STARKVILLE — The new Yellow Jackets football coaching staff is coming together under first-year head coach John Carr. The school announced the arrival of three assistants on Thursday, filling the roles of offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Tyler Peterson arrives as offensive coordinator from Clinton High School, where he was offensive coordinator in 2024 under Carr and for two years before that under Carr’s predecessor, Judd Boswell. In addition to playcalling and schematic duties, Peterson will take on positional coaching duties as the quarterbacks coach for the Jackets.
“I’m very excited to add Tyler Peterson to our Starkville staff,” Carr said. “He and I worked together at Clinton last year, and we believe in the same style of offense and how we want it to look. He has also been a very successful head coach at multiple stops, and his experience is invaluable.”
Joining the offensive staff and bringing head coaching experience is new wide receivers coach Von Smith. The Maben native was the head coach at Ethel for two seasons before moving to Starkville, where he will take over a position group that has yielded a lot of success in recent years for the Jackets.
“Von is another young, energetic and passionate coach,” Carr said. “You can feel it the moment he walks in the room. He has a personality that will connect with our players. Von was an outstanding player in high school, junior college, and at NC Central. Our players will connect to him instantly.”
Finally, but certainly not least, the Jackets are adding Jamario Winters as defensive coordinator. Winters has experience as an assistant at Pearl and Choctaw County, the latter being his most recent and successful venture. He led a defense that helped bring the Chargers’ first state championship to Ackerman.
“He is a young, energetic, and extremely bright football coach,” Carr said of Winters. “I’ve heard Jamario’s name in the coaching circles over the last couple of years. When I had the opportunity to visit with him, I came away deeply impressed with more than just football. He will not only be influential on the defensive side but will also add to our day to day operations.”
The Jackets will continue to work through the spring and then return in late summer for preseason camp. They will not play a spring game this year.
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