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The journey from player to head coach or offensive or defensive coordinator is a long one. Rising through the college ranks can take decades and no two paths are alike. But just about every journey from the field to the sideline begins the same: as a general assistant, learning the ropes under the tutelage of an experience coach and staff.
The SEC has its share of coaches with general assistant (GA) familiarity.
Here is a look at where each head coach and his coordinators got their start with a clipboard in their hand as a general assistant.
ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE
Nick Saban – Kent State, 1973 and 1974
Lane Kiffin, OC – Colorado State, 1999
Jeremy Pruitt, DC – Alabama, 1997
Notes: After a playing career that saw him team up with Gary Pinkel and the legendary Jack Lambert, Nick Saban decided to stay at Kent State and serve as a general assistant for the Golden Flashes. You can almost hear Kent State fans wonder aloud “if he’d only stayed longer. …”
Saban has the most coaching experience out of all 43 head coaches and coordinators in the SEC with a career that’s as old as the original “Exorcist” movie. The Tide’s newest defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt is the only coordinator to perform their general assistant duties with their current team.
Lane Kiffin, despite some marquee jobs, got his start at a GA at Colorado State after serving as an assistant for Fresno State for two seasons.
ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS
Bret Bielema – Iowa, 1994 and 95
Dan Enos, OC – Michigan State, 1991-93
Robb Smith, DC – Iowa, 1999-2001
Notes: Forgive the Arkansas staff if they have a Big Ten feel about them. All three of the Razorbacks’ top coaches began their careers on the sidelines in the conference, including Bret Bielema and Robb Smith, who first connected at Iowa in 1999. Back then Bielema, who did his general assistant coaching with the Hawkeyes in 1994 and 1995, got to know Smith when Smith was as GA working under Bielema, then the team’s linebacker coach. Their careers went separate directions from there until reuniting in Fayetteville for the 2014 season.
AUBURN TIGERS
Gus Malzahn – Arkansas (OC), 2006
Rhett Lashlee, OC – Arkansas, 2006
Kevin Steele, DC – Tennessee, 1980 and 1981
Notes: Gus Malzahn is one of three SEC head coached to jump right into coaching without first doing a general assistant tour. Before he was a college coach, Malzahn spent 14 years on the high school level where he was enshrined into the Arkansas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame — courtesy of three state championships in seven trips to the finals.
It wasn’t until his first year in the college ranks, as offensive coordinator for Arkansas, where Malzahn worked a general assistant named Rhett Lashlee. The duo teamed up again in 2009 at Auburn and have been virtually inseparable since, save for in 2011 when Lashlee left to become the offensive coordinator at Samford for a year. Defensive coordinator Kevin Steele is one of three coaches in the SEC to get his start as a GA for Tennessee, joining South Carolina OC Kurt Roper and Mississippi State DC Peter Sirmon.
FLORIDA GATORS
Jim McElwain – Eastern Washington, 1985 and 1986
Doug Nussmeier, OC – BC Lions (QBs), 2001
Geoff Collins, DC – Georgia Tech, 1999-2001
Notes: Florida offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier took a non-traditional route to his career, beginning as quarterbacks coach for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. From there, Nussmeier took the same position at Michigan State, where he first teamed up Spartans assistant head coach Jim McElwain. The duo coached together for three seasons (2003-2005) in East Lansing, before both took quarterback-coaching gigs in the NFL — Nussmeier with the St. Louis Rams and McElwain the Oakland Raiders.
GEORGIA BULLDOGS
Kirby Smart – Florida State, 2002 and 2003
Jim Chaney, OC – Wyoming, 1993
Mel Tucker, DC – Michigan State, 1997 and 1998
Notes: Life has come full circle for new Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who began his coaching career as an administrative assistant with the Bulldogs in 1999. He then spent two seasons as defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator at Valdosta State before doing his general assistant gig at Florida State for the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney took a similar path, starting at Cal State Fullerton — with a brief stop at Western Michigan — where he rose to offensive coordinator. Chaney eventually did his GA tour in 1993 at Wyoming after eight seasons with Fullerton.
KENTUCKY WILDCATS
Mark Stoops – Iowa, 1989-1991
Eddie Gran, OC – Cal Lutheran, 1987 and 1988
D.J. Eliot, DC – Wyoming, 1999
Notes: Before Bret Bielema in Iowa, there was Mark Stoops, who did his general assistant stint with the Hawkeyes several years before the boisterous Arkansas head coach rolled into Iowa City. In fact, the entire Kentucky staff shares similar roots as other SEC coaches at off-the-beaten-path schools.
Eddie Gran (and LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda) started with Cal Lutheran, while D.J. Eliot and Georgia’s Jim Chaney each kicked off their coaches careers at Wyoming.
LSU TIGERS
Les Miles – Michigan, 1980 and 1981
Cam Cameron, OC – Michigan, 1983 and 1984
Dave Aranda, DC – Cal Lutheran, 1996-98
Notes: Think Michigan new what they had in the early 1980s with Les Miles and Cam Cameron doing their general assistant coaching two years apart in Ann Arbor? After a five-year hiatus to coach Colorado’s offensive linemen, Miles returned to Michigan where he and Cameron eventually teamed up for the next seven years together from 1987-1993.
MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS
Dan Mullen – Syracuse, 1998; Notre Dame 1999 and 2000
John Hevesy, C-OC – Syracuse, 1997
Billy Gonzales, C-OC – Bowling Green (RB/WR), 1995
Peter Sirmon, DC – Oregon, 2009; Tennessee, 2010
Notes: John Hevesy got his start as a Syracuse GA one year before his future boss Dan Mullen, back when the school was still known as the Orangemen. Mullen, just like his defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon (Oregon and Tennessee), served as a general assistant for two Power 5 programs (Syracuse and Notre Dame).
Hevesy’s co-coordinator Billy Gonzales skipped the GA process, coaching Bowling Green’s running backs and wide receivers for eight years before joining Mullen in 2003 at Utah as a special teams coach in Mullen’s debut season with the Utes.
MISSOURI TIGERS
Barry Odom – Missouri, 2003
Josh Heupel, OC – Oklahoma, 2004
DeMontie Cross, DC – Missouri (OLBs), 1998
Missouri’s three top coaches all got their coaching careers started at the same institutions where they played their college ball. New head coach Barry Odom and defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross, in fact, played alongside one another on Mizzou’s 1996 defense.
Cross, however, started his coaching career leading outside linebackers for the Tigers, rather than as a general assistant. Heupel had the most prolific playing career of the group, having finished runner-up to Florida State’s Chris Weinke in the 2000 Heisman Award voting as a member of the Oklahoma Sooners — where the former quarterback did his general assistant coaching.
OLE MISS REBELS
Hugh Freeze – Ole Miss (RC/TE), 2005
Matt Luke, OC – Ole Miss (SA), 1999
Dave Wommack, DC – Arkansas, 1979 and 1980
Notes: Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze and Matt Luke each got their college careers started in Oxford, but not as general assistants. Freeze coached on the high school level for 13 year before joining the Rebels as a recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach.
Luke began as a student assistant at Ole Miss six years before Freeze pulled on his first headset with the Rebels. He eventually eschewed Oxford for Murray State, before returning to Ole Miss for the second of three stints with the program.
SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS
Will Muschamp – Auburn, 1995 and 1996
Kurt Roper, C-OC – Tennessee, 1996-1998
Bryan McClendon, C-OC – Georgia, 2007 and 2008
Travaris Robinson, DC – Auburn, 2006 and 2007
Notes: Will Muschamp is one of just two SEC head coaches, along with Missouri’s Barry Odom, to have served their general assistant gigs with SEC programs. In fact, all four of South Carolina’s coordinators got their start in the SEC.
The paths of Muschamp and new co-offensive coordinator Kurt Roper didn’t cross in 1996 as the former’s Tigers didn’t play the latter’s Tennessee the year they both served as GA’s for their respective schools.
Co-offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon’s Georgia Bulldogs got the better of new Gamecock defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson (Auburn) in 2007 when both were general assistants.
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS
Butch Jones – Rutgers, 1990 and 1991
Mike DeBord, OC – Franklin (Indiana) College (OL), 1982 and 1983
Bob Shoop, DC – Yale, 1989; Virginia, 1990
Notes: Tennessee’s staff took a diverse route to Rocky Top, starting in the early 1980s with Mike DeBord at Franklin (Indiana) College. Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop might be the most-cerebral of the group. After getting his start as a GA at Yale, Shoop eventually landed at schools such as Virginia, Columbia, William & Mary and Vanderbilt, before arriving in Tennessee this year.
TEXAS A&M AGGIES
Kevin Sumlin – Washington State, 1988-1990
Noel Mazzone, OC – New Mexico, 1980 and 1981
John Chavis, DC – Tennessee, 1979
Notes: Kevin Sumlin’s staff is among the most-experienced units in the SEC, and has a distinctive West Coast flair about it. Starting with Sumlin, who was a general assistant for Washington State in 1990 — Drew Bledsoe’s first campaign in Pullman.
Noel Mazzone’s three-decade-plus career began at Tennessee when Jimmy Carter was still president and ties the first-year Aggies’ offensive coordinator with Ole Miss defensive coordinator Dave Wommack as the second-longest coaching careers among SEC coaches and coordinators.
VANDERBILT COMMODORES
Derek Mason – Mesa Community College (WR), 1994
Andy Ludwig, OC – Utah, 1992
Notes: Second-year Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig arrived in Salt Lake City for his general assistant job with Utah in 1992. As Alabama fans are well aware, Ludwig returned 13 years later to the Utes to run their offense — which famously beat the Crimson Tide in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
Commodores head coach Derek Mason, who has developed into one of the finest defensive minds in the SEC — so much so that he’s his own defensive coordinator in Nashville — began his coaching career, not a as general assistant, but rather as a wide receivers coach at Mesa (Ariz.) Community College.
Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.
