Football
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach (Tight Ends)
- Phone:
- 662-325-3470
Season at MSU: 11th (second stint)
Twitter: @CoachTonyHughes
Tony Hughes, a veteran coach and heralded recruiter with three decades of experience in his home state of Mississippi, returned to Starkville on December 12, 2018, for his second stint. He coached the Bulldogs’ tight ends unit during the 2019 season and held the role of associate head coach. The 2022 season will be his 11th overall with the Bulldogs and his third straight as associate head coach and nickelbacks coach.
Hughes made a return to the defensive side of the ball in 2020. He played a pivotal role in helping State land at Top 25 signing class in 2020, which featured 22 signees for the 2020 class, including 11 top-30 prospects from Mississippi.
Hughes spent seven seasons from 2009-15 with the Bulldogs coaching safeties and as recruiting coordinator. He also served as assistant head coach for three of those seasons beginning in the spring of 2013.
A teacher and mentor to his student-athletes, Hughes has excelled at identifying players in the state of Mississippi that leave MSU as five-star NFL prospects.
During his first stint at MSU, Hughes recruited and helped tutor some of the program’s most storied players turned NFL stars. Such players include 2012 first-round draft pick defensive tackle Fletcher Cox – an eventual Super Bowl Champion and three-time Pro Bowl selection – as well as second-round draft selections defensive end Chris Jones and 2017 Pro Bowl defensive back Darius Slay. He also guided 2012 Jim Thorpe Award winner Johnthan Banks and first-team All-American Benardrick McKinney. McKinney was once a two-star high school quarterback in Tunica, Mississippi, before being drafted by the Houston Texans in 2015. Hughes also recruited Gabe Jackson, one of the elite offensive linemen in MSU history from 2010-13 who now starts at right guard for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Prior to Hughes’ return to Starkville, the longtime Mississippian spent two-plus seasons in Jackson, Mississippi, as head coach at Jackson State University.
Hughes has a reputation as being one of the top recruiters in college football on an annual basis. He served a pivotal role in helping State land 22 signees for the 2020 class during the early signing period last December. Among the 22 early signees, 11 were top-30 prospects from Mississippi.
In 2015, 247Sports tabbed him as one of America’s top 10 recruiters after the Bulldogs hauled in one of the nation’s top-16 classes.
According to Rivals, the 22 National Letters of Intent MSU received on National Signing Day in 2015 made up the Bulldogs’ best class since 2003. MSU hauled in five of Mississippi’s top six players. Fifteen of the Bulldogs’ signees hailed from the state of Mississippi.
With Hughes on the coaching staff, the Bulldogs had unprecedented success in 2014 when they claimed 10 regular-season wins for the first time in school history and reached their first Orange Bowl since 1941. It was a season of firsts for the program, which spent five consecutive weeks atop the polls and closed the year with its highest Associated Press poll finish since 1940 at No. 11.
State’s defense was dominant during the historic 2014 season, producing the top ranked red zone defense and ninth-ranked scoring defense in the country. Following that season, two of Hughes’ safeties signed NFL free agent contracts, including his son, Jay, who was a team captain.
In 2013, Hughes’ safeties unit helped the Bulldogs rank among the SEC’s top five in a number of categories, including fourth in total defense (349.3 yards per game) and fifth in passing defense (205.2 yards per game). MSU also held its final three opponents to just 11.3 points per game.
Hughes first joined the Bulldogs in 2009 after spending one season at Southern Miss (2008), where he coached the secondary. Before that, he coached for three seasons at Ole Miss (2005-07). Named one of the top 25 college football recruiters in the nation by Rivals in the spring of 2006, Hughes’ first two years were spent tutoring the defensive backs with his final season in Oxford spent working with the tight ends.
Prior to a two-season tenure at Louisiana Tech (2003-04), Hughes spent the previous nine years on the coaching staff at Hinds Community College (1994-2002) in Raymond, Mississippi, where he served as the defensive coordinator for one year and the secondary coach during his first nine seasons. He coached eight players who later went on to the NFL, including former MSU standout Fred Smoot.
Before working at Hinds, Hughes’ first college stop as a full-time collegiate coach was a two-year stay at West Alabama (1992-93), where he was the secondary coach. Hughes coached for seven years in the Mississippi high school ranks, serving as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Hattiesburg High School (1988-1991). Hughes also spent two seasons as the defensive secondary coach and boys track coach at South Natchez High School (1986-87). His first high school coaching job came at Philadelphia High School (1985).
After serving in the United States Marine Corps from 1981-84 and receiving an honorable discharge, he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Southern Miss (1984), working with the defensive backs.
Hughes, who played football and ran track at Forest High School (1974-76) and played defensive back at St. Paul’s College (1976-77), was a defensive back for Southern Miss in 1977 and 1978. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in sociology from there in 1980. He is an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a member of the Mississippi FCA State Board of Directors in 1999, president of the Mississippi FCA Coaches Council in 1998 and vice-president of the Mississippi FCA Coaches Council in 1997.
Hughes is married to the former Marion McCaleb of Meridian, Mississippi, and the couple has two sons, Jamison and Jay.
Hometown: Forest, Miss.
Education: Southern Miss, 1980 (B.S., Sociology); 1985 (Certificate of Education, Social Studies)
Wife: Marion
Children: Jamison, Jay
Birthdate: May 22, 1959
2019: Mississippi State (Associate Head Coach/Tight Ends)
2016-18: Jackson State (Head Coach)
2009-15: Mississippi State (Assistant Head Coach/Safeties/Recruiting Coordinator)
2008: Southern Miss (Secondary)
2007: Ole Miss (Tight Ends)
2005-06: Ole Miss (Defensive Backs)
2004: Louisiana Tech (Outside Linebackers)
2003: Louisiana Tech (Defensive Backs)
2002: Hinds Community College (Defensive Coordinator)
1994-2001: Hinds Community College (Secondary)
1992-93: West Alabama (Secondary)
1988-91: Hattiesburg High (Offensive Coordinator)
1986-87: South Natchez (Secondary)
1985: Philadelphia (Miss.) High School
2020 Armed Forces Bowl (Mississippi State)
2014 Orange Bowl (Mississippi State)
2013 Liberty Bowl (Mississippi State)
2013 Gator Bowl (Mississippi State)
2011 Music City Bowl (MSU)
2011 Gator Bowl (Mississippi State)
2008 New Orleans Bowl (Southern Miss)
