For the fifth time since 2020, there’s a new head football coach at Mississippi Delta Community College. From Jeff Tatum, who spent eight seasons at the helm, to Cedric Thomas, who spent two seasons and was the last to see a winning record, to Tavares Johnson, who toiled for three seasons trying to revive the winning tradition of the Trojans, to Ernest Jones, who lost all nine games he lined up teams for this past season. But now, the reins have been handed over to North Carolina native Jermaine Smith.
The former outside linebacker spent time in the NFL, CFL and Arena League, then got into coaching after spending over a decade in banking. The past two years, he’s been in the frozen tundra of Minnesota winning JUCO games as the head coach of Minnesota West Community and Technical College. Coach Smith has now moved to Moorhead and is thawing out and ready to revitalize the Trojan football program. Smith himself is a JUCO product.
“I started out at JUCO at Northeast Oklahoma, then spent a year at East Carolina and transferred out and finished my senior year at Central State in Ohio. We won an NAIA National Championship there,” Coach Smith said.
His professional playing career from 1998 to 2002 includes time spent with the Green Bay Packers and then the Canadian Football League with the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, BC Lions and Calgary Stampeders. He also spent time in the Arena League. When he knew his playing days were over, he started a career in banking.
“Charlotte is the number two banking capital in the United States. So, I went into banking and worked in anti-money laundering and terrorist financing for about 13 years,” Coach Smith said. “I was just really trying to exhaust football out of my tank. Just trying to escape it because professional football can definitely leave a bad taste in your mouth because there’s a lot of business involved. And as a kid, you think that, hey, man, I want to go professional. It’s got to be fun. But a lot of times it really is just business.”
He also ran his non-profit that provided after-school, before-school, summer camp, and youth football and youth basketball.
“I ran some leagues throughout Charlotte and brought AAU football to Charlotte for the youth. And because I still had that taste in my mouth, I couldn’t escape the game. So, I just kind of said, ‘I’m just going to keep it surface with these youth, give them the fundamentals, help them to really understand the values of the game, understand that it’s life after the game. And that’s really what you got to prepare yourself for.’ And it really gave a lot of kids a solid foundation.”
Some of his “alumni” include KC Concepcion with Texas A&M and David Sanders, offensive tackle for Tennessee.
“I’ve got quite a few kids that came through my program that are now playing Division I football,” he said. “I definitely want to bring it here and pour it to these kids as well.”
Oddly enough, it was his stint working with his non-profit that got him back in the game and on the sidelines as a winning coach.
“But from the non-profit, I really got the itch to get back into football. And Charlotte had an arena team, and I was able to latch onto their coaching staff. I was the head of player personnel and co-DC, linebacker, and D-line coach with the Charlotte Thunder,” he said. “The team was owned by Ted Ginn Jr. and Thomas Davis. I coached on that team for about four seasons, then dipped into college football at Livingstone College, where I became their special teams coordinator and linebacker coach. I stayed there a year, then I got a call to be the D.C. at Fort Lewis College out in Colorado. I went out there for a year, then after that year came back to Livingstone for a year. And then I went to Campbell University, D1, and coached there for a year. When my mentor and head resigned, I took the job out at Minnesota West as the head coach. I was there for two years, and then I fell into this lovely position here.”
Even as his Minnesota JUCO team was succeeding, he knew he needed to get south. There were signs.
“When I was in Minnesota, I lived on a lake, and the lake was frozen, so I’m seeing people out ice fishing, and I’m just like, ‘this is ridiculous. I gotta get back to the South.’” he said.
Now that he’s moved in, Coach Smith is bringing some of his assistants and some of his players from Minnesota. His first year at Minnesota, he turned the team that finished 0-8 before him to 7-1. He finished his two-year run with a 12-2 conference record.
“I didn’t come here to lose. I didn’t come here to lose my first year. That’s not my mindset. I have no fear of any team in this conference. What we do is what we do. And I focus on us, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Coach Smith said. “Offensively, just think of us as a track team. More of a fast ball-pace type of team. We’re going to spread you out. Keep you out of balance by really just keeping your defense honest, but also vanilla because of the tempo that we’re coming with. I think tempo dictates what a defense can do. If you really have speed to your offense, you can predicate whether you’re going to get blitzes, whether someone can rotate players. It’s hot out here. So, when guys can’t rotate, they get tired. We try to take advantage of those situations. But we’re going to spread you out. We’re pretty balanced.”
His last team led the NJCAA Division III (MDCC plays in Division I of NJCAA) with the number one offense for two years. Defensively, look for the Trojans to resemble some SEC defenses.
“Defensively, we’re more of an odd front team kind of like Georgia, Georgia and Alabama. Really, really try to make things bounce outside. We play B2B and really make sure that we’re sound with our gap responsibilities,” he said. “And make sure we cover well and really just focus on being disciplined and knowing our job and responsibility and executing.”
With 33 players returning, Coach Smith is loading up on talent he knows well.
“I actually had six All-Americans this year from my team at Minnesota West. My quarterback, two receivers, and a linebacker. Those four All-Americans are coming here. They’re transferring here.”
Coach Smith knows those players can excel in the Delta and beyond and have more fans watching them.
“They want to get warm, but they want to win. And it’s a better opportunity for them, to be honest. I mean, you’re in Mississippi. You’re in the middle of the SEC. You’re in the middle of the SWAC. So, all eyes are on you versus being in the Midwest, in Minnesota, where it’s really just – okay. The local schools are kind of focused on those areas, but you really don’t get the attention that you’re going to get here,” Coach Smith said.
And working from the bottom up of the 14-team MACCC, Coach Smith knows it’s the basics that matter.
“You have grass, you have chalk to line the grass, you’ve got weights in the weight room. What else do you need? I think you take advantage of what you have. I’m coming from Minnesota West. We didn’t have everything. We had some nice facilities but I look at it like this. It’s how you plan and how you prepare. Plan to prepare with what you have instead of making excuses and crying about it. Otherwise, raise some money and get some new stuff. Hopefully I can try to raise some money and upgrade some of the stuff. But until then, we’re going to take advantage of what we have,” he said.
Coach Smith knows that winning football games will solve a lot of problems.
“You win, now you’ve got the community coming out on Thursday nights, and your games are packed and everybody’s pulling for you. The community grows because the kids are out in the community. It just becomes a beautiful thing. That is definitely the plan. That is definitely the mindset, and that is what we’re going to instill in these kids, really preparing them for life after the game, giving them something to cherish. I just look at my career. I look back at the friends that I have from college and lifetime friends and all the memories and also just the learning lessons that helped me to be a better father, better in the community. So really just trying to use all of the tools that I was given and give them back to these kids so that they are great for the community and great for their families.”
Getting thawed out and hard at work, Coach Smith is happy to be in Moorhead.
“Just really excited. Honestly, the support I’m already getting is just amazing. From Dr. Jones, V.P. House, Coach Banks, the A.D. It’s just been tremendous, the support that they’re giving me. And they really want to win. They want to win, and I want to win.”
A winner ready to reclaim the Trojan gridiron glory and add to the championship resumé at MDCC — New Football Head Coach Jermaine Smith.
