Coleman’s Football Journey Continues with Owls

Henderson native finds a new roost in Houston

Story by John Clayton

Before Drew Coleman celebrated his 30th birthday in 2013, he had realized his dream of making it to the NFL as a professional football player. But that career had also come to a close without fanfare or ceremony, the way most do.

His 6 seasons as a player ended following a 2012 preseason injury while he was with the Detroit Lions. But his involvement with the game was simply beginning its next chapter. Coleman is now an assistant coach at Rice University in Houston, where he joined the Owls football staff in 2018.

“Making that transition from playing football to getting into that phase where you’re actually coaching and trying to mentor young guys, the student-athletes, was easy for me, so it’s been fun,” says Coleman, a Henderson native and former star at Henderson High School where he was a dual-threat quarterback.

After his NFL career ended, Coleman returned to Texas Christian University to complete his degree and begin his pursuit of a coaching career. He spent two seasons there as a player under TCU head coach Gary Patterson.

Immediately after high school, where he led the Lions to a district championship as a senior, Coleman spent two seasons at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens. There, he once again starred as quarterback before heading north to TCU and switching to defensive back for the Horned Frogs.

Despite the circuitous route to NCAA Division I college football, a change in positions as a college junior and being a tad undersized at 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 170 pounds, Coleman says his confidence about making it to the NFL never wavered.

Patterson and TCU, a team then on the cusp of becoming a Mountain West Conference power, helped make that happen.

“I took the hard, hard road, knowing I had to go to junior college and then to TCU — and what people have to understand is the TCU I went to is not the TCU of today,” Coleman says. “But Coach Patterson taught you how to fight, to put your head down and find a way to build trust in your teammates and to trust your preparation. It was one of the biggest things I learned from him, and I take that here to Rice moving forward, not only in coaching but also with my family.”

Coleman spent six years in the NFL, five of them with the New York Jets after the team selected him in the sixth round with the 185th pick of the 2006 NFL draft. He spent his final NFL season with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011. With the Jaguars, he turned in arguably his best professional season, with a career-high 46 tackles to go with two interceptions, three forced fumbles and two quarterback sacks. The Detroit Lions signed Coleman in 2012 but placed him on injured reserve and then released him before the regular season began. During his six-year career, he recorded 173 tackles, four interceptions, 10 forced fumbles and eight sacks.

Back to TCU

At 29 years old, Coleman faced a future that would no longer mean life as a professional athlete, but he still wanted it to include football. His coaching career began back at TCU after he returned to complete his degree and learn the tools of the coaching trade from Patterson and his staff.

Coleman says watching film, seeing the Horned Frogs program from a different angle and learning from the head coach who had once pushed him to become the best player he could be were imperative steps in his development as a young coach. “It was great to start getting the ins and outs of college football, the long hours, how you recruit and how you go about coaching young guys,” Coleman says.

He returned to East Texas — less than 200 miles from where he became a high school star — when former New York Jets assistant Mike Bloomgren took over as head coach at Rice.

Coleman sees a new generation of players in East Texas, and Henderson in particular, ready to take the next step and pursue the same dreams he had as a teen, but he says that’s only part of the game.

“You have to want it more for yourself than anybody else wants it for you,” he says. “But education is just as important and part of trying to get to your ultimate goal.”

Drew Antrion Coleman

• Led Henderson High School to district championship
• Played collegiately at Trinity Valley Community College and Texas Christian University
• Spent five NFL seasons as a defensive back with the New York Jets and one with the Jacksonville Jaguars
• Serves as assistant football coach at Rice University
• Lives in Houston with wife Kimberly; son, Drew Jr. (D.J.); and daughter, Kaylan