John Scott, Jr. - Assistant Coach - Defensive Line / Special Teams Coordinator
1/16/2010 9:28:00 PM | General
Leading the Eagles’ special teams units and working with Victor Cabral to mold one of the best defensive lines in the nation, John Scott, Jr., begins his third year as an assistant coach for Georgia Southern. Along with Cabral, Scott coached two All-Americans in 2011, including Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year Brent Russell.
Russell anchored a defensive line, which also featured All-American Roderick Tinsley and All-SoCon selection John Douglas, that combined for 158 tackles, 35 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks.
In 2010 Russell, who was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award for the nation’s top defensive player at the Championship Subdivision level, earned All-America accolades from numerous entities as well as first-team All-SoCon defensive honors.
Scott was named defensive line coach on the Eagles staff in January 2010 after four seasons coaching outside linebackers at Missouri State and three years on the football staff at Western Carolina. A 2000 graduate of Western Carolina and four-year Catamount letterman, Scott returned to coach at his alma mater in 2006. Scott was the defensive ends and outside linebackers coach for two seasons (2006-07) and defensive line coach for one (2008).
The second-team All-Southern Conference pick at defensive end in 1998, Scott registered 17 tackles for loss and in 1997, he had 59 tackles, tops among defensive linemen, in addition to 11 tackles for loss. His total of 31 tackles for loss ranks 10th all time in Western Carolina history.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in communications from Western Carolina, Scott played three years of professional football, including two years with the Greensboro (N.C.) Prowlers of the Arena Football League 2. He was selected the team’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2000. While in North Carolina in 2001, Scott gained coaching experience at the high school level as defensive line coach at Lexington, N.C.’s West Davidson High School.
Scott then went to Louisiana-Lafayette as a graduate assistant for two years, serving as a defensive line graduate assistant. As defensive line coach at Norfolk State for the 2005 season, Scott helped the Spartans achieve a #12 national ranking in passing defense. That season, Norfolk State allowed just over 158 yards per game.
The Greer, S.C., native attended the NCAA’s Minority Coaches Academy in 2008 after being selected from a pool of 400 applicants.
Scott completed his master’s degree in education at Louisiana-Lafayette in 2006. He and his wife, Stephanie, also a graduate of WCU, are the parents of a son John III and daughter Juliette.
