New Tennessee State football coach Eddie George officially announced his staff Wednesday.
As already reported, George named former NFL coach Hue Jackson the Tigers’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Brandon Fisher, the son of former Titans coach Jeff Fisher, defensive coordinator.
Jackson was the coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2011 and the Cleveland Browns from 2016-18. His most recent position was in 2018 with the Cincinnati Bengals as special assistant to coach Marvin Lewis.
Fisher, a former Christ Presbyterian Academy star, spent last season at Auburn as a defensive analyst and before that was the defensive coordinator at Southern Utah.
“I couldn’t be more excited to get started coaching our student-athletes with this staff of exceptional men,” George said. “These men are all great football coaches, but they are even better men. We really took our time to make sure each one of these coaches was the right fit for our program.”
The other coaches:
• Joe Bowden, linebackers, who spent the last four years at Missouri Baptist as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Bowden played linebacker for the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans from 1992-99.
• Keith Burns, special teams coordinator/defensive specialist, who was a standout specials teams player for the Denver Broncos. Since his 15-year NFL career ended in 2006 Burns, who also played linebacker, has coached in the NFL with Denver, Washington, and the L.A. Chargers.
• Corey Harkey, tight ends, who spent the last two years at Azusa Pacific coaching tight ends. He played five seasons as a tight end in the NFL for the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams (2012-16).
• Mark Hutson, offensive line, who was a senior offensive analyst at LSU the last two seasons. Before that Hutson spent three seasons as an assistant offensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns. Earlier in his career, he was the tight ends coach for the Oakland Raiders.
• Richard McNutt, defensive backs, a former Ohio State defensive back who has been a secondary coach at Southeastern University, Youngstown State, Toledo, Kent State, and Northern Illinois.
• Pepe Pearson, running backs, a former Ohio State running back who was the running backs coach at Marshall the previous five seasons.
• Clyde Simmons, defensive line, who played 15 seasons in the NFL and was the defensive line coach at Western Carolina last year. He also spent one season at Missouri and two as the assistant defensive line coach of Cleveland Browns.
• Kenan Smith, passing game coordinator/wide receivers, who was wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Southern Utah the previous two seasons.
“Make no mistake, we expect to win football games at Tennessee State University, but our ultimate goal is to prepare our current and future student-athletes for life,” George said. “I’m looking forward to the impact our coaches will have on Tennessee State University and the Nashville community.”