about the keys to bringing their success to the FCS level:
“We don’t know. I know we are excited and I know we have high anxiety. I know we are a good Lone Star Conference team. I don’t know where we are in the Southland, so coming into this first year we want to competitive. We want to be known as a hard-working, smart football team that doesn’t beat themselves. I’m really excited we play Sam Houston early so we’ll know where we stack up at the FCS level.”
Bailiff was asked how he would describe the brand of football at Texas A&M-Commerce going into the 2022 season:
“We’re a running, thundering, and physical defense and on offense every year you adapt your offense a little bit to what you could attract regionally, but we are a spread…. I’m one of those old school guys that I think you have to play complimentary football and run the football to give the defense a little bit of rest every now and then.”
Bailiff also addressed the goals for the Lions entering Year 1 at the FCS level:
“We just want to be competitive. We don’t know and we don’t want to set people up for failure and sit here and say we are going to be undefeated this year. You have to be honest with them and transparent with them. They are as excited as I am… so let’s just be competitive and let’s build from this year and try to build a championship football team.”
Texas A&M-Commerce opens the 2022 season against Lincoln (CA) on September 1st before facing Tennessee Tech in Week 2 as their first FCS non-conference matchup. Our full interview with Texas A&M-Commerce head coach David Bailiff can be found below or on any podcast streaming platform.
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