Maxwell Donaldson, Gadsden TimesWed, December 3, 2025 at 10:06 PM UTC·1 min readFormer Jacksonville State football coach John Grass is returning to Alabama to lead the Samford program.
The announcement was made on Dec. 3 by Samford, ending a four-year run at Clemson as an assistant. Grass led the Gamecocks from 2014-21 with a 72-26 record and six Ohio Valley Conference titles, including five straight from 2014-18. He was also offensive coordinator with the Gamecocks in 2013 under Bill Clark.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGrass is a three-time OVC coach of the year and earned national coach of the year honors in 2015 after he led the Gamecocks to a 13-2 record and an appearance in the FCS national championship game. He is a Jax State alum.
Grass is an Ashville native and earned All-State honorable mention in 1985. He returned to his alma mater under Rush Propst, following Propst to Eufaula but returned to lead the Bulldogs from 1995-98, going 33-19. He made stops at Hoover as an assistant before going to Albertville, Moody and Spain Park, where he led the Jaguars to the state title game.
He finished his high school career at Oxford and went 123-60 in 16 years as a high school coach. He made the playoffs 11 times with four region titles.
Grass resigned from Jax State in 2021, leading to the hiring of Rich Rodriguez, who led the program through the transition to the FBS.
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Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports, Jax State athletics, the outdoors in Alabama and more for the Gadsden Times. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Samford football hires former Jacksonville State coach John Grass
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