Dean excited about leading the Statesmen football program
A new era for Delta State University football was ushered in on Thursday (Feb. 12) as David Dean was introduced as the new Statesmen Head Football Coach at the Simmons Room at the Huge Ellis Walker Alumni House.
The room was filled with DSU fans and supporters as DSU Director of Athletics Mike Kinnison officially welcomed Dean to the podium to speak to everyone in attendance.
Dean, who had been the head football coach at Lanier County High School in Lakeland, Ga the last two years, comes to DSU with a wealth of knowledge as he has been a football coach since 1986 with most of that time being on the collegiate level. Dean was the head football coach at Valdosta State University from 2007-15 leading the team to six NCAA Division II Playoff Appearances with two national championship (2007 and 2012) and was the head football coach at the University West Georgia from 2017-23 where led the squad to three trips to the NCAA Division II Playoffs. After the 2023 season, Dean retied from college coaching at the time.
Dean will replace previous coach Todd Cooley, who left to take an assistant coaching position at Ole Miss on Jan. 20. Cooley was head football coach at DSU from 2013-25 leading the team to four NCAA Division II Playoff Appearances with three Gulf South Conference Championships. Cooley posted an overall record of 82-49 at DSU which makes him the winningest football coach in school history.
Dean thought very highly of DSU and said the chance to be the Statesmen Head Football Coach was the opening he needed to get back into college football.
“I haven’t been in college football for two years,” said Dean. “I still had the passion to coach college football, and I found that out in a hurry. I was sitting at home, and everybody started getting ready for spring practice. I started making calls asking, ‘Can I come watch you practice?’ I realized I still had a fire. I still had something in me that still wanted to coach. I had some opportunities to still go to some other places, but none of them intrigued me like Delta State University. I knew what Delta State University was all about.”
When Dean arrived on campus, he was impressed with the work the coaches on the team had done after Cooley’s departure.
“I want to thank the current coaching staff,” said Dean. “There are three coaches that stayed behind, and I have hired all three of them and asked all three of them to stay. Right now, they are doing that. We’ve got five graduate assistants. I’ve got to thank those guys. From the time Coach Cooley left until I could take over, they maintained this program and had it going in the right direction. It was easy for me to step in. They had a lot of things all set up. They’ve done a tremendous job maintaining that. I can’t thank those guys enough for what they’ve done.”
Dean had the chance to meet the the players earlier in the week, and he felt the team made a good impression on him.
“It was great meeting with our team,” said Dean. “One thing I expressed to them is everything you do, do with a purpose to win. When you’re going out, do everything with a purpose to win. It seemed like they bought into that.”
In Dean’s long coaching career, this season will be the first time he’s coached outside of the state of Georgia. Dean said he is familiar with the talent the junior colleges in Mississippi have produced and can’t wait to look at the high school talent.
“I’ve had the opportunity to coach Mississippi junior college kids,” said Dean. “Obviously, we didn’t come to the high schools in Mississippi. Most of our recruiting was in Alabama and Georgia, which are talent rich in football, and also in Florida. This will be my first opportunity to really see a lot of high school football in Mississippi. I’m looking forward to meeting the coaches and going to games on Friday night and watching these guys play.
“From a junior college aspect, I know the talent that’s in all of these junior colleges, and it’s very well respected. We’ve brought players and coaches out of the Mississippi junior colleges. I’ve got several friends that are coaches in the jucos here, so I respect them and know what kind of talent they bring and know what kind of talent they can bring to our team.”
The last four years, DSU has won at least a share of the GSC Championship in 2022 and 23. DSU went a solid 7-3 this past year but closed out the year with a two-game losing streak and barley missed the playoffs. DSU also had a couple of scheduling issues that prevented the program in getting the amount of games it wanted to play for the year.
Dean said he wants DSU to leave no doubt when it comes to playoff consideration.
“They got shunned by the NCAA,” said Dean. “I was talking to Coach Cooley through that process, and you can imagine the things he told me a long the way. They were quite entertaining. What I want us to do as a football team is not put ourselves in the hands of the NCAA. We want to make sure that we go through this season and not have anybody else determine our fate. We want to determine our own fate, and that’s going to be through hard work and perseverance every single day.”
Dean said there are still spots on his coaching staff to fill as he is looking for a defensive coordinator and two skill position coaches on offense.
“We’ve got a quarterback, running back and wide receiver position open,” said Dean. “I’ve coached all three of those positions. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to go out and find guys that are the best for two of those positions, and I’m going to coach the other one. I’ve talked to a lot of good guys, a lot of guys that are excited about coming here. I’ve just got to narrow it down to who the best guy is that will recruit and who the best guy is that will instill in these players what we’re trying to instill in these guys everyday.”