Danny Phillips is completing his first season as the Owls' defensive line coach and special teams coordinator, continuing his long relationship with head coach Todd Graham.

Phillps guided the Owls four-man defensive front line rotation to productive years, as DE Courtney Gordon earned second-team All C-USA honors, while teammates George Chukwu, DeJaun Cooper and Will Wood all earned Honorable Mention recognition from the league's coaches.

The native of Marlow, Okla., came to Rice after three seasons with Graham at the University of Tulsa. He also worked with the Owls' new head coach at West Virginia and Allen High near Dallas.

Phillips' work with the Hurricane's defensive line helped Tulsa to the 2005 C-USA championship and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl championship. Tulsa also went to the Humanitarian Bowl in 2003.

At WVU as a graduate assistant coach under Graham and head coach Rich Rodriguez, Phillips assisted with the Mountaineers' linebackers in 2001. That team played in the Continental Tire Bowl.

Phillips had nine years experience as a high school coach before moving to the college level. Five of those seasons were spent building Allen High School into a Class 5A power. He was the Eagles' linebackers coach all five seasons and added duties as the special teams coordinator his last three years.

Previously, he spent three years on the staff at Santa Fe High in Edmond, Okla., the last two as defensive coordinator, and one season as the linebackers coach at Edmond High, helping that squad to the Oklahoma Class 5A finals.

Phillips, 37, played his college football at Southeastern Oklahoma State, helping the Savages to Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference titles in 1988 and `89. He earned his bachelor's degree in education with a minor in biology from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1993.