Shiel Wood

Biography

Shiel Wood enters his first season as Texas Tech’s defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach, bringing a reputation of immediately improving defenses from previous stops at Troy, Tulane and Houston. One of the top up-and-coming defensive coaches in the country, Wood boasts 15 years of experience at the Division I level and has been a defensive coordinator each of the past four seasons. Wood arrived at Texas Tech following one season in a similar position at Houston where he helped the Cougars transform into one of the Big 12 Conference's top defenses in 2024. Wood's defenses have ranked inside the top 35 for total defense in all four seasons since he was first named a co-defensive coordinator at Army in 2021. Since then, he has also made stops as the defensive coordinator at Troy in 2022, Tulane in 2023 and then Houston. He was also the defensive coordinator at Wofford, his alma mater, in 2017. His defenses helped push Troy to a 12-win season and Sun Belt Conference title in 2022, while Tulane finished with 11 wins and an appearance in the American Championship in 2023. Troy ended that season ranked as high as No. 19 in the Associated Press poll, marking the first time in program history the Trojans had appeared in the final rankings. Army, meanwhile, was an impressive 9-4 overall during his lone season as co-defensive coordinator after a victory over Missouri in the Armed Forces Bowl. Wood immediately improved a Houston defense that ranked 105th nationally for scori