New Texans Head Coach: ‘Jesus Christ is Who Matters Most’

This Sunday at 6:30 pm ET, an estimated 100 million people will be tuned in to watch the last NFL game of the season: Super Bowl LVII. The game will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, with the Kansas City Chiefs pitted against the Philadelphia Eagles.

But while the nation will be tuned into the 103rd season of the NFL, one team is already focused on preparing for the next season.

The Houston Texans announced on January 31 that DeMeco Ryans will be the Texans’ sixth head coach, replacing Lovie Smith who served as the Texans’ head coach for just over one year.

At 38 years old, Ryans and his wife, Jamila, have three children: two sons, MJ and Micah, and one daughter, Xia.

Ryans played college football as an outside linebacker for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team from 2002 to 2005, where he was selected as an All-American. He was then picked by none other than the Houston Texans in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, where he played from 2006 to 2011. Ryans then played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 2012 through 2015, before retiring from the game.

But Ryans wasn’t done with the NFL yet. He joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 as a defensive quality control coach, prior to being promoted to inside linebackers coach from 2018 until 2020. Ryans was promoted again to the defensive coordinator position from 2021 to 2022, until his new job as head coach of the Texans.

In 2022, Ryans was named Assistant Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, awarded to the top assistant coach in the NFL.

“It’s great to be home, go Texans!” Ryan tweeted after the news of his hiring was announced. “Being the head coach of the Houston Texans is my dream job and my family is thrilled to be back in H-Town.”

As the 49ers assistant coach, Ryans told Sports Spectrum that he credits his mom for instilling his faith in him.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but I’m so happy for my mom instilling that into me at a young age,” Ryans said. “Now as I continue to grow older and older, that’s the only thing that truly matters. That’s the only thing — our relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Ryans also participated in a coaches’ Bible study led by the team’s chaplain Earl Smith.

“We have to stay grounded in the Word,” he told Sports Spectrum. “We can get caught up in our work, a lot of long hours, a lot of long days. But you can’t forget what sustains us, and that’s Jesus Christ. He sustains us.”

After being hired as head coach, Ryans again credited God for bringing him this far.

“It’s a surreal moment for me, and I’m thankful to God that He’s just paved the way for me through everything that I’ve been through in life,” Ryans said.

Considering the Texans are coming off a 3-13-1 season, Ryans has his work cut out for him.

Congratulations to newly minted Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans.

Photo from Reuters.