Jacksonville State’s new football head coach, Charles Kelly, attended a meet and greet in Gadsden hosted by Life Insurance Company of Alabama on Thursday, July 24.
The room was covered in a sea of red donned by the coaching staff, players and supporters of the Jax State football program. Visitors from all across Alabama and into Georgia attended the event to socialize with the new head coach.
Greg Seitz, Jax State vice president for athletics, said the turnout was “outstanding,” with more than 150 in attendance.
This will be the first year as head coach after leaving his alma mater, Auburn University, as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach, according to the Jax State website.
“I think being coordinator, there’s a lot of things, from a leadership standpoint, that are the same,” Kelly said. “But when you’re the head coach, you’re responsible for everybody in the building.”
Kelly said the work ethic of the team is one of their core strengths.
Previously, Kelly has worked at top programs in college football such as Alabma, Florida State, Tennessee and Georgia Tech. For four seasons, Kelly worked with Nick Saban as the associate defensive coordinator and safeties coach, winning the 2020 national championship, and was the defensive coordinator at Colorado in 2023 working under head coach Deion Sanders.
Kelly was hired by Jacksonville State in December of 2024 after the previous coach, Rich Rodriguez, resigned from the program to return to West Virginia University earlier that month after leading the team to a Conference USA Championship in the team’s first year of eligibility, according to Jax State.
Kelly said he is looking forward to seeing the team grow and develop and hopefully get better week by week.
“I’m going to come to work every day, and work as hard as I can,” Kelly said. “We want to give the best product we can for Jacksonville State, our alumni, our fans and the administration.”
