Texas Longhorns hire Bob Shipley as a Football Analyst

For the 2015 football season, the Texas Longhorns had faced a disturbing thought -- they could be without a Shipley in the football program for the first time since 2004.

Head coach Mack Brown solved the problem on Monday morning by announcing the hiring of Bob Shipley as a Football Analyst.

The father of Jordan and Jaxon has spent the last four years at Brownwood, where he coached Jaxon and another current Longhorn in Kevin Vaccaro. He has previous experience in the Metroplex at Coppell and spent some time as the recruiting coordinator and then the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Abilene Christian, in addition to several other high school stops around the state.

Shipley said that he's excited about his opportunity to join the program for which his sons have played for years:

I'm very excited about joining the Texas football program and appreciate Coach Brown giving me this opportunity. I believe in him. He's the kind of coach a dad dreams of his son being able to grow up and play for, and my sons have had an incredible experience at Texas. I think I bring a unique prospective to the staff. Having been a college coach, a longtime high school coach and having been around the program for almost 10 years with my sons, this is a position that just seemed right for me. Assisting with recruiting is something that I have experience in and love to do.

The Football Analyst role features a number of responsibilities:

He will co-coordinate the walk-on program, assist with film cut-ups and distribution of prospective student-athletes to coaching staff, support the planning and execution of the annual high school coaching clinic and the summer football camp, and assist with hosting prospective student-athletes and guests on official and unofficial visits to campus. In addition, he will assist with the high school relations, updating recruiting lists, monitoring contacts and evaluations conducted by the coaching staff, and securing transcripts in collaboration with the student services department.

In the release sent out by the university, Shipley also mentioned that he's looking forward to working with new Director of Player Personnel Patrick Suddes and Ken Rucker, the former running back coach who holds the title of Director of High School Relations and Player Development.

From the announcement, it's difficult to tell whether the two Football Analyst positions will be split between the offense and defense, as the understanding here was that Riley Dodge was brought on to help out with the offensive side of the ball, though his hire has not yet been announced by the university.

Either way, the Longhorns have now filled the two analyst positions with coaches who have names that carry a significant amount of weight across the state in high school football.