Texas Longhorns' Kyle Flood Shuts Down Head Coaching Question

Texas Longhorns offensive coordinator Kyle Flood isn't focused on a potential head-coaching position.

Jon Alfano | Dec 30, 2024

Longhorns Offensive coordinator Kyle Flood answer questions from the local news media during the first press conferences for the 2023 football season on August 1, 2023. / Ricardo B. Brazziell / Austin American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Texas Longhorns

Next year will mark a decade since Texas Longhorns offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Kyle Flood last held a head-coaching position, and possibly his best chance to earn another one.

Flood, 53, served as head coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights from 2012-15, posting a 26-22 overall. When asked if he would have interest in becoming a head coach again, Flood kept his focus on the present as the Longhorns compete for a national championship.

"Right now, I’m interested in winning the Peach Bowl," Flood told reporters Saturday. "I appreciate that question. I think those kinds of questions are always a function of success, and generally when you’re an assistant coach, if you get an opportunity to be a head coach, it’s because you were really good at the job you were doing and the team you were with was successful.

"We’ll entertain those things down the road if and when they come. It’s always flattering to be considered for those things. I don’t have put my mind there because right now we have got enough of a challenge trying to play really well against a good Arizona State team."

Flood's record at Rutgers was decent, and he led the team to bowl games in three of his four seasons at the helm. However, his time in New Jersey, especially his final season, was marred by controversy, as six players were arrested and charged with felony assault. One of those six players was the subject of an NCAA investigation for claims that Flood directly contacted faculty about the academic status of a player. He was fired at the end of 2015 season along with athletic director Julie Hermann.

Since then, Flood has bounced around the coaching ranks. He spent two years as an assistant offensive line coach with the Atlanta Falcons, then two more years as the offensive line coach with the Alabama Crimson Tide. Once Steve Sarkisian, who was Alabama's offensive coordinator at the time, took the Texas head-coaching job, he took Flood with him as his offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.

Perhaps enough time has passed for Flood to earn a second chance as a head coach, but until one comes his way, he's quite happy in Austin.

"As a college coach, especially, you’re always coaching your current team and then there’s always an eye to the future of, 'Hey, how are we building this roster; how are we building this position group," Flood said. "We have to do that. That’s just good practice in terms of what you have to do as a coach. It never, never takes away from what you’re doing right now."