MOBILE, Ala. — Joey Jones, the only head coach in South Alabama football history, will coach his final game with the Jaguars on Dec. 2 at New Mexico State after announcing his resignation this week, two days after a 52-0 loss at Georgia Southern ended the team’s hopes of bowl eligibility.
Jones’ resignation takes effect at the end of his contract. The 55-year-old is 52-49 in his ninth season leading the program, with one game remaining. South Alabama is 4-7 this season.
Shutout in Statesboro
South Alabama entered Saturday’s game in Statesboro, Ga., needing wins to reach bowl eligibility against a Georgia Southern team that was 0-9. The Eagles scored on their first possession, turned a South Alabama turnover into a 14-0 lead and were ahead 21-0 at the end of the first quarter. Georgia Southern sent its seniors out with a win in their final home game, and South Alabama was shut out for the first time in program history.
The loss came one week after South Alabama beat Arkansas State for the first time in six meetings.
“I’ve never been involved in a game like the one we had tonight in all my years of coaching,” Jones said after the game. “The game plan got away from us. Georgia Southern executed well. They’ve been making mistakes all year and shooting themselves in the foot, and then tonight, they didn’t do that at all.”
“It all ends with me,” Jones said in his postgame radio interview. “I’ve got to get my team better ready to play than that. Obviously, we had some scheme problems. We didn’t coach well on defense, we didn’t coach well on offense. One of those games that got away from us. … Just not a good night at all.”
Jones Reflects After Announcement
The day after announcing his decision, Jones said, “It’s been a blast. I’m happy for South Alabama. It’ll be in my heart forever.”
“The meeting yesterday was something I was dreading in a lot of ways, just to let them know I wasn’t going to be here anymore,” Jones said. “And it turned into one of the best days of my life. I was hugging them and they were crying on my shoulder for a minute. It was touching and it means a lot to me. I’ll carry that forever. I had about 395 texts yesterday, a lot of them former players and friends. Made me realize I did it for the right reasons.”
Junior linebacker Bull Barge said the team wants to send Jones out with a win. “Yesterday was tough,” Barge said. “We love coach a lot. To hear that yesterday, you wish you could have done more. As a man, it’s life. This game is a business. We’ve been taught that from the beginning. Right now, our focus is to send coach out on top, have one of the best games we’ve ever played this last game.”
Senior guard Harrison Louden said Jones taught his players to “be men off the field. … He was all about character. I think that’s what I’m going to carry with me more than anything.”
Building a Program From Scratch
Jones was hired to start South Alabama football from the ground up. In the program’s early days he assembled his staff while working from the steps of the Mitchell Center and living in a hotel for a couple of months, and the team trained in improvised spaces, including a weight room set up in a former student health center and professional business building.
The Jaguars went 7-0 and 10-0 in their first two seasons as an unclassified program, then went 6-4 in 2011. As a transitional Football Bowl Subdivision team in 2012, South Alabama went 2-11 against a sharply tougher schedule.
Since then, the Jaguars have posted records of 6-6 in 2013, 6-7 in 2014, 5-7 in 2015 and 6-7 in 2016. Jones was named Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 2013 after the 6-6 finish in the program’s first season as a full Sun Belt member, a four-win improvement over the year before.
The program recorded milestone wins in 2016 over Mississippi State, its first victory over a Power Five opponent, and San Diego State, its first win over a ranked team. This season, South Alabama beat Sun Belt front-runners Troy and Arkansas State.
Program Milestones Under Jones
- Gerald Everett became the program’s first NFL draft pick in April and is in his rookie season with the Los Angeles Rams.
- Three players have been invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.
- Four players have been named CoSIDA Academic All-District, and Trey Clark became the program’s first Academic All-American.
- Five players have been invited to the Reese’s Senior Bowl.
- Six former players are active in the NFL and the Canadian Football League, and 24 former student-athletes have had the opportunity to play professionally.
- Players have earned All-Sun Belt recognition 43 times over the last five years.
- Players have been named to the Sun Belt Commissioner’s List 54 times and to the league’s Academic Honor Roll 92 times.
Jones’ Career
A standout at Mobile’s Murphy High School, Jones played at the University of Alabama, where he was named to the Crimson Tide’s All-Decade Team for the 1980s, and played professionally with the Birmingham Stallions and Atlanta Falcons.
He began coaching in 1989 as an assistant at Briarwood Christian School and became head coach at Dora two years later. In 1996, he took over at Mountain Brook High School, leading the team to the Class 6A state championship game that season and going 101-27 in 10 seasons. He then restarted the football program at Birmingham-Southern, going 1-7 in one season, before South Alabama hired him to launch its program.
Search Underway
Director of Athletics Joel Erdmann and the university administration have hired a search firm to help identify South Alabama’s second head football coach.
The next coach will inherit a football fieldhouse and adjoining practice fields. Construction of a covered practice facility is set to resume after its partially built superstructure collapsed during a summer thunderstorm. The Jaguars play home games at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The search comes ahead of the early signing period in mid-December and national signing day in February.
