MONTICELLO – Gary Goff played under some strong coaching influences at Valdosta State University in Georgia including Hal Mumme, the late Mike Leach and Dana Holgorsen.
Goff was a wide receiver at the NCAA Division II traditional power in the mid-1990s, when Mumme was head coach, Leach was offensive coordinator and Holgorsen his position coach. Three decades after his playing days and after a pair of his own head coaching stops, Goff is taking over the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s football program.
He was introduced as the Boll Weevils’ 26th head coach during a Thursday news conference inside the Student Success Center. Goff was most recently head coach at McNeese State University in Louisiana from 2022-24 after a three-year run at Valdosta that saw him lead the Blazers to two Division II playoff appearances and a runner-up finish to Ferris State University of Michigan in 2021.
“I want to work with good people,” Goff said. “At this point in my career, it’s about doing what I love and what I got a passion for, and being surrounded by good people. Me and my wife genuinely felt that here.”
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Goff replaces Hud Jackson, who stepped down as coach after 15 years but remains as athletic director.
“I felt genuineness from everyone I met, from an administration that cares deeply about this university and wants to make change, wants to take that next step,” Goff said. “You can see that in the facility upgrades.”
The university is planning to either renovate or completely remodel 90-year-old Willis “Convoy” Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium, pending approval from the University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees. Such a project likely will not be completed in time for the 2026 season, as Jackson had hoped.
A Picayune, Miss., native who later grew up in Atlanta, Goff coached receivers at two Georgia high schools before jumping into the college ranks as an offensive coordinator at Iowa Wesleyan University in 2002. He was also offensive coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana University, New Mexico State University and West Virginia Wesleyan College and receivers coach at Princeton University before Tiffin University in Ohio gave him his first head coaching job in 2011.
“As a young first-time head coach, I thought I had the magical X’s and O’s,” Goff said. “We’re going there, I want them to win fast and I’m going to be a big-time coach. Nah, that’s not the case. That’s where I learned culture and leadership development is the most important thing in any sport.”
Goff went 38-50 at Tiffin, but he took the Dragons from an 0-11 mark in his first season to a 9-2 record in 2018.
His 2019 Valdosta team went 10-1 and finished undefeated in the Gulf South Conference, where UAM competed from its first year in Division II in 1995 through 2020. After covid-19 caused a cancellation of the 2020 season for most small-college teams, Valdosta returned in 2021 and went 12-2, tying for the Gulf South championship and making it to the national title game.
Goff noted that while at Valdosta, the 2021 Blazers became the first Division II program to have three 1,000-yard rushers for the season and the quarterback threw for 2,800 yards.
He earned a gig in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision at McNeese, which happens to be Jackson’s alma mater. The Cowboys went 4-7 under Goff in 2022, 1-10 (counting a forfeit victory) in 2023 and 6-6 in 2024 before McNeese fired him.
Goff did not coach during the 2025 season, adding he spent time being a father. He and his wife Tiffanie have two children, Tyler and Audrey, the latter finishing high school in Lake Charles, La.
“In this profession, sometimes you’re on a fast climb,” he said. “There’s times when there’s a right hook you didn’t see coming. There are some valuable lessons I learned there. There are some things I would do differently, and let’s just leave it at that, right? I think self-reflection is important to everybody, no matter what you’re doing. I had some time to self-reflect and really focus on my family.”
At UAM, Goff will be tasked with elevating a Boll Weevil program that hasn’t posted a winning record since 2008.
“Coach Goff’s energy, experience and clear vision will make him an exceptional fit for UAM at a time when we’re ready to make that very next important step,” UAM Chancellor Peggy Doss said. “We’re confident that he will elevate our football program and guide us to that next level of competition and achievement.”
Jackson went 50-103 in 15 years, with the 2020 season canceled due covid-19. The Weevils finished the 2025 season 2-9, starting the season 0-3 and beating Arkansas Tech University and Southern Nazarene University before a six-game slide.
Three finalists out of more than 150 applicants were selected, Jackson said Thursday. The latter number was an increase of at least 25 from what Jackson gave last weekend.
An in-house search committee identified the final three candidates, one of each who was interviewed on campus Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Jackson said.
“It’s not every day you get to introduce a leader who brings the kind of experience, vision and proven success that Coach Gary Goff is going to bring to the Weevils,” Jackson said, adding a high percentage of the applicants were “very qualified.”
“We wanted someone with experience as a head coach or a coordinator,” Jackson said. “We also believe that having nine years of experience as a head coach, with part of those years at a program with championship experience, was important as well. Even with those parameters, the qualified applicants remained high.”
