Dave Roberts (born February 28, 1947) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...

(1984–1988),

Northeast Louisiana University The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Ce ...

(1989–1993), and

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...

(1997–1998), compiling a career college football record of 67–68–3.

Coaching career

Northeast Louisiana

Roberts was the eighth head football coach for the

Northeast Louisiana Indians The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

(since renamed the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks) located in Monroe, Louisiana and he held that position for five seasons, from 1989 until 1993. His coaching record at Northeast Louisiana was 38–19–2, including a forfeit by Louisiana Tech in 1989.

Baylor

Roberts was the head football coach at

from 1997 to 1998. He ignited controversy in 1997 when, after a loss to

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

, he stated in a post-game press conference that he had told his players that "they were about as bad a football team as there is right now in America","Roberts should be more careful with comments." http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=11110 drawing the ire of the Baylor faithful. Following the 1998 season, in which the Bears went 2–9 for a second consecutive season, he was fired by athletic director Tom Stanton. Roberts had previously served as the offensive coordinator under Lou Holtz at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

. After being fired by Baylor he rejoined Holtz as an offensive assistant at the University of South Carolina. After 1956 and until 2010, Roberts was the only Baylor head football coach other than

Grant Teaff Grant Garland Teaff (; born November 12, 1933) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at McMurry University (1960–1965), Angelo State University (1969–1971), and Baylor University (1972–1992), compiling ...

to beat the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

, doing so in 1997 (Grant Teaff coached Baylor for 21 years and had many victories over the Longhorns).

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Dave 1947 births Living people American football linebackers Baylor Bears football coaches Davidson Wildcats football coaches Eastern Kentucky Colonels football coaches Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks football coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches South Carolina Gamecocks football coaches Vanderbilt Commodores football coaches Western Carolina Catamounts football players Western Kentucky Hilltoppers football coaches People from Greenville County, South Carolina Players of American football from South Carolina