SAN MARCOS - Texas State head football coach Everett Withers formally announced Thursday that Chris Woods has been named the new defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach for the Bobcats.
 
Woods brings nearly 25 years of experience in coaching to Texas State, including six seasons as a head coach and 13 years as a defensive specialist and coordinator.
 
Woods comes to Texas State after serving the last three years as a defensive specialist at Oklahoma when the Sooners won three consecutive Big 12 championships, made two appearances in the College Football Playoff and was the 2016 Sugar Bowl champions.
 
He joined the Sooners' coaching staff in 2015 after working three seasons as the defensive coordinator at Holmes Community College in Mississippi. While he was there, Holmes had its first winning season and best conference finish since 2000. He also was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Columbia for one year.
 
Woods was a defensive line coach and special teams coordinator at Bryant College for three seasons when Bryant finished 7-4 in 2010 and led the Northeast Conference in scoring defense and ranked second in both passing and total defense in 2009. The Bulldogs also were nationally ranked in rushing defense and sacks in his first year. He went to Bryant after serving as an assistant at Harvard in 2007 as the linebackers and special teams coach.
 
His head coaching career spanned three seasons at Stonehill College and three seasons at Mansfield, where he was named the AFCA Region II Coach of the Year and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2003 when he led the Mountaineers to their first winning season since 1975 and their highest win total since 1946 with an 8-3 mark.
 
He went to Mansfield after spending four years as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Wittenberg, where he helped lead the program to a 40-4 record and two appearances in the NCAA Division III Playoffs. He also was an interim head coach at Plymouth State after serving as the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator. There, he was part of two teams that went undefeated during the regular season and advanced to the NCAA Division III Playoffs.
 
A native of Milton, Mass., Woods earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and anthropology at Davidson. He and his wife, Stephanie, have two children, Braden and Hannah.