Jackson State University will name Mississippi State assistant Tony Hughes as the school’s 14th head coach.
Hughes will replace Derrick McCall, who was elevated to interim coach after the school fired Harold Jackson on Oct. 6 less than two years into a three-year, $260,000 contract. Jackson was 6-11 during his brief 17-game tenure as head coach.
JSU went 2-4 under McCall, ending the 2015 regular season with three consecutive losses.
Hughes, who has never been a head coach at the collegiate level, is, however, has a reputation of being one of the top recruiting coordinators in the country by Rivals.com and 247Sports.com.
While as an assistant at Mississippi State, Hughes was able to help the school land the nation’s top recruiting classes.
“It is indeed an honor for me to come to be the head football coach at Jackson State University. The reason I chose to come is because of the great tradition in football that this university represents,” Hughes said during an introduction press conference on Monday. “This is a program with a lot of pride and a lot of tradition. What we’ve come to do is we come to rekindle that pride and that tradition and put Jackson State University football back in the place where it belongs,and that’s at the top.”
In addition to being the program’s recruiting coordinator since he was hired in 2009, Hughes was assistant head coach and worked with safeties.
Prior to Mississippi State, Hughes served as an assistant at Southern Mississippi, Ole Miss and Louisiana Tech.
Terms of Hughes’ contract have not been disclosed, but JSU Athletic Director Wheeler Brown, said the deal would be similar to Jackson’s.
