Tarleton State adds some impressive FBS experience to staff

Tarleton State has some exciting changes in store as they continue their transition to the FCS ranks, including an upcoming projecet to break ground on an expansion to Memorial Stadium that will increase the capacity to 24,000.

The transition also has allowed an elevated commitment to football from the school's administration including the ability to add a 10th full-time assistant to the staff.

Over the weekend, Tarleton State announced three additions to the staff, and some new roles for longtime members of the program.

To fill their defensive coordinator opening, head coach Todd Whitten landed Tyrone Nix, who brings over 25 years of Division I experience to the table, including experience as a defensive coordinator at five different stops that include SEC institutions like Ole Miss and South Carolina.

Nix most recently served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at UTSA in 2020 and also has stops as the defensive play caller at Middle Tennessee State and Southern Miss in addition to those SEC stops.

To coach the offensive backs role, Scott Stoker was brought in after racking up experience at the Division I level as a coordinator on both sides of the ball.

Early on in his career, Stoker served as the offensive coordinator at McNeese State (FCS - LA), and after one season doing that he moved to the defensive side of the ball to call the shots for two seasons. After three seasons on staff calling the plays on both sides of the ball, Stoker was named head coach at Northwestern State (FCS - LA), and he served in that role from 2002-08, going 44-37 overall with two playoff appearances.

Stoker went on to serve as the defensive coordinator at Sam Houston State (FCS - TX) for one season under Whitten, as well as UTEP and ULM. He briefly took over as the Warhawks interim head coach in 2020.

Fred Tate is the former defensive line coach at places like Cal, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Marshall, Southern Miss, East Carolina and Middle Tennessee. Whitten brought him to Tarleton as the new defensive line coach.

Tate most recently served as the defensive coordinator at Navarro (JC - TX).

In addition to those three hires, director of football operations Brant Bailey is moving to tight ends coach, and Jonathan Beasley will move from an assistant coaching role to director of recruiting and operations.

Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.