Burnet football coach Wood announces plan to leave

CAPTION: Burnet football head coach Bryan Wood says he is looking for a new job after guiding the Bulldogs to a share of the District 13-4A Division I championship and two playoff victories in 2023. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography

When Bryan Wood became the Burnet High School head football coach in summer 2021, Burnet Consolidated Independent School District administrators believed they hired the individual who had the ability to draw north Burnet County closer together and guide the Bulldogs back to the program’s standards.

After three years, Wood has fulfilled that and is now looking for another challenge. He announced he will leave Burnet CISD at the end of this school year and is in the process of looking for another job.

He is strongly recommending his defensive coordinator, Ben Speer, take over as the head coach.

“I’m being very vocal with what I think,” he said. “They ought to do it. It’s obvious. They want something that’s special. I think it’ll be more special if you keep it intact. Again, that may not happen. I’m doing everything I can.”

The two helped navigate the Bulldogs to their first district title since Burnet won a share of the crown in 2014.

While Wood comes from the offensive side of the ball and coached quarterbacks and other positions when needed, Speer has coordinated the defense and coached linebackers. As the Bulldogs had a balanced offensive attack that combined a punishing run game with a lethal passing game, Speer’s defenders quickly identified the ball carrier and made plays.

While Speer’s Burnet defenses speak for themselves, Wood said it’s the coordinator’s character, his team-first attitude toward the athletic department, and how he takes care of his family that puts him in a select group.

“Everyone knows Ben,” he said,” the quality of a man he is and the football coach he is.

“Ben Speer was my defensive coordinator at Shallowater (High School),” he added. “When I took the Burnet job, I asked him to come with me. In three years — and we were going to get this thing rolling — I was going to try to get him the head coaching job. He’s a lot like other good coaches who aspire to be a head coach. With our superintendent leaving and our athletic director leaving, the timing of it to me was perfect.”

When Wood met with the players, he told them he hoped he exemplified three traits to them.

The first is work ethic.

“You have to work as hard as you can without knowing what the results are going to be,” he said. “I hope they’ve seen me do that. I tried to turn over every rock. I didn’t think I missed anything.”

The second is keeping your word.

“Do what you say and be loyal to your word,” he said. “When you tell somebody you’re going to do something, do it.”

And the third is having faith.

“I’m doing this, and I don’t have a job,” Wood said. “I’m 31 years into my career. I’m having faith that God is putting me on the right path. I am looking for another job.”

Wood was at every athletic game, often traveling to support the Bulldogs and Lady Dawgs and he and his wife, Brandy, were at numerous venues babysitting the children of the coaching staff. Those moments also say plenty about the Woods.

“I’ve always said in interviews I feel like I’m a what-you-see-is-what-you-get-kind-of guy,” he said. “I’m the same in a game as I am in church on Sundays. I grew up in a house that I was taught that. We live our lives faith-based. I’ve done everything I can to take care of Ben Speer.”

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