By T. Scott Boatright
While new Grambling State football coach Mickey Joseph was named the 15th official head G-Man on Dec. 18, his staff has yet to be introduced.
But that doesn’t mean three key components of that staff remain secrets.
It was widely reported the day Joseph was announced as Grambling’s new coach that former Southern and Prairie View head coach Eric Dooley would be joining him as offensive coordinator for the Tigers.
Last week it was reported that John Simon, who served last season as GSU’s assistant head coach under Hue Jackson, who was fired on Nov. 28, would also be serving as a bridge between the old and new GSU staffs by being retained by Joseph.
And on Wednesday, Joseph made it official during an appearance on the Lincoln, Nebraska, sports talk radio station 97.3 that Jason Rollins will take over as the new defensive coordinator for the G-Men.
Joseph, a former University of Nebraska quarterback great who served as receivers coach and interim head coach for the Cornhuskers in 2021, brought up Rollins’ addition to his GSU staff while talking to Vershan Jackson and Terrell Farley, a pair of former Cornhuskers, on Jackson’s “The Captain” radio show.
During that show Joseph said he particularly targeted coordinators that had previous Southwestern Athletic Conference coaching experience.
“When it came to coordinators, I wanted guys who coached in the conference,” Joseph said. “Because they know the conference.
“Then I wanted some young guys, because you gotta run behind them. Because when it comes to my office, those are administrative decisions happening there. So I want some young player coaches.I want guys who will get in there and lead them and do the right things.”
Simon’s recruiting experience and abilities likely served as key reasons he’ll remain on the GSU coaching staff.
“First, they’ve got to be able to recruit,” Joseph told the radio show hosts about what he was looking for from his coaching staff. “You don’t want that stigma on you that you’re just a recruiter, but at the end of the day, you can’t control what people think of you. All coaches know football. But you have to be able to get that product in the room.”
Rollins, who served as special teams coordinator last season on the same University of Louisiana-Monroe staff as former GSU head coach Broderick Fobbs, coached at Southern University before joining ULM,coaching SU defensive backs and also serving as interim head coach in 2021 after former SU coach Dawson Odoms left the Jaguars to become head coach at Norfolk State.
Before that Rollins coached at the University of Texas-San Antonio, serving as the defensive coordinator for two seasons and spent two years as associate head coach and linebackers coach
Rollins helped mentor one of the nation’s top defenses in 2017, as the Roadrunners led C-USA in seven different statistical categories and ranked in the top 10 among all Football Bowl Subdivision teams in five. UTSA held eight of its 11 opponents to 300-or-less yards of total offense.
Rollins previously served as co-defensive coordinator in 2015 and special teams coordinator in 2014, at Tulane.
In 2013, Rollins’ secondary was a big reason why the Green Wave made their first bowl appearance since the 2002 season. Tulane ranked second nationally in turnovers forced with 35, including 19 interceptions with 15 by the defensive backfield. Doss, an All-American cornerback, picked off seven passes, returning a pair for touchdowns, and forced two fumbles. Additionally, Tulane allowed just 352.1 yards per game, which ranked 22nd in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Prior to his tenure at Tulane, Rollins was co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach at his alma mater, McNeese State, for two seasons (2005-06). He helped the Cowboys to a 23-10 record, two Southland Conference championships and a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff appearance in his final season.
Rollins’s coaching career began as an assistant defensive backs coach at McNeese State in 1997-98. He then became an assistant coach in the Texas high school ranks at Galveston Ball (1999-2000) and La Marque (2001) before spending three seasons (2002-04) as the defensive backs coach at Northwestern State, where he helped the Demons to the 2004 Southland title on the strength of the top defense in the FCS.
Rollins was an all-state and all-district performer at Newton (Texas) High School and he went on to play safety at McNeese State where he earned his bachelor’s degree in health and human performance from MSU in 1996.
Dooley, who played at GSU from 1985-87, graduated from Southern in 1999 while serving as an assistant coach from 1997-2010.
He later served as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Arkansas-Pine Bluff from 2011-13 and offensive coordinator at GSU from 2014-17 before becoming head coach at Prairie View from 2018-2021, when he took over as head coach at Southern.
But SU dismissed Dooley late last season, the week before the Bayou Classic pitting Southern against Grambling.
Simon and Dooley served on Fobbs’ staff at Grambling in 2014-15 with Simon coaching GSU receivers. That duor helped lead GSU to a 9-3 record in 2015.
During Wednesday’s radio show Joseph mentioned liking what he’s seen from GSU quarterbacks Myles Crawley and Johnson, while adding he plans on bringing in another QB for competition.
Joseph said he had also conducted a Zoom meeting with GSU players to talk about how they need to attack these holidays and how they need to come back mentally and physically.
“The big thing I expressed to them is that everybody has a clean slate,” Joseph said. “I’m going to look at what happened in the past with them but I’m not going to judge them on it. Everybody’s getting a clean slate and everybody’s going to be fair.
“We’re not running anybody off. We’re going to evaluate this football team until the spring, then after the spring we’ll take it to the summer. So we’ll look at grades and performance on the field after spring football and figure out who we’re going to carry over into the summer.”
