Southern football hires Eric Dooley as next head football coach

Southern football has announced that it has hired former Prairie View A&M Panthers head coach Eric Dooley as its next coach.

After finishing the season with a losing record for the first time since 2012, Southern football has hired former Prairie View A&M Panthers head coach Eric Dooley as its new coach.

He will be taking over the school where he received his master’s degree in 2005 and served as an assistant coach from 1997-2010.

Dooley’s coaching history also includes three seasons as the offensive coordinator with the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff and four as the offensive coordinator of Grambling State.

It was with Grambling State that he contributed to two teams that went on to win SWAC championships in 2016 and 2017 before accepting his first head coaching position with Prairie View A&M.

In his four seasons as head coach of the Prairie View A&M Panthers, Dooley led them to a 20-17 overall record and a 16-9 conference record.

This past season, Prairie View finished with a 7-4 regular-season record and a 6-2 conference record clinching their first SWAC championship appearance since 2009 though they were unsuccessful against the Jackson State Tigers.

The Jaguars are coming off their season without former head coach Dawson Odums who dawned the headset for eight seasons prior to moving on to the Norfolk State Spartans.

They finished this season with a 4-7 overall record and a 3-5 record in the conference losing their last three games of the season including the Bayou Classic against Grambling State snapping a three-game win streak in the series.

The Jaguars’ three straight losses is the most they’ve had in a row to end a season since 2010 when they lost their last six.

Dooley will look to keep the Jaguars from finishing consecutive seasons with a losing record for the first time since they had three consecutive losing seasons from 2010-2012.