New San Angelo Central Head Football Coach Brings High School and College Experience to the Bobcats

San Angelo ISD has hired Mark Smith as the new head football coach of the Central Bobcats. Smith replaces the outgoing Kevin Crane, who resigned after three seasons.

Smith is an Abilene Cooper and Hardin-Simmons graduate who spent most of his first 15 seasons as a coach working his way up the high school coaching ranks. In 2011 he got his first head coaching opportunity at Hurst LD Bell. Smith was head coach at Bell for four seasons through the 2014 season, making the playoffs in his first three seasons.

Smith had one short stint in the college ranks in 2008 as a defensive quality control coach for the University of Oklahoma where he worked side-by-side with current OU head coach Brent Venables before returning to high school at LD Bell.

In 2015 he headed back to the college ranks where he’s been coaching for the past nine seasons.

Chad Morris hired him at SMU in 2015 as recruiting coordinator and offensive assistant. In 2016 he moved over to coaching defense for the Mustangs.

In 2018 he followed Morris to the University of Arkansas and spent two seasons there as defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator before being hired as defensive coordinator at Long Island University in 2020. That coincided with the Covid season and LIU didn’t play that fall.

In 2021 he was hired as inside linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Colorado and was there for two seasons. He then spent 2023 as defensive analyst the University of Oklahoma.

The Angry Orange have landed a coach that has plenty of high school coaching experience, including four years of high school head coaching experience, and ten years of NCAA division one assistant coaching experience.

Watch the introductory press conference for Coach Smith: