Jesse Burleson is in his first season as the head coach of the Hardin-Simmons football team, but the 34-year old Burleson is no stranger to the Cowboy program.

Burleson was named the 19th head coach of Cowboy football on Dec. 10, 2010, replacing the legendary Jimmie Keeling.

“This is a dream come true for me,” said Burleson. “I am a Hardin-Simmons guy through and through and I am ready to tackle this opportunity head on. It is a great honor to take over this program. Coach Keeling built this program; I am going to see that we take it even further.”   

Burleson served as the offensive line coach at Hardin-Simmons for the last five seasons. He has been the assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator since 2008.

“Coach Burleson is a passionate Christian leader, a dedicated coach, and an exemplary alumnus of the HSU football program,” said Hardin-Simmons University President Dr. Lanny Hall.  “He is committed to building Christian character in our athletes and has a network of support in the coaching profession.  I believe he will be able to build on the great success of Coach Keeling and continue making HSU football a source of great pride for our university.”

At HSU, he has also been the director of football operations and was directly responsible for maintaining the budget, equipment ordering and travel planning. He also was in charge of the recruiting for the Cowboy program.

Aside from his off the field administrative duties he has been a highly successful offensive line coach for the Cowboys.

He has coached six All-Americans in his five seasons at HSU and Josh Knox won the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s top center in 2006. Three of his players have played in national all-star games.   

In his time at HSU as a player, student assistant or assistant coach HSU has a record of 82-24. HSU has won four conference titles, and gone to the national playoffs five times.  

“Throughout his career as a student-athlete and as a coach, Jesse Burleson has always had a deep commitment to Hardin-Simmons University and our football program,” said HSU Director of Athletics John Neese. “He is an exceptional person who is highly motivated and is mature beyond his years. He wants to make sure that HSU provides our current student-athletes with the same great experience that he enjoyed as a player.”

Through recruiting he has made the HSU offensive line one of the annual strengths of the team. He has a line in 2010 that returns an All-American and four starters.

His 2010 unit fronted an offense that led the nation in total offense at over 515 yards per game. Koby Parker was named an All-American by the American Football Coaches Association, the Associated Press and D3football.com.  

Guard Cody Honeycutt, Parker and tight end Aaron Willman were all named first-team All-ASC selections and tackle Ross Hutchinson and center Travis Sugar both were honorable mention All-ASC selections.

He has had an All-American on the offensive line in four of his five seasons at HSU.
 
In 2008, he put together an offensive line that featured a pair of All-Americans in Brian Fitzgearld and Ryan Hunter.

James Arnold was an honorable mention All-American in 2007, continuing the Cowboys streak of having an All-American offensive lineman every year since 1999.

He guided center Josh Knox to All-American honors and also the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s top center in 2006.

Both Knox and Arnold were selected to compete in the Aztec Bowl, which is a Division III all-star game.

Burleson spent the 2005 season as the offensive coordinator for former Cowboy Darren Allman at Odessa Permian. Prior to that he was the offensive coordinator for two seasons at Temple High School.
He spent two years and the offensive line coach and run game coordinator at South Grand Prarie and one season at his hometown school, Clyde.

He was a student assistant at HSU in 1999 as he finished his degree. HSU won the 1999 ASC title.
 
Burleson, a native of Clyde, was a four-year letterman and three-time all-conference selection and team captain at HSU. He won three league titles for the Cowboys. He took over the starting center job midway through his freshman campaign and started the rest of his career.

In 2010 he was named as one of the five offensive linemen on the 20-year Anniversary team.

He also excelled in the classroom. He was a four-time academic all-ASC selection and graduated Magna Cum Laude from HSU.

Burleson has been married to the former Lois Lee for 14 years. He has two daughters Marisa (13) and Lainey (8). Lois is also a graduate of Hardin-Simmons.

Chris Jones, a former all-American football player at Hardin-Simmons, is in his second season as the defensive line and junior varsity coach.

Jones helped lead a defensive line that produced American Southwest Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Hank Hornsby, in 2010.

Jones, who spent the 2008 and 2009 seasons as a graduate assistant at Sam Houston State, came back to HSU to coach a position he patrolled for four seasons for the Cowboys. He spent the 2007 season as a graduate assistant at HSU after a stellar four-year career as a defensive lineman. He claimed two American Southwest Conference titles in his playing career at HSU.

Jones never missed a game as a player as he started 22 straight games and played in 41 straight contests. He had 22.5 career tackles for loss, nine sacks and 126 career tackles from his defensive tackle position. He was a two-time all-ASC selection and was named a second-team All-American and first-team all-South region as a senior.

Jones is a native of Brownwood and has a bachelor’s degree from Hardin-Simmons in sports, fitness and leisure and is working to complete his master’s degree.

Veteran Bob Fello is in his first season as the secondary coach and director of football operations for the Hardin-Simmons football program.

Fello brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the HSU program. He comes to HSU after spending last season as the special teams coordinator and associate head coach at the University of Dubuque.

His coaching career dates back to the middle 70’s when he was a coach at Kent State. He began as a graduate assistant coach, but progressed to linebackers coach to defensive coordinator to recruiting coordinator in his stint that lasted from 1976 to 1987.

Following his time at Kent State, Fello was with head coach Glen Mason at the University of Kansas from 1988-94. For the first four years on the Jayhawks’ staff, Fello coached the outside linebackers and was their clinic coordinator. But from 1991-94, Fello served as the team’s defensive coordinator as well as the tackles and linebackers coach. While at Kansas, the Jayhawks won the1992 Aloha Bowl victory over BYU.

Fello then went to Texas Christian University, assisting Horned Frogs Head Coach Pat Sullivan. From 1995-97, he was the special teams coordinator and the defensive line coach at TCU and coached Lou Groza Award winner Mike Reeder during that time.

Fello was the defensive and recruiting coordinator at James Madison University for one season. There he coached All-American Tony Booth who went on to play for the Carolina Panthers.

He then went to Kansas State for three seasons. The KSU defense was twice ranked in the top four in the nation. While coaching the 2000 K-State punt return team, which consisted of two-time All-American David Allen (1998, 1999) and All-American Aaron Lockett, the Wildcats had a No. 1 ranking in punt return average. Fello also coached Darren Howard, KSU’s career sack leader and Big 12 sack leader.

Fello then coached at SMU for two seasons as the assistant head coach. While coaching at SMU, he coached the defensive line and coordinated the Mustangs’ punt return and punt block schemes.

His next stop was at the Big 12 office as a coordinator of the supervisor of officials and game day coordinator for one year. He dsigned and implented the league’s plan for instant replay.

He then spent four years at The Citadel, the last three of which he was the assistant head coach. He spent one year each at Marshall and the University of Dubuque before settling in Abilene.

Fello has coached in five bowl games and has coached prominent players such as Dana Stubblefield who won a Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers, Gilbert Brown who won a the Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers, Don Davis who won a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams and Darren Howard, a No. 1 draft pick for the New Orleans Saints.

Fello was a three-year starter at Kent State, playing wide receiver and defensive back. He earned a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation.

He and wife Rona live in Abilene. She has two sons Zach and Chris and they have two grandchildren, David and Lillie.

Whitehead is in his first season as the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys. He is in charge of the Cowboys’ quarterbacks and running backs.

He comes to HSU after a highly successful eight-year run as the offensive coordinator at Wimberley High School, which included a 3A state championship in 2005. They went to the semifinals in 2010.

The 2007 coaching staff at Wimberley coached a victorious south team in the Texas High School Coaches Association all-star game.

Whitehead also spent two years as the offensive coordinator at Tornillo High School.

In all, he won seven district titles in 10 seasons on the high school level and coached three all-state quarterbacks.

His philosophy will be similar to that of former coordinator Alan Wartes, who he served under as a player and student assistant. He has also worked the Air it Out Passing Camps since leaving Hardin-Simmons.

Whitehead cut his playing career short to learn the details of coaching from legendary coach Jimmie Keeling. He spent time in the Cowboy program as a junior varsity quarterback, one year on the varsity and then as a student assistant.  

He earned a bachelor’s degree at Hardin-Simmons in physical education with a history minor.

Coach McQueen is in his first year as receiver’s coach/academic coordinator for Hardin-Simmons University. McQueen coached in the Texas High School Coaching ranks for 30 years, 23 of those as an athletic director and 21 years as a head football coach. His teams advanced to the playoffs 15 of those 21 years. He has over 120 wins as a head football coach.

McQueen has coached in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes All-Star game in Abilene and Waco and has been selected “Coach of the Year” six times. In 2001, McQueen served on the Texas High School Coaches All-Star Selection Committee.

McQueen is married to Vickie, who is in the teaching profession as well. He has two children Ashley and Janda who are all in public education and four grandchildren. McQueen and Vickie are Ballinger natives and have been married for 36 years.

McQueen received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of North Texas in History and P.E. and his Masters from Sam Houston State University in Educational Administration with a principal’s certification.

Loudermilk is in his first season as the linebackers coach and strength coach for the Cowboys’ program.

A former Cowboy player, Loudermilk comes back to HSU after coaching on the high school and college level as well as indoor teams in Frisco, Corpus Christi and San Angelo.  

His most recent stop was at McKinney North where he coached under former Cowboy Mike Fecci for the last three seasons. In 2011, He coached the 10-4A defensive player of the year at North and had six other players named to the all-district team. The defense was ranked one of the top 15 defense in the DFW area.

Prior to that, he spent one season as the secondary coach at Texas A&M-Commerce. The team finished second in the nation in pass defense and all four secondary members were named all-conference.

In his year as the head coach and general manager of the Frisco Thunder, the team set the league record for sacks and touchdown passes and finished one game away from the championship. He produced the league MVP in Dustin Almond and the team was the top ranked offense and defense in the league.

He also spent from 2003 to 2006 at the University of Houston as a defensive graduate assistant and was a full-time defensive coach in 2007. At UH, he worked with the outside linebackers, defensive line and the secondary. He was also an assistant strength coach. He was the position coach for second round NFL selection Stanford Routt.

Prior to UH, he spent two years as the defensive coordinator at Tornillo High School.

Loudermilk was a three-year starter and two-time all-conference selection as a defensive back at Hardin-Simmons. He graduated with a degree in physical education. He also was a student coach at HSU. He came to HSU from Stephenville High School where he won back-to-back state titles in 1993 and 1994 and his teams were a combined 32-0.

As a player and coach he has won two state titles, six conference championships and coached in three bowl games (Hawaii, Ft. Worth and Texas).

He and wife Miller, have two daughters Annalise and Catelee.