After coaching at Ole Miss together, former Lake View Quarterbacks take new jobs in 2024

With all the football coaching changes going on for 2024 at every level, high school, college and professional, then toss in transfer portals, and it’s all whirring around in one’s mind. Two changes at the college level involve Lake View grads, who have now found new coaching spots after coaching together at the University of Mississippi.

Sterlin Gilbert has now been hired as offensive coordinator by the University of California, and John David Baker accepted the same position with East Carolina. Baker was coached by Gilbert at Lake View, in Baker’s final football season in 2008.

Now, while at separate universities, their positions are the same, perhaps reflective of the success both had from their high school days, while quarterbacking the Chiefs. Gilbert, a 1997 Lake View graduate, led his team to back-to-back district titles, and was named all-state.

Baker graduated from Lake View in 2009 and was named all-district at quarterback after leading the “2008 Sterlin Gilbert-coached Chiefs” to their first playoff win in 12 years. Gilbert led the Chiefs at quarterback in 1996, before quarterbacking at Angelo State University. Gilbert was hired this last season at Ole Miss, as a senior analyst for the offense.

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Baker was already coaching at Ole Miss, starting his third season and was an assistant coach/co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach. Baker has experience at multiple spots on the offensive side of the ball, beginning his career where he played quarterback, at Abilene Christian University as a graduate assistant from 2014-2015, working with quarterbacks. He then went to the University of North Texas from 2016-2018 as an offensive quality control coach. In 2019, he took on the same role at the University of Southern California, before taking over the tight ends, in 2020.

Baker joined Ole Miss in 2021 as the team’s passing game coordinator and tight ends coach, before becoming the Rebels’ co-offensive coordinator in 2022. The Ole Miss offense has been explosive in the last two years, averaging 34.8 points and 455.6 yards per game in 2023.

In addition to Baker’s input those years, Gilbert’s offense analyst position contributed some to their success this past season. Prior to 2023, Gilbert was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Tulsa (2015), Texas (2016), South Florida (2017-18) and Syracuse (2020-21). At Eastern Illinois (2012-13), an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level school, he coached NFL quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for two seasons as offensive coordinator/quarterback’s coach. He was also the head coach for one season at McNeese State (2019). Just this writer’s opinion, while Gilbert is still a good coach, Baker is a rising star and future head coach.

Duane Helweg is a local author and unofficial historian of the Lake View community and school.

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This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Former Lake View quarterbacks take new Offensive Coordinator positions