Mechanical engineering graduate finds new career on SMU football staff
Graduating senior Ben Sellers has his sights set on a different career from most engineers - coaching.
DALLAS (SMU) – When graduating senior Ben Sellers walks the stage at Saturday’s commencement ceremony in Moody Coliseum, it won’t be the first time he’s appeared before a large crowd in a major athletics venue.
During Seller’s first four years at SMU, he was a member of the Mustangs’ football team.
His eligibility ran out last winter, but that didn’t mean the end of Sellers’ football career. The mechanical engineering major with a biomedical specialization says he expects to rejoin the SMU football team this spring – this time as a defensive quality control assistant.
“A quality control assistant looks at the defense as a whole and evaluates its weaknesses,” Sellers says. “I’ll review game, practice and recruiting film and break it down for the coaches.”
It’s a first step toward what Sellers hopes will be a successful college football-coaching career. The next step would be a promotion to graduate assistant, which would allow Sellers to get hands-on experience helping to coach a position group. From there, graduate assistants can rise to assistant coaches, then coordinators and eventually head coaches.
Though it might not be apparent at first, Sellers says his mechanical engineering degree offers the perfect background for a career in coaching.
“I look at strategic game planning as a big thermodynamics problem,” Sellers says. “I observe the offense to see what variables I can identify, which I can’t, and then I ask, ‘How do I limit the uncertainties?’”
Initially, Sellers wasn’t sure his four years with SMU’s football team would get his foot in the door with the new staff, which was hired after Sellers’ eligibility expired, but head coach Chad Morris and defensive coordinator Van Malone made it clear the sentiment, “Once a Mustang, always a Mustang,” still rang true at Ford Stadium.
“When I came in and said I was interested in coaching, they said they could always find a place for the alumni,” Sellers says. “When they heard my background in mechanical engineering, they said, ‘You’re smarter than the average bear. We can find a place for you to help,’ and Van Malone was very gracious about opening the door and giving me the opportunity.”
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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls approximately 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.
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