While the SWAC head coaching carousel ended with some interesting candidates taking those vacant positions, the make up of their respective staffs might be just as compelling.
Former Mississippi Valley State head coach Willie Totten was hired at Alabama A&M to be the school’s quarterback coach under first-year head coach James Spady. Totten, who spent last season as an assistant at Albany State, is credited for spearheading the resurgence of one-time Grambling State quarterback Frank Rivers into a second-team selection to the All-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team.
With a wealth of offensive knowledge going back to his playing days at MVSU, Totten figure to help reshape the Bulldogs’ offense In 2014.
Eric Dooley, who was the offensive coordinator at Arkansas Pine-Bluff, bolted at the end of the year to take the same position at Grambling State.
Under Dooley, UAPB ranked fifth in points per game (31.7) and second in total offense (468 yards per game) in 2013. Grambling on the other hand, was at or near the bottom in nearly every offensive category. Dooley hopes to recreate the success he experienced at UAPB in Grambling next season.
Other notable coaching hires include Vyron Brown at Texas Southern (previously the offensive coordinator at Grambling), Terrance Graves to Grambling (previously the defensive coordinator at Mississippi Valley State) and former Alabama A&M head coach Anthony Jones finding a spot on Monte Coleman’s staff at Arkansas Pine-Bluff.
The familiar faces in different places throughout the conference should make for interesting 2014 campaign.
