Former NFL player-turned-college football head coach Eddie George is leaving Tennessee State University to take over the reigns of the Bowling Green State University football team.
The school announced the hiring Mar. 9, as George vacates the position at TSU that he has helmed for the past four years. He became the 21st head football coach for the Falcons, returning to the state where he played during his collegiate career.
“I am truly excited to be the head coach at Bowling Green State University,” said George in a written statement. “Bowling Green is a wonderful community that has embraced the school and the athletics department. We are eager to immerse ourselves in the community and help build this program to the greatness it deserves. I am overwhelmed with excitement and joy for the possibilities this opportunity holds. I’m also thrilled to be back in the great state of Ohio, where I played my college football. I look forward to meeting the team, the coaches, everyone in the athletics department, and everyone in the BGSU and Bowling Green community.”
After leading TSU to back-to-back winning
seasons, George took over a losing program that averaged just over three wins per year in the previous four seasons before he came on board. The 2023 and 2024 seasons were the team’s first consecutive winning seasons since 2016-17. The team ended the regular season with a 9-3 record, the best record for the program since 2013, leading the team to a conference title, the first one in 25 years. George was also recognized for his coaching prowess as the Big South-Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year. He was the runner-up for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year award.The Nashville Tennessean reported that the former coach of TSU addressed the team to inform them that he was leaving.
“There is never a good time for retirement or making a transition, moving on to a new coaching position. I had to really weigh my options and look at what I was walking away from and where I was going toward. There’s a lot of reasons why I made this decision. I intended to stay here at Tennessee State with hopes that things would improve and so forth. And they will, eventually. But just not in this time frame. And I understand that.”
George isn’t new to the Buckeye State. He played at Ohio State University, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1995. In 1996, the Houston Oilers (Now the Tennessee Titans) drafted him in the first round, and he played in the NFL for eight seasons (his last season with the Dallas Cowboys) before playing his last game during the 2004 season, retiring in 2006.