Kevon Beckwith Named New Defensive Line Coach
12/22/2025 5:10:00 PM | Football
New hire led strong SFA unit last year
STATESBORO - An up-and-comer in the coaching world, Kevon Beckwith joins the Georgia Southern football staff as the defensive line coach, as announced Monday by head coach Clay Helton. Beckwith comes to Statesboro after a record-setting year at Stephen F. Austin, where he helped lead the 'Jacks to a Southland Conference title and a trip to the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs.
"Megan and I are extremely excited to join the Georgia Southern family," Beckwith said. "The best place to be is where expectations are high, and we look forward to exceeding expectations. I'm grateful for the opportunity to represent Eagle Nation! GATA!"
"We are very happy to announce that we have hired Kevon Beckwith to be our defensive line coach for the 2026 season," Helton said. "Coach Beckwith helped Stephen F Austin to one of their greatest football seasons in school history. He led a defensive front unit that was first in the country in tackles for loss, and their 42 sacks on the year were in the top 10 nationally. We look forward to that type of production as he joins our football family here at Georgia Southern. We are very appreciative of the job Coach Douglas has done for us this year, and he will continue to coach our defensive line through our bowl game against App State on December 29th."
In 2025, no team in the country spent more time in opponents' backfields than the 'Jacks, as SFA led the FCS in tackles for loss per game (8.7) and carried a top-10 mark nationally in sacks per game (3.0). SFA recorded 122.0 total tackles for loss for 450 loss yards as SFA went on an 11-game winning streak during the season to finish seventh in the country. Beckwith mentored three all-conference players in Ky Thomas (also a first-team All-American by Pro Football Sports Network), Elijah Fields and Victor Idusuyi, and signed three three-star prospects in the 2026 recruiting class.
In 2024, Beckwith was one of the youngest FBS coaches in the country at the age of 29 as the defensive line coach at Temple University. He was responsible for recruiting defensive linemen on the east coast of the United States, from Florida to New York, and signed 2023 all-conference player Latrell Jean in the Transfer Portal.
A New Orleans native, Beckwith spent the 2023 season with Southeast Missouri in the Ohio Valley Conference. Prior to that, Beckwith worked at Incarnate Word (2022), Northwestern State (2021), Austin Peay (2019-20), and Louisiana-Lafayette (2014-19).
Beckwith led his UIW group to a nation-best 43 sacks with a top-15 rushing defense and finished the season 12-2, but lost in the FCS semifinals to North Dakota State. There, he developed two first-team all-conference defensive linemen in Steven Parker and Chris Whittaker, and helped lead a defense that finished No. 9 in the FCS in team sacks. UIW also led the nation in tackles for a loss.
A year earlier, Beckwith's Northwestern State squad had 31 sacks. That total, which was led by Isaiah Longino's 9.5 sacks, finished No. 22 in the nation in team sacks. Longino was named a first-team All-Southland Conference selection by Phil Steele.
Prior to Northwestern State, Beckwith spent two seasons at Austin Peay. After serving as the assistant defensive line coach in 2019, Beckwith was promoted to defensive line coach in 2020. Austin Peay finished that season No. 36 in the FCS in team sacks and No. 9 in team TFLs. In his first season at Austin Peay (2019), he helped the Govs reach the FCS quarterfinals for the first time in school history, win the Ohio Valley conference for the first time since 1977, and produced a top-five nationally-ranked rushing defense.
He was also a CFL Guest Coach for the Saskatchewan Roughriders for the 2023 Training Camp, where he was selected to travel internationally to Canada to assist the coaching staff with their training camp before the 2023 season, and was chosen to participate in the NFL Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship working under the Cleveland Browns organization during the 2021 offseason.
Prior to Austin Peay, he spent the previous five seasons as a student assistant and graduate assistant at Louisiana-Lafayette. While with the Ragin' Cajuns, Beckwith assisted in coaching the defensive line.
In 2014, defensive linemen Justin Hamilton and Christian Ringo earned first-team All-Sun Belt honors, combining for 75 tackles, including 29.5 for loss and 16.0 sacks. Ringo was particularly disruptive, leading the Sun Belt with 20.0 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks. The 2016 campaign saw defensive lineman Joe Dillon rack up 51 tackles, including 12.5 for loss and 7.0 sacks, during his rookie campaign. The Sun Belt coaches named him the league's Freshman of the Year and voted him second-team All-Sun Belt. In Beckwith's final season in Lafayette, redshirt freshman defensive lineman Zi'Yon Hill earned third-team All-Sun Belt honors after posting 44 total tackles. Beckwith was promoted on three occasions over six years by two head coaches and helped lead the program to its first postseason bowl game experiences in school history.
Beckwith is a two-time UL Lafayette graduate, earning his Bachelor of Applied Science in health/health care administrative management in 2015 and completed his master's degree in 2017. He and his wife, Megan, will begin their time in Statesboro in late December.
