Jacksonville State expected to hire Auburn co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly as head coach

Auburn co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly is expected to be named the new head coach at Jacksonville State, according to Auburn Live’s Justin Hokanson.

This is the first collegiate head coaching job for Kelly, an Auburn alum who has been an assistant coach with multiple Alabama-based football programs all across the state. That includes a five-year stint in various roles at Jacksonville State from 1994-1998, where he was both running backs coach, defensive backs coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator during that time.

Now Kelly gets a shot as the Gamecocks head coach.

Kelly replaces Rich Rodriguez as Jacksonville State‘s leader after Rodriguez returned to West Virginia for his second stint as head coach on Dec. 12.

The timing of Friday’s news came in the first half of Jacksonville State’s bowl game against Ohio in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl in Orlando. The Bobcats lead 27-7 at halftime.

Kelly spent the 2024 season as the Tigers’ co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach following a one-year stint in a similar role under Colorado head coach Deion Sanders in 2023. Before that, Kelly spent four seasons as co-DC and safeties coach at Alabama under Nick Saban. Kelly also has stops at Georgia Tech (2006-12), Florida State (2013-17), and Tennessee (2018).

Kelly is the second member of Auburn’s defensive coaching staff to leave since this week, following Tigers linebackers coach Josh Aldridge accepting the defensive coordinator job at East Carolina.

West Virginia hires Rich Rodriguez as next head football coach

West Virginia has hired Jacksonville State’s Rich Rodriguez as its next head football coach.

Rodriguez served as the Mountaineers’ head coach from 2001 until 2007 and will replace Neal Brown, who held the position for the past six seasons.

Rodriguez moved on from West Virginia in 2008 to take the Michigan job, but never found the same success in Ann Arbor. After that, he would also become the head coach at Arizona, an assistant at several schools including Ole Miss, and in 2022 he once again became a head coach at Jacksonville State.

With Jacksonville State, Rodriguez helped the program transition from FCS to FBS, and in 2024 he led the Gamecocks to a C-USA conference title. He’s won nine games in all three of his seasons there.

Barkley Truax contributed to this report.