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PROVO — First of all, Eric Mateos found himself out of a job.
After three seasons at Texas State, Everett Withers was fired midseason last year after winning just seven games in three years, including a 2-10 start to 2018. His staff, led by defensive coordinator Chris Wood, finished out the season with the Bobcats.
But when season’s end came, they were out of a job, too. That included a first-time Division I offensive line coach who placed linemen on the All-Sun Belt first team in each of his two seasons in San Marcos.
But Mateos likes to believe that everything happens for a reason, especially in college football.
And when Jeff Grimes — the former LSU offensive line coach who mentored Mateos and was now in his first career stint as offensive coordinator at BYU — was searching for a line coach after Ryan Pugh took the offensive coordinator job at Troy, Mateos didn’t have to think long about his decision.
He packed up his car, drove almost overnight from Austin to Provo, and was ready to go.
Mateos is still trying to unpack his new apartment, and he's still trying to unpack the new nomenclature and deviated offensive scheme of Grimes as he is barely two weeks into his career in Provo.
But the thought about joining a former mentor at BYU? That was an easy decision, he said.
“I had 2-3 jobs I was considering, but when this one was offered to me, it was a no-brainer to work with Jeff and a lot of good people,” Mateos said as the Cougars opened up spring practices the first week of March. “There wasn’t a lot of hard thought.”
Mateos has never worked at BYU, or anywhere close to it for that matter, in his brief tenure as an offensive line coach. A two-year starting center and team captain at Southwest Baptist, Mateos earned his bachelor’s degree and immediately jumped into coaching at his alma mater, then worked as a graduate assistant at LSU and Arkansas, then spent a year at Hutchinson Community College before earning his big break at Texas State.
But when he rejoined Grimes in Provo and met his line, he immediately recognized them.
They looked like one of Grimes’ offensive lines. They played like one of Grimes’ offensive lines. So, too, were the rest of the offensive players.
The first-time offensive coordinator doesn’t necessarily have a fingerprint — he’s only been a coordinator for one year, after all. But he does have a marker, an identity, a feeling that he leaves on his players, Mateos said.
He recognized that from his time at LSU, and he sees it in his guys in Provo.
“I don’t think that a coach Grimes offense is as much about X’s and O’s as the style that we play and how we play. It’s about mentality and discipline,” Mateos said. “Plays are plays; some plays are good, and they work — while some plays are bad. Players are what win and lose games. As far as thought, this feels like a coach Grimes-coached team when you walk through the door.
“They are disciplined and hungry; it’s pretty obvious from the jump.”
Grimes is a smart coach, an intelligent coach, a coach who knows his players, according to Mateos.
But so, too, is Mateos — if you believe the two men who were charged with hiring him, namely Grimes and head coach Kalani Sitake.
“He’s perfect for our guys,” Sitake said of Mateos. “He’s all about ball, and he meshes really well with our boys. I’m excited to see his teaching style flourish with our players. I expect them to improve on what they did last year, from the first game.”
Added Grimes: “It’s really fun watching our players related to him. He has a lot of optimism and a lot of energy. They are really relating well to that.”
Grimes is a players’ coach, and so is Mateos. It’s a combination that fits well, and one that fits better based on their previous experience shoving crawfish and downing fried food for a year together in the Bayou.
Midway through his lone season in Baton Rouge in 2016, Mateos has impressed coach Ed Orgeron so much that he was moved from offensive line graduate assistant to tight ends coach. The Tigers ended the year with a win over Louisville in the Citrus Bowl, and three of his tight ends combined for 27 catches for 420 yards and three touchdowns.
Mateos is used to shaking up a staff, but this one in Provo isn’t shaken much. After an offensive overhaul a year ago, replacing a previous regime of a 4-9 campaign with Grimes, quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick and wide receivers coach Fesi Sitake, the Cougars made just one change this season.
Mateos is coming in to a program that nearly doubled its win total, finishing 7-6 after a win over Western Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise.
So the standard is higher, Grimes said, even as Mateos tries to get his feet on the ground in Utah and learn the intricacies of coaching at a unique university like BYU.
“Last year, we were starting from scratch and they didn’t know what the standard was,” Grimes said. “Our tolerance level as coaches might be smaller … but we’re trying to pick up right where we left off, not skip a beat or step back at square one.”
It hasn’t been easy, and Mateos wants to make that clear. But in between unpacking, coaching spring football, and the ever-present cloud of recruiting, he knows what he has to work with.
And he’s ready for the challenge.
“BYU’s reputation on a national level is a bunch of tough guys,” he said. “Their reputation is one of guys who may not have the highest echelon of 18-year-olds, but they are efficient, mature, smart 20-year-old freshmen. We talk about making what some people view as our weakness a strength.
“And it’s exceeded my expectations.”
