Josh Jones enters his first season coaching the secondary on head coach Maurice Drayton’s staff at The Citadel. He will work primarily with the safeties.
Jones joins the Bulldog staff after spending the past two season coaching the safeties at Northwestern State. He also added the title of recruiting coordinator prior to the 2022 season.
Under his tutelage, jones helped PJ Herrington become one of the top playmakers in the Southland Conference, while helping develop Jacob Washington.
Jones arrived in Natchitoches after spending one season as the defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. In his lone season, Jones helped to mentor Jalon Thigpen to first-team all-conference honors after leading the SWAC in passes defended.
No stranger to developing defensive backs, Jones coached a pair of defensive backs to All-Sun Belt honors in his three seasons at South Alabama. Darian Mills would earn all-conference honors after ranking second in pass break-ups, while a year later, Travis Reed had 10 pass break-ups and three interceptions on his way to all-conference laurels.
The play of Jones’ cornerbacks helped the Jaguars post a top-50 performance nationally in passing defense.
Jones followed head coach Steve Campbell to South Alabama after spending two seasons with Campbell at Central Arkansas.
While on UCA’s staff, Jones helped the Bears produced a 20-5 overall record and a 17-1 conference mark, capturing the 2017 Southland Conference title.
In each of his two seasons with the Bears, Jones produced an All-American as Tyler Williams garnered the honor in 2016 and Tremon Smith did so in 2017. Smith was a two-time, first-team All-Southland Conference selection and is entering his fourth season in the NFL. Williams was a first-team All-SLC pick in 2016 before signing with the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent.
Jones spent the 2015 season coaching cornerbacks at Henderson State, molding a defense that led all divisions with 29 interceptions. Tavares Garner earned First-Team All-Great American Conference notoriety as the Reddies went 11-2 and reached the D-II playoffs.
Before joining the Henderson State staff, Jones was a graduate assistant at Troy, Missouri Western State and Arkansas Tech.
As a player, Jones was an All-American at both Minnesota State-Moorhead and Harding University. While at Harding, he was invited to play in the Cactus Bowl (D-II Senior All-Star Game) and was the Little Rock Touchdown Club Player of the Year.
At Minnesota State-Moorhead, Jones broke the school record for interceptions with 10 as a sophomore, tying him for second nationally. He also holds MSU-Moorhead’s school record for longest punt return touchdown at 94 yards.
A 2013 professional studies graduate of Arkansas Tech, Jones played one season with the Utah Blaze of the Arena Football League and one with the Green Bay Blizzard of the Indoor Football League, helping the Blizzard reach the conference championship game.
