Originally Posted by
frogsrangers
Not all schools will post the openings on their site, but many will. You will see lots of them after Thanksgiving through June. But its still probably a good idea to contact the Director of Football Operations or Athletic Director/Assistant Athletic Directors at the schools anyway
Two schools I applied and interviewed for(but am not going to) were Akron and Eastern Kentucky. One is low tier D1, the other is D-IAA. That was the general area I targetted and where I landed. I applied on the school website, then went back and forth with the coach or Director of Football Ops from there. That was the Make sure your references are good and can attest to your ability, knowledge, or work ethic.
Either way, you are going to be doing the same things at any school. Cutting video, drawing scout team plays, taking attendance, doing class checks, calling/emailing the players, hosting recruits, working long hours. I guess the benefit of being at a bigger school is that when you apply for real coaching jobs it will look more impressive on your resume, but at smaller schools its easier to be promoted from within.
At TCU we had a lot of Graduate Assistants come through when I was there, and honestly I don't know the pedigree of all of them. Some of them were college stars, but one was a walk on at Nebraska, one was a four year starter at a Division 3 school, and some I don't even know if they played in college. I think they are looking more for knowledge and dependability than what you did in college.
It's up to you, but since its a long process, I would seriously look into getting an alternate teaching certification in Texas and perhaps trying to land a high school coaching job. It can be done in a year's time, so if you get a GA position in that time frame, great, if not, you have the alternate certification to fall back on