The New Crew: Troy’s Coaching Staff
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind when it comes to Troy coaching news. Nearly two months into the Sumrall era, the second biggest question has been answered when it comes to this staff change:
“Who will be on this coaching staff?”
(The first of course, was “who’s the head coach going to be?” Check out our Coaching Search series to see how we got here.)
Sumrall has gone all across the country to find the men for the Trojans’ 2022 staff, and Troy announced most of them in the past two weeks. After that whirlwind of announcements, we’ve gathered all of them together here in one place.
Think of it like Christmas, or a bridal shower.
Something Old
One new coach stands out above the rest, simply for wearing the cardinal and white… as a player.
Evan McKissack – Tight Ends
McKissack is No. 50 in the picture above. A former North Alabama transfer, Evan saw action in exactly two games his first three years at Troy: 2012 Mississippi State and 2012 South Alabama. He sat out the 2010 season and redshirted in 2011.
His senior year, he earned a spot in the rotation, played in all 12 games, and earned first team all-Sun Belt honors. Talk about taking the stairs.
McKissack coached at Enterprise before bouncing to a Colquitt County High School in Georgia, before joining Coach Sumrall and the late former Troy coach John Schlarman at Kentucky.
He headed four hours west and spent the last two years at Murray State, coaching an all-conference running back in addition to tight ends.
Now he’s home, and his wife Erica is expecting a child next month. Welcome home, Evan and Erica.
Something New
With a regime change comes a new identity on at least one side of the ball. Chip’s offensive approach is out, and in with the defensive-minded Sumrall.
Who’s going to rebuild that side of the ball? I guess that’s the third biggest question.
How about this guy?
Joe Craddock – Offensive Coordinator
Joe Craddock was the enemy in college. He played quarterback for the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, and played a season on the diamond.
In the nearly 15 years since, Craddock has led Briarwood Christian to the state title game as head coach, learned from Dabo Swinney, and guided part of SMU’s turnaround under Chad Morris.
The dark cloud looming over his career, the two years as Arkansas’ offensive coordinator, are not necessarily a strike you can count against him. Arkansas fans saw him as a “yes man” to Chad Morris much like Chip Lindsey or Rhett Lashlee followed Gus Malzahn in lock-step.
Lashlee is an apt comparison, as he followed Craddock as SMU’s offensive coordinator. Apart from Malzahn, he doubled his Broyles Award nominations (best assistant). Now he’s SMU’s head coach.
That’s exactly what Craddock did the last two years: he left Chad Morris. He worked with UAB’s tight ends for the last two seasons, and we’ve seen how successful that enemy has been.
Specifically, Blazer tight end Gerritt Prince led all tight ends nationally in yards per reception, with 19.4. Adding in wideouts, he ranked 15th overall in the country. The next highest tight end was ranked No. 78 with 17.26 yards per catch.
Now Craddock has the opportunity to build an offense that’s completely his own, with plenty of weapons at his disposal.
Brock Hays – Running Backs
Troy’s biggest weapons are arguably the monsters in the running back room. Sumrall and Craddock chose to bring in a little Louisiana spice to coach them… Louisiana Tech, that is.
The Grambling grad, former Louisiana high school football coach and Louisiana College assistant completely revamped Nicholls State’s run game in just two seasons. The Colonels averaged 200 yards per game in 2017; they averaged just 114 yards per game the year before Hays arrived.
If that’s not impressive enough, here’s the Colonels’ only three games against FBS opponents those years:
| Year | Team | Score | Rushing Yards |
| 2016 | No. 9 Georgia | L, 24-26 | 125 |
| 2016 | South Alabama | L, 40-41 OT | 161 |
| 2017 | Texas A&M | L, 14-24 | 74* |
That’s a scare against a top-ten team, two SEC squads, and possibly South Alabama’s best team ever.
He crossed the state line for a year as Southern Miss’s tight ends coach (sensing a trend here) and bounced right back over to Ruston and running backs.
In each of the past three seasons, Bulldogs running backs have rushed for more than 1,000 yards. In Hays’ first year at La Tech, Justin Henderson hit that mark by himself.
Now, this coach, who’s literally considered one of the 35 best up-and-coming coaches under the age of 35, gets to work with Kimani Vidal, Jamontez Woods and DK Billingsley.
Tayler Polk – Inside Linebackers
Polk is to Ole Miss what Jon Sumrall is to Kentucky. A Rebel alum, he became a grad assistant for his alma mater in 2018, the year Sumrall moved to Oxford.
The past three years, Polk coached linebackers and special teams at Central Arkansas, and while the Bears’ overall season trended downward, Polk’s units trended upward. Special teams was ranked in the top five in nearly every category in 2020, and the defense ranked that high in tackles for loss, sacks and third down defense.
The Bears’ defensive coordinator dipped after the 2020 season, forcing another shakeup in roles just two years after Steve Campbell and Greg Stewart left for South Alabama. Polk took over the entire linebacker crew as well as special teams last season.
Now, Polk is also leaving the Bears, reuniting with Sumrall, getting a chance to focus on the position he’s coached so well… and coaching one of Troy’s greatest players in his senior season.
Cole Popovich – Offensive Line
I don’t know if a Troy coach has ever won a Super Bowl ring, much less before his time at Troy. Chan Gailey led the Cowboys into the NFC title game twice, and Greg Adkins was a coach on the Bills’ staff… but that’s the only two direct ties to the NFL I can find.
Cole Popovich joined the Patriots organization in 2016, becoming a running backs coach in 2019 and then offensive line coach in 2020. That timeline coincides with the organization’s last three Super Bowl appearances, in which it won two.
Sony Michel rushed for 912 yards in 2019, but ranked 10th in the league in rushing that season. In 2020, the Patriots as a whole ran for 2,346 yards, the fourth-most in the league.
Popovich and the Patriots parted ways last season, and he took a gig coaching a high school team 13 miles from Patriots headquarters. The offensive line averaged 214 pounds, but they went 10-1, won a league title, and helped pick up 1,647 yards on the ground.
I think he’s going to become Coach Hays’ best friend.
Something Borrowed
If you aren’t already having fun yet, here’s your chance. One of these three men has been around since Neal was coach. One of these three coached under Neal, left for West Virginia and returned under Chip. The other one played under Larry (and Neal as WR coach) then hired under Chip.
If we kept any coaches, we’re glad it’s these three guys.
Gary Banks – Wide Receivers
What more could we say about Coach Banks? Taken in the fifth round of the MLB Draft, he played four years with the Chicago Cubs organization, dropped baseball, played four years at Troy, then coached at the high school level before coming back to Troy last year.
Banks was part of the 2004 Missouri win, the first bowl team, the first bowl win in 2006 and two of the first five Sun Belt titles. Oh, and he caught the game-winning pass in “The Miracle at Murfreesboro.” Need I say more?
Bam Hardmon – Outside Linebackers
The Florida alum still holds the record for most tackles in a season since 1978. After a few years in the NFL, he won the World Bowl (NFL Europe’s Championship) in 2007 with Hamburg, got out of football, and coached at Illinois, Charleston Southern and Idaho.
In 2015, he joined Neal’s staff and never looked back.
Al Pogue – Cornerbacks
Coach Pogue’s bio says he’s the only assistant to coach under all three previous coaches (Larry, Neal, Chip), so now he’s the only assistant to coach under all four Troy head coaches from the past 30 years. Sure we’re skewing the timeline, but Coach Blakeney is a legend.
Pogue is a Mobile native, an Alabama State alum, a former Montgomery-area high school football coach, and he has an SEC title ring from Auburn’s 2013 season. This man knows the southern half of Alabama as well as anybody.
He left Troy, followed Neal to West Virginia for a year, then retraced his steps with a stop at Auburn and a return to Troy last year.
The Wiregrass is his home, and we’re so glad he’s back.
Something… Black Knight?
Finally, the Trojans have added two new coaches… both taken from Army West Point. They’re really the only two to come from the same place, so we’re absolutely forcing the pun here.
(Also, we’ve already apologized to Inside & Outside Army, our fellow former Forgotten5 blog. Go follow them.)
Shiel Wood – Defensive Coordinator
Coach Wood graduated from Wofford in 2007, spent two years in the high school ranks and returned to Wofford until 2017. His final season as defensive coordinator, the Terriers went 10-3, won the Southern Conference and lost in the playoffs to FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.
He moved to Atlanta for the next three seasons, coaching at Tech and State, before moving up to West Point. He only coached linebackers and safeties at the FBS level before becoming co-DC last season.
With the exception of Bailey Zappe’s Western Kentucky team and ACC runner-up Wake Forest, the Knights gave up an average of 16.82 points per game. That would’ve been 5th best in the country all year.
Add in the 38-35 and 70-56 losses, and the Knights were still No. 33 in scoring defense nationally. If we want consistency on this defense, those are numbers that matter. (Troy was ranked No. 64 last season.)
The stout Troy defense isn’t going anywhere.
Eric McDaniel – Defensive Line
McDaniel was the No. 31 defensive tackle in the country out of high school (Scout.com) but only played in 15 games his five seasons at Purdue. He got his grad degree at Muskingum, then joined the App State staff and defensive coordinator Nate Woody.
Woody left App State for Georgia Tech, where he brought on his fellow Wofford alum, former player and former assistant Shiel Wood.
McDaniel followed Scott Satterfield to Louisville for two years. Woody and Wood reunited in West Point in 2020, and McDaniel joined them last season.
He’s familiar with Coach Wood’s schemes, and his success with both App State and Army are solid indicators of what this defense could look like.
Rusty Whitt – Strength and Conditioning
This one doesn’t really count because he’s not a new member of the staff and it’s not a football-specific position, but Coach Whitt deserves a mention for his service. He also spent a year with West Point Athletics before coming to Troy.
The 2022 Troy Football On-Field Staff
| Jon Sumrall | Head Coach |
|---|---|
| Joe Craddock | Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks |
| Shiel Wood | Defensive Coordinator / Safeties |
| Gary Banks | Wide Receivers |
| Bam Hardmon | Defensive Run Game Coordinator / Outside Linebackers |
| Brock Hays | Running Backs |
| Eric McDaniel | Defensive Line |
| Evan McKissack | Tight Ends |
| Al Pogue | Cornerbacks |
| Tayler Polk | Inside Linebackers |
| Cole Popovich | Offensive Line |
There they are. Your new coaching staff. It’s full of familiar faces, brand new faces, and even a pair of Super Bowl rings.
We have about a month and a half before spring practice starts, but we’re eleven days from National Signing Day. It’s great to see this crew is already engaged with current players and connecting with prospective new ones.
The only question left to answer now is “how good can this Troy team be?”
We’ll find out in March.