Career
Following the 2008 season Spavital became a graduate assistant at Houston. While at Houston, Spavital worked under head coach Kevin Sumlin and offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen. Spavital became familiar with Holgorsen"s offense while working at Houston, and when Holgorsen became the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State in 2010 he took Spavital with him and gave him the same position of graduate assistant.
Spavital was an essential piece of Holgorsen"s coaching staff at Oklahoma State because he was the only person on the staff familiar with the offense that Holgorsen ran.
Spavital helped teach the new offense to QB Brandon Weeden, who was nearly two years older than Spavital. That season, Oklahoma State went 11-2 and Weeden was third in the nation in yards per game and total yards as well as sixth in the nation in touchdowns.
When Holgorsen became the head coach at West Virginia, before the 2011 season he took Spavital with him and made him the quarterbacks coach. While at West Virginia Spavital coached Geno Smith.
Under Spavital"s coaching Smith would break numerous West Virginia, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and bowl records.
When Texas Agricultural and Mechanical offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury left Texas Agricultural and Mechanical to become the head coach at Texas Technical, Agricultural and Mechanical head coach Kevin Sumlin offered Spavital the position. At Texas Agricultural and Mechanical, Spavital started as the co-offensive coordinator with Clarence McKinney and was the quarterbacks coach. On January 3, 2016 Spavital and Texas Agricultural and Mechanical mutually parted ways.
On February 11, 2016 Spavital was announced as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the California Golden Bears football team
Jake"s grandfather, Jim Spavital, was a professional football player who played in the All-America Football Conference, NFL, and the Canadian Football League and would later to go on to work as a coach. His father is Steve Spavital who is a former head football coach at Broken Arrow High School.
