South Alabama Announces Steve Campbell As New Head Football Coach
Steve Campbell, 51 and native of Pensacola, FL., will be officially introduced as the new head football coach replacing Joey Jones who announced his resignation on November 20th. | Photo Credit: University of Central Arkansas
South Alabama has hired it’s second head coach in program history. Today the school announced that Steve Campbell, 51 and a Pensacola native, had been selected to head up the Jaguar football program.
Campbell’s coaching career began under legendary Auburn head coach Pat Dye where he helped the Tigers win back-to-back SEC titles as a graduate assistant. His first full-time position was in 1990 at Delta State University as offensive line coach. He worked his way up to offensive coordinator before departing for the same position at Nicholls State in 1993.
In 1997 Campbell took his first head coaching position with Southwest Mississippi Community College (JC), where he had spent the previous season coaching the running backs. In two seasons he went 12-8 and lead the school to it’s first winning season in 12 years.
Campbell then returned to Delta State as head coach in 1999 where he earned a 27-8 record over three seasons. His no-huddle offense broke 12 Gulf South Conference records and six Division II records. In 2000, he won the Division II National Championship and earned Nation Coach of the Year by three organizations.
In 2002, Campbell became offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Middle Tennessee State and scored a win over in-state rival Vanderbilt. In 2003 he served as offensive line coach under Jackie Sherrill in his last season at Mississippi State.
In 2004, Campbell returned to a head coaching position with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. We went 87-22 over 10 seasons after inheriting a team that went 6-12 in two seasons under his predecessor and had not made the state playoffs since 1986. Campbell led them to NJCAA Junior College Co-National Championship in 2007. A number of his players went on to play at SEC schools, most notably Terrence Cody at Alabama.
By 2008, Campbell started to get noticed for other positions. He was a finalist for the head coaching position at Northwestern State but was not selected.
In 2009 he had led the MGCCC Bulldogs to a 9-2 record after losing 75-71 in the MACJC State Championship game, ending their bid for three-straight MACJC titles. He was considered for an offensive line assistant position at Auburn that year under Gene Chizik but was not selected.
In 2010, Campbell led MGCCC to a 10-2 record, the two losses were by a combined six points. They won over Co-Lin in the MACJC Championship game and had a 62-53 win over #3 Grand Rapids in the Mississippi Bowl, which set a record for combined points in the game.
In 2014, Campbell took the head coaching position at Central Arkansas in the Southland Conference and went 6-6 in his first season. After a 7-4 record in his second season he then led the Bears to back-to-back 10 win seasons but each time lost in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Campbell has a record of 27-8 at the Division II level and 33-15 at the FCS level.
As a player, he started at center in 43 consecutive games for Southeastern Louisiana and Troy State University. He was part of the 1987 Troy State team to win the Division II National Championship and was named to the All-Gulf South Conference first team. He was named an Academic All-Conference three times and graduated Cum Laude from Troy State with a bachelor’s in Economics. He earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Auburn as well.
In a press release from South Alabama, Director of Athletics Dr. Joel Erdmann had the following to say: “When the search began we identified the experience, qualities and characteristics we were looking for. We searched for a leader who has demonstrated success and possesses a vision for the program with the plan to communicate and achieve that vision. As the search progressed, it became clear that Coach Campbell had what we were looking for. He became the primary target and accepted the offer. He is a proven college head football coach who has achieved consistent success in various settings with different programs. Coach Campbell possesses coaching expertise, high school and junior college recruiting relationships, and a contagious passion for the game of football. He is well-respected by his peers and at the core of his identify is a man of character and deep values.
“I am proud and excited to have Steve as the leader of our program, and look forward to working together to achieve great things.”
Also in the press release, Campbell had the following to say: “I was born and raised in this area, just down the road outside of Pensacola, and have always felt that if South Alabama started football it would be a gold mine, a place where the sky is the limit and you can definitely compete for championships at the highest level. Coach Jones did a terrific job of getting the program started and laying a tremendous foundation. This is an opportunity to get back home and, more than that, to take what Joey has started and raise it to the next level and win some championships.”
South Alabama will hold a press conference on Friday at 1pm in the Football Fieldhouse to officially introduce Campbell as the Jaguars head football coach and it is open to the public. JagNationTv will have live video coverage and 99.5 FM The Jag will have radio coverage of the announcement as well.
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2 Responses to “South Alabama Announces Steve Campbell As New Head Football Coach”
Hopes he will be successful at South.
All the fans hope so too. He sure spoke well in the announcement and he has a great resume he brings with him.