Some things are simply inevitable.
Death. Taxes. Bay Area having a phenomenal coaching staff.
In Bay Area's inaugural season, things weren't great. They went 1-15 while figuring things out both on and off the field. But since then, for the past 2 seasons Bay Area has been one of the best teams in the IFL and it all starts with the coaching staff.
AFL coaching legend Darren Arbet took on the Head Coach role in 2023 in the same city that he dominated for decades in the AFL with the San Jose Sabercats and immediately built out a staff of highly experienced and talented coaches with Rob Keefe (current Bay Area Head Coach) at Defensive Coordinator & Dixie Wooten at Offensive Coordinator.
Both Keefe & Wooten already had excellent track records of being Head Coaches themselves prior to joining the Bay Area staff -- with Keefe winning the ArenaBowl in 2010 with the Spokane Shock & again in 2019 with the Albany Empire & Dixie Wooten winning the IFL championship in 2018 with the Iowa Barnstormers.
When you look at the pedigree of coaching that was immediately brought in, it's no wonder that they got things turned out quickly and won the IFL National Championship a year after going 1-15.
Keefe & Wooten taking over as co-head coaches mid-season and winning the title is legendary stuff.
Darren Arbett flamed out pretty quickly for reasons that are unclear to some but more clear to others, so Rob Keefe took over as full time head coach in 2024 & Dixie Wooten stuck around as OC and Bay Area was once again a top tier team in the IFL -- going 13-3 and securing the number one seed in the playoffs.
But heading into 2025, Bay Area will have a new OC as Dixie Wooten will be taking his talents to Indiana as the first ever head coach of the Fishers Freight expansion team.
The coaching combo that went 23-8 with a championship is broken up, so the rest of the league can finally take a breath and might actually have a chance to dethrone the Panthers and send them to the middle of the standings now, right?
RIGHT?!!
Oh boy. Bay Area almost immediately goes out and snags the legendary coach Les Moss to add to their coaching staff. Here's a peak at Coach Moss' resume:
Orlando Predators DC - 1991-2003
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers HC - 2004-2009
Jacksonville Sharks HC - 2010-2016
Albany Empire AHC - 2018-2019
Iowa Barnstormers HC - 2021
NAZ Wranglers HC - 2022-2024
He's been in the game since 1991 (!!) with 17 years of Head Coaching experience in Arena & Indoor football! BAY AREA CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!
This will also be the 4th time that Rob Keefe & Les Moss will be on the same coaching staff
2018-19 Keefe was HC & Moss was AHC in Albany
2021 Moss was HC & Keefe was DC in Iowa
2022 Moss was HC & Keefe was DC in NAZ
Every where Coach Moss goes, success seems to follow. But what happens when he goes to a team that is already experiencing success? Do they get SUPER success?
Mix in the fact that former NAZ OC Rod Windsor is coming with Coach Moss from Northern Arizona and Bay Area once again has a cheat code of a coaching staff running the show in San Jose.
In 2024, Northern Arizona had one of the most dynamic offenses in the IFL:
4th in Offensive Points per game - 49.6
1st in Total Yards per game - 265.4
2nd in Passing Yards per game - 196.1
All with a rookie QB who didn't have any indoor or arena football experience!
**Side note: do we see NAZ QB Joshua Jones follow Coach Moss & Coach Windsor to Bay Area? Hmmm
It seems like Bay Area is one of those teams that doesn't seem to rebuild, instead they reload. Coach Keefe is one of the very best coaches in all of indoor and arena football and continues to put together a stacked coaching staff.
It's safe to assume that Bay Area is going to be a very, very tough team to beat yet again in the IFL in 2025. Some things are simply inevitable.
Comments