Tremaine Jackson, who’s been an Football Bowls Subdivision assistant coach and a defensive coordinator at the Football Championship Subdivision level, is set to become the new head coach at perennial NCAA Division II powerhouse program Valdosta State, multiple sources tell FootballScoop.
Jackson, hired atop the Colorado Mesa program as its head coach in December 2019, compiled a 9-3 ledger for the Mavs in a truncated 2020 campaign and a full, 10-game 2021 season.
A Houston, Texas, native who played collegiately at the University of Louisiana-Monroe before he completed his career at Texas Southern and also earned a degree from the University of Houston, Jackson also had generated key coaching experience at the University of Sioux Falls.
But 2021 served as a breakthrough campaign as a head coach for Jackson, who saw the Mavs finish the season ranked 10th nationally in NCAA Division II’s total defense, in the top 20 offensively and also notched a program-building win against rival Colorado School of Mines – the eventually conference champion and playoff-participant.
Additionally Jackson, inked earlier by Endebrock Talent Management and recently honored as a “Sports 40-under-40 recipient by Coach & A.D. Magazine,” fortified the Colorado Mesa program off the field. The Mavs saw attendance at their games soar, with more than 15,000 fans at five home games including a homecoming-game sell-out.
Likewise, the Mavs placed their largest-ever number of players on the Academic Honor Roll in school history while also seeing a pair of players honored as CoSIDA All-Americans. The Mavs had 18 total players garner academic accolades and also set a school-record for community service hours.
With internships in the NFL with the Houston Texas and then-San Diego Chargers, Jackson has cultivated a reputation for staunch defensive play. His University of Sioux Falls defenses anchored some of the most successful seasons in program history.
At Abilene-Christian, where Jackson served as the FCS program’s defensive coordinator, the Wildcats saw Jackson transform a nation’s-worst defense into a unit that helped pave the way for ACS’s breakthrough winning season and a defense that ranked in the top 25 nationally in five different categories.
Jackson is set to replace Gary Goff at Valdosta after Goff was hired to take over FCS program McNeese State.