BATON ROUGE, La. — Southern University in Baton Rouge has a new head football coach, according to partners at The Advocate.
At a press conference Friday, the university's safeties coach, Jason Rollins, was announced as the 19th head coach in Southern's history.
The promotion came after former head coach Dawson Odums accepted the head coaching position at Norfolk State a week prior.
Rollins, who has been in the business of football for 25 seasons, said he has been dreaming of becoming a head coach, according to The Advocate.
“You don’t seek a head coaching job, they find you,” said Rollins.
He added that he never interviewed for the job.
“This is a dream come true, to stand at this podium to be announced as the head coach at Southern University. I’m living proof dreams can come true,” Rollins said.
According to The Advocate, Jason Rollins is a native of Newton, Texas and had 2 two-year stints at his alma mater McNeese State from 1997 to 1998 and 2004-2005. He also held a three-year term at Northwestern State from 2002 to 2004.
He has held positions of associate head coach, special teams coordinator and co-defensive coordinator at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He was also a co-defensive coordinator at Tulane University, according to The Advocate.
With the season starting again in the fall, Southern is hoping for the same success the team had with Odums.
Dawson left the team after a successful 5-1 spring season that was compressed by a pandemic, according to The Advocate.
