Kareem Elgazzar / USA TODAY NETWORK

Former Browns Coach Hue Jackson Lands College Football Job

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated Jan 9, 2025 3:02 PM ET

It's been a hot minute since former Cleveland Browns head coach was plying his trade in the NFL. After an ill-fated spell as head coach at Grambling State, he took the year off from coaching football in 2024. But in 2025, he'll be back on the sidelines in 2025.

According to college football insider Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports and 247Sports, Jackson is set to become the new offensive coordinator at Georgia State. Jackson most recently worked at Georgia State as their assistant gen eral manager in 2024, going 3-9 under head coach Dell Mcgee.

Zenitz noted in his report that Jackson will be swapping roles with longtime college football coaching veteran Jim Chaney, who has decided to take on the role of an analyst at the school after serving as offensive coordinator last year.

Jackson and Jim Chaney will essentially be swapping roles.

Chaney, a veteran and respected offensive coordinator who was Georgia State’s OC this season, decided to shift into an analyst role.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 9, 2025

Jackson's most recent coaching role was as head coach at Grambling State from 2022 to 2023. He went just 8-14 in what was his first-ever college football head coaching job and was fired after two seasons.

Prior to that, Jackson had spent the previous several years in various assistant roles, working at Tennessee State under head coach Eddie George and for the Cincinnati Bengals before that.

TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 21: Head Coach Hue Jackson of the Cleveland Browns addresses the media during the press conference after the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on October 21, 2018 in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers defeated the Browns 26-23 in overtime. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)

But Jackson will forever be remembered for the worst two-year spell for a head coach in history with the Cleveland Browns between 2016 and 2017. Over those two years he went just 1-31 including the second-ever 0-16 record in 2017.

Despite his 1-31 run over those two years, the Browns gave him one last shot in 2018 but he went just 2-5-1 through the first half of the year and was finally canned.

That 3-36-1 record ranks among the worst in NFL history for any head coaching tenure, even some of the famously terrible ones such as John McKay and Bill Peterson's first attempts at running an NFL team.

While he may not be head coaching material, Jackson remains a highly-respected football mind and developer of quarterbacks. He may have many years of football coaching left in him even if he remains persona non grata as an NFL head coach.

Will Jackson find success with Georgia State this year?

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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