Schulenburg Hires Hobbs As New Football Coach/AD

The Schulenburg I.S.D. Board of Trustees hired Luke Hobbs as the new Shorthorn football head coach and athletic director for the district on Monday night, Dec. 12.

The school board went with youth in their pick for Hobbs. The 33-year-old grew up in Roy, Utah, where he played high school football, basketball and baseball. He went on to play football for Utah Tech. Hobbs’ wife is from Waller. They moved to Texas and Hobbs finished his degree at Prairie View A&M in 2017.

His first coaching job after college was at Brenham High, where he was an assistant varsity football coach under head coach Glen West. He rose quickly through the coaching ranks. He was quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for Giddings in 2018 under head coach Wade Griffin. Hobbs went home to Utah to coach at his alma mater, Roy High School, in 2019, where he served for three seasons as offensive coordinator.

He returned toTexas this year to serve as offensive coordinator under head coach Matt Schobel in Columbus. The Cardinals went 12-2 this year and made it as far as the state quarterfinals where they lost by three points against undefeated state finalist Franklin in what has been the Lions’ narrowest win of the year.

“I really like Columbus,” Hobbs told the Record in an interview on Wednesday, Dec. 14. “Everything was going really well. The job came open in Schulenburg, and a lot of people spoke very highly of Schulenburg and encouraged me to apply. Long story short, I was lucky to get the job.

“I’m pretty young in the profession,” Hobbs said. “This is definitely a huge step for me. I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with some amazing head coaches. I’ve learned a ton from them. Hopefully I can implement what they have taught me into the Schulenburg program.

The Columbus offense under Hobbs was explosive this year, scoring 564 points over the season, an average of more than 40 points a game.

“I believe you have to have a strong run game,” Hobbs said. “But you have to be ‘multiple’ – by that I mean multiple formations, multiple personnel groups. You need different run schemes. We’re going to run gap schemes and we’re going to run some zone schemes.

“You have to take what the defense gives you,” he added. “I think that’s what made us good at Columbus. We’d have a game one week where we’d rush for 400 yards and throw the ball 10 times. The next week, teams would load the box and we’d throw the ball 25 times for 400 yards. So if you have the ability to be multiple, and you have skill sets spread out amongst all 11 players, I think you give yourself a better chance at having an effective offense.”

Schulenburg I.S.D. received more than 100 applications for the job. The school board interviewed six finalists including Hobbs. The Record obtained the resumes of the finalists through an open records request to the school district. The other five finalists were:

• Michael Mason, defensive coordinator and strength and conditioning coach at Pewitt Consolidated;

• Joshua Amy, offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at McCallum High in Austin;

• Brent Mascheck, a Shiner native who currently serves as athletic director and head football coach at Columbia-Brazoria I.S.D. and saw prior success at Columbus;

• Gary Garvin, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Yoakum I.S.D. with 28 years of experience in coaching; and

• Justin Stephens, defensive coordinator at Bellville with prior experience as athletic director and head football coach for La Pryor I.S.D. and Kemp I.S.D.

Hobbs takes over a Shorthorn football team that went 0-10 this year. Hobbs’ predecessor, Walter Brock, resigned midseason following an argument with assistant coaches during a game against Hearne.

“They had a string of bad luck last year,” Hobbs said. “They had a tough schedule. And they obviously had some issues that the kids couldn’t control. But from what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, we have amazing kids here and amazing community support. There are some really good coaches on staff and we’re going to bring in some really good coaches, too. I’m extremely excited for this opportunity.”