South Alabama DC Hired By Georgia
Defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer coaching the defense on the sidelines during one of the Jaguars home games. Sherrer leaves South Alabama after one season to join his friend and new Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt’s staff.
South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones will have to fill the defensive coordinator position for the second consecutive season as first-year defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer was hired away by the University of Georgia.
Sherrer, 40, joins newly hired Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt to coach on the defensive side of the ball. Sherrer coached the defensive backs at USA, but will likely coach either linebackers or defensive line at Georgia as Pruitt is expected to coach the secondary.
This is not a surprise to many as Sherrer and Pruitt have long had ties to each other. They both played at the University of Alabama, coached together at Hoover High School and both worked at Alabama in recent years.
This past season under Sherrer, the Jaguar defense ranked first in the Sun Belt in sacks (38), 2nd in scoring defense (25.2) and total defense (384.3) and tied for fourth in interceptions (11). The Jaguar defense ranked 50th in the nation in total defense, just five spots behind the Bulldogs.
This news comes just two weeks before National Signing Day, when high school players can sign their National Letter-of-Intents for the school of their choice.
Not necessarily related though, was the news that Shaquille Jones, a 6’2″ 165-pound defensive back from Palm Bay, FL., flipped his verbal commitment from South Alabama to the University of Louisville. He becomes the first verbal commitment to new UL head coach Bobby Petrino.
The secondary has been a position where the Jaguar coaching staff has focused a lot of their recruiting effort over the past year.
Other defensive commitments have reaffirmed their commitment to South Alabama via social media.
The timeline for the hire is a bit up in the air right now. With two weeks until National Signing Day, the staff will be focused on the recruiting trail. However, Jones would probably want to fill the position sooner rather than later and he has an advantage that just a year ago he was in the same position looking for a Defensive Coordinator. He probably has a few names already in mind from the last search along with new names from the last year.
One thing we know from experience is Coach Jones has hired great coaches each time there was an opening.