Jay Hopson

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Jay Hopson

Hopson at 2017 C-USA Media Days
Current position
Title	Cornerbacks coach
Team	South Alabama[1]
Conference	Sun Belt
Biographical details
Born	(1968-10-13) October 13, 1968 (age 55) Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S.
Alma mater	Ole Miss Delta State
Playing career
1988–1991	Ole Miss
Position(s)	Safety
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1992	Tulane (GA)
1993	Delta State (DB)
1994	LSU (GA)
1995	Florida (GA)
1996–2000	Marshall (DB)
2001–2003	Southern Miss (DB)
2004	Ole Miss (DB/RC)
2005	Southern Miss (DC/DB)
2006–2007	Southern Miss (DC/MLB)
2008–2009	Michigan (LB)
2010–2011	Memphis (DC/S)
2012–2015	Alcorn State
2016–2020	Southern Miss
2021–2022	Mississippi State (DA/DHSR)
2023–present	South Alabama (CB)
Head coaching record
Overall	60–40

James Walter Hopson (born October 13, 1968) is an American football coach and former player. In 2016, Hopson made history as the only head coach in the history of the state of Mississippi to guide two different in-state universities to bowl games when he led the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles to a victory in the New Orleans Bowl. During his head-coaching tenure with the University of Southern Mississippi (2016–2020), Hopson ushered the Golden Eagles to four straight bowl-eligible seasons, with his defenses and offenses ranking in the top-5 and top-25 in the NCAA, respectively. Additionally, in his four full seasons from 2016 to 2019, Hopson guided the University of Southern Mississippi to 20 conference wins, which made him the second-winningest coach in Conference-USA during that span.

Prior to his time at Southern Miss, Hopson shook the landscape of collegiate football on May 28, 2012, when he was named the head coach at Alcorn State University, becoming the first white head football coach in the history of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, an organization made up entirely of historically black colleges and universities. Previously, Hopson served as an assistant coach at Tulane, Delta State, LSU, Florida, Marshall, Southern Miss, Ole Miss, Michigan, and Memphis. In total, Hopson has won or appeared in 16 bowl games across his 31-year coaching career and holds a head-coaching record of 60–40 (.600).

Hopson played college football at the University of Mississippi. He earned four letters as a defensive back at Ole Miss from 1988 to 1991, playing free safety for one season before moving to strong safety for his final three years. He was a four-time Academic All-SEC honor roll selection and was named to the Verizon District VI Academic All-America team as a senior in 1991.^[2]