Carson Berg was one of a few University of Arkansas at Monticello football players and staff members who attended new head Coach Gary Goff’s introductory news conference Thursday, and Berg came away pleased. “It’s a feeling of refreshment, but as a player, it’s absolutely an amazing feeling to hear from a coach that’s ready to be here for all the right reasons,” said Berg, a redshirt sophomore left guard from The Woodlands, Texas. “I’m excited for him to be our leader. He’s going to be a great football coach. He’s going to be very successful here, and I am extremely ready for the next two years that I have left.”
Goff was hired after interviewing on campus earlier this week. He succeeds Hud Jackson, who was hired nearly 15 years ago and remains as UAM’s athletic director.
The Boll Weevils were to gather for a team meeting to meet Goff shortly after his news conference, according to Berg. Goff most recently coached at Division I McNeese State University from 2022-2024 but spent 11 years leading Division II teams at Ohio’s Tiffin University (2011-2018) and Georgia’s Valdosta State University (2019-2021).
“We’re all amped up and excited to hear from him,” Berg said.
Goff played against UAM during the first two years of the school’s Division II era (since 1995) as a receiver at Valdosta, learning the Air Raid offense from three men who have since become Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches — Hal Mumme, Mike Leach and Dana Holgorsen. That offense helped Goff led Valdosta to the 2021 national championship game, a loss to Michigan’s Ferris State University.
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“We want to play basketball on grass,” Goff said. “We want to be up-tempo, play extremely fast, no-huddle, but we still control the game.
“Our style of offense is that we’re going to attack both vertically and horizontally,” he continued. “I want the same thing on defense. I want a sound defense that can put pressure on the quarterback and stop the run, because you don’t want to die a slow death on the run, and I know teams in this conference are really good at running the football.”
All 12 teams in the Great American Conference play an all-league schedule. In 2025, opponents have rushed for 245 yards per game and passed for 180.4 against the Weevils, who only rushed for 98.3 yards per game but passed for 203.4. Opponents earned 118 of their 236 first downs against UAM with the rush.
The signing period for midyear two-year college football transfers to Divisions I and II began Dec. 3, but Goff has plenty of time to recruit before the regular signing period for both divisions begins Feb. 4. The final date for both signing periods is based on institutional policy for awarding scholarships, according to the NCAA. Goff expects to bring in a “good” class of high school athletes, but he said it’s also hard to expect a large number of true freshmen to play right away.
“You will have some, for sure, but to have an entire roster of true freshmen to come in and play is really difficult,” he said. “So, you have to utilize the portal (the NCAA database where student-athletes indicate their intent to transfer between schools) to your benefit there. How we attack the portal is, what are our needs? We’re not going to go in and just sign 50 guys and say we’re going to revamp the entire roster. I don’t think that’s healthy, right? We’re going to do our homework, just like they were a high school athlete.”
Goff was humble when asked what his first-year expectations were for the Weevils, who haven’t posted a winning overall record since going 7-4 under Gwaine Mathews in 2008.
“I think you’ll see a group that’s working really hard,” Goff said. “They’re going to be dedicated. “One thing a team learns from me really quick is that I’m going to ask for your best in everything we do. That’s one of our sayings — 100% effort, 100% of the time. As long as a young man is doing that, we have a chance to be great.”
Berg said he loves to hear from a coach who wants to develop men and not just players.
“I think it’s very important that all of us have someone that, in a very crucial point in our lives, is willing to take us to the next point of being a man and an athlete,” Berg said. “Another thing that was great hearing was what his future plans are for this program. It was great to hear — he said it earlier — it’s not going to happen overnight. This is a program where we’ve had a lot of ups and a lot of downs, and from what I’ve heard, I think he’s the guy who’s going to take us to the right place.”