John Grass has resigned as head football coach at Jacksonville State, he announced following a 40-25 win over Abilene Christian on Saturday.
The 53-year-old Grass is 72-26 with six conference championships in eight seasons at his alma mater. The Gamecocks reached the FCS playoffs six times in his first seven years, but have fallen to 4-5 after leaving the Ohio Valley Conference prior to this season.
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“My time has come and gone here,” Grass said. “It’s been a great ride. You can’t put into words what’s happened here. This has been amazing. This will always be my home. My wife and I are alumni and I’ve raised my kids for nine years here. This place has done so much for me that I can’t ever repay it. I’ve always put this university first and how I represent it and I think my family has done a great job in being ambassadors for this university.
“There’s a lot of thank yous and a lot of blessings that we’ve had, but I got to do this my way and I am pleased and I am thankful that I got to do it my way.”
Jacksonville State is set to move up to the FBS level as a member of Conference USA in 2023. The Gamecocks will play a final FCS season in the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2022.
An Ashville native, Grass was a highly successful high school coach at stops such as Moody, Spain Park and Oxford before joining Bill Clark’s Jacksonville State staff as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2013. When Clark left the following season for UAB, Grass was moved up to head coach.
Grass’ second JSU team was his best, going 13-2 and reaching the FCS championship game, where it lost 37-10 to perennial power North Dakota State. The Gamecocks went 47-7 in OVC play under Grass, failing to make the playoffs in only 2019.
Grass also led the Gamecocks to one of their more memorable wins earlier this season, a 20-17 victory at Florida State on Sept. 11. Zerrick Cooper connected with Damond Philyaw-Johnson on a 59-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the game, handing the Seminoles their first-ever loss to an FCS program.
In October, JSU was hit with NCAA sanctions stemming for impermissible text messages and phone calls between an assistant coach and a transfer prospect. The Gamecocks were put on probation for one year, fined $5,000 and given various recruiting restrictions.
Jacksonville State is at Lamar next Saturday.
News of Grass’ resignation was first reported by The Anniston Star.