SHAWNEE – Former Bison Phillip Spess has been hired as the new safeties coach, Oklahoma Baptist head football coach Chris Jensen announced on Monday.
Spess, a member of the OBU football program from 2012-16, returns to Bison Hill after coaching on the high school level for the last five years. His most recent stop was Mannford High School, where he coached defensive backs and was the special teams coordinator in 2022. Additionally, he served as the head junior high football coach at Mannford Middle School.
Under Spess' guidance, the Mannford High School defensive back group saw significant turnarounds in the passes defended and interceptions categories. The group improved from zero to 18 passes defended and from zero to five interceptions in a season.
Prior to his stint at Mannford, Spess was the defensive coordinator and head track and field coach at Cleveland High School in 2020-21. Before, he made two stops at Norman North High School (2019-20) as the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator ahead of his first career job at Tecumseh High School (2018-19). At Tecumseh, Spess coached varsity defensive backs and was the film coordinator. Furthermore, he was the head junior high wrestling coach.
Upon receiving his Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education from OBU in May of 2017, Spess spent the 2017 season at Southern Methodist University as a volunteer defensive assistant.
As a four-year letter winner with the Bison, Spess was named to the GAC All-Academic honor roll in 2016 and was a CSFL Academic All-Conference honoree in 2013 and 2014. Additionally, Spess racked up 88 tackles from the safety position in his final two seasons at OBU. In 2015, OBU's inaugural season in Division II, Spess made 35 tackles, notched six pass deflections, and caught two interceptions in 11 games of action.
