Navigating the ever changing landscape of college football, more than ever, requires a talented operations director. In days of old a director of football operations was tasked with ensuring flights were booked and buses were on time. These days, top-tier football operations directors are involved in scheduling, NIL, the portal, conference changes, seemingly constant rule changes from the NCAA and more. In short, the job is more than ever before and those that excel have quickly become indispensable.
All of those factors and more are why Florida State's Jeff Kupper is the 2023 FootballScoop Director of Operations of the Year, as presented by AstroTurf and voted by previous winners.
"So, Jeff is a guy who's done it all in college football," FSU head coach Mike Norvell told FootballScoop. "No job is too big or too small. He truly cares about the players and everything he does is focused on helping them."
While Kupper is being honored for his work in the 2023 season, he's nearing a decade of service alongside Norvell at first Memphis and now at Florida State. Kupper's run at Memphis predated Norvell's arrival atop the program.
With the Tigers, resources weren't the same as now at Florida State, but Kupper and his staff still delivered as Memphis trekked its way through the American Athletic Conference, with outposts ranging from Philadelphia to South Florida to Charlotte and deep in the heart of Texas.
"We've been together eight years now," Norvell said. "He keeps the program operating very efficiently, but he also pours into player development.
"I'm very proud of Jeff and believe everyone in our program would say the same thing."
A Texas graduate, Kupper earned a Master's in sports administration and facility management at Ohio before landing his first DFO job at Columbia in 2005. He arrived at Memphis in 2010, remaining there until he left for Florida State with Norvell.
One former winner added, "Jeff is a great resource for everyone in our conference and he has helped many people grow within the profession. He seemingly always has time to help; because he does a great job of preparing in advance for everything on his and his team's calendar."
Kupper edged out a pair of finalists who also have stamped themselves as two of the best in close-knit world of DFOs: Marshall's Sharrod Everett and UAB's Cole Peterson. Prior winners selected this year's winner.
Previous winners of the Football Operations Director of the Year award are Tom Deahn (Temple, 2009), Mike Kerin (West Virginia, 2010), Mike Sinquefield (TCU, 2011), Matt Doyle (Stanford, 2012), Jason Grooms (Ohio, 2013), Mack Butler (Oklahoma State, 2014), Mark Robinson (Florida State, 2015), Tim Knox (Illinois, 2016), Tyler Cook (UAB, 2017), Shane Elder (North Texas, 2018), Randy Ross (Arkansas, 2019), Michael Hazel (Penn State, 2020), Will Gilkison (Rutgers, 2020), Ben Thienes (San Jose State, 2021) and Shane Meyer (Tulane, 2022).
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