A month after Mississippi State’s season ended with an Egg Bowl loss to rival Ole Miss, the Bulldogs are making changes to the coaching staff, hiring Phil Loadholt to coach the offensive line and Vincent Dancy to oversee the defensive ends and outside linebackers. Head coach Jeff Lebby also added Paul Rhoads as a senior defensive analyst. All three additions were announced Monday.
Both Loadholt and Dancy were on the staff at Colorado this past year, helping the Buffaloes to their best season since 2016. Loadholt reunites with Lebby after working for him as an offensive analyst at UCF, Ole Miss and Oklahoma, with Lebby as the offensive coordinator at each of those schools.
A former left tackle at Oklahoma, Loadholt was selected in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings, spending his entire seven-year NFL career in Minnesota and starting all 89 games in which he played. After one season as Colorado’s offensive line coach, Loadholt will replace Cody Kennedy in the same role in Starkville.
“I’m fired up to reunite with Phil,” Lebby said in a news release. “He has great familiarity with our culture and offensive scheme and played a pivotal role in our offensive success at each of our previous stops together. His ability to connect with players because of his background at both the NFL and college levels is second to none. He is quickly becoming one of the best in the game at developing players. I’m excited to see him take our offensive line unit to new heights.”
Dancy is returning to his home state, having played at Noxubee County High School and then Jackson State. His coaching career started at his alma mater as a graduate assistant and then the safeties coach, and he then became the defensive coordinator at Paine College in 2014.
The following year, Dancy took on the defensive coordinator role at Mississippi Valley State, becoming the Delta Devils’ head coach in 2018 and compiling a 10-38 record, including an 8-26 mark in SWAC play, in five seasons in Itta Bena. In 2023, Deion Sanders hired Dancy to Colorado as a defensive quality control coach, and he became the Buffaloes’ defensive ends coach for the 2024 season.
“Mississippi is home,” Dancy said. “Growing up here, I’m well aware of the well-documented history of defensive excellence at Mississippi State. I couldn’t be more fired up to return to this great state — a place that means so much to me and my family.”
Rhoads has an extensive coaching background, including seven seasons as the head coach at Iowa State. He went 32-55 with the Cyclones from 2009-15 with a 16-45 record in Big 12 play, though he did reach three bowl games in his first four years in Ames. Rhoads has also held assistant coaching positions at Utah State, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Auburn, Arkansas, UCLA, Arizona and Boston College.
From 2000 through 2007, Rhoads was the defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, helping the Panthers finish fifth nationally in total defense during his final year there. He later coordinated the defense at Auburn in 2008, at Arkansas in 2017 and at Arizona in 2020. Rhoads spent this past fall on the staff at Gulf Shores High School in Alabama before Lebby hired him to return to the college ranks.
“Paul is highly regarded in college football,” Lebby said. “He’s a ball coach with an extraordinary defensive mind who has a proven history of success over the last three decades. He’s seen it all. His knowledge of the game, ability to develop players to the next level and experience game planning and play calling in the toughest conference in the country will make our program better.”
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