| COACHING STAFF | GREG KNOX
GREG KNOX Defensive Backs/Special Teams Coordinator Seventh season at MSU @CoachKnox_MSU
With a hotbed of talent to coach at running back, Greg Knox has molded raw backs into All-Southeastern Conference talent and pros, coaching four starting running backs to the NFL. Knox added a new title to his SEC resume in the spring of 2014 as special teams coordinator. He enters his seventh season on coach Dan Mullen’s staff after producing a 1,000-yard rusher in four out of the last six years. All four of those backs are currently on NFL rosters. Josh Robinson, a once three-star high school recruit, became Knox’ latest success story. In 2014, Robinson earned second-team All-SEC honors and ranked third in the SEC in rushing yards. His 1,203 yards on the ground ranked third in school history while his 11 rushing scores tied for ninth in MSU annals. Robinson’s 1,573 all-purpose yards ended up second in school history. Knox helped Robinson – in his first season as a starter -- develop into one of the league’s most dazzling playmakers and one of the nation’s toughest after-contact runners. The Bulldogs’ ground attack catapulted the program to just its third 10-win season in school history, its first-ever No. 1 national ranking and its first appearance in the Orange Bowl in 73 years. In May 2014, Robinson became the third MSU running back to be taken in the NFL Draft since 2010 when the Indianapolis Colts called his number in the sixth round with pick No. 205. He joins one of Knox’ protégé in Vick Ballard in Indianapolis. In 2013, LaDarius Perkins capped his career as the fifth-leading rusher in school history with 2,554 career yards. With Knox’s help in 2012, Perkins finished the regular season fourth in the SEC in rushing and second in the league in all-purpose yards. Through the first half of the 2012 campaign, Perkins was one of only two players nationally with a rushing touchdown through his first seven games. Knox also mentored Anthony Dixon, the current Buffalo Bill, during his senior season. Dixon rushed for a school-record 1,391 yards and found the end zone 12 times. But it wasn’t only the All-SEC tailback who thrived under Knox’s guidance, as the running backs combined for more than 2,000 yards as the Bulldogs led the conference in rushing yards. Knox’s second season may have been an even greater coaching feat. Without a proven commodity like Dixon, the Bulldog offense used several different backs to accomplish nearly the same thing. Ballard burst onto the scene and broke the 58-yearold school record for rushing touchdowns in a single season (19). Knox continued to coach Ballard for his senior season in 2011, when Ballard rewrote the school record book for running backs and went on to be drafted in the fifth round by the Indianapolis Colts in the 2012 NFL Draft. Prior to his arrival at Mississippi State, Knox spent his last 14 seasons coaching in the SEC and nearly 20 years coaching offense on the collegiate level. He came to Mississippi State following a 14-year stretch as Tommy Tuberville’s wide receivers coach at both Ole Miss and Auburn. Knox was also the recruiting coordinator for the last 13 of those seasons. A veteran of 13 postseason bowl games, Knox helped lead the Auburn offense to the top of the SEC in scoring in both 2004 and 2005. He helped Ole Miss reach the 1997 Motor City Bowl, and was part of Auburn coaching staffs that finished football seasons in the 2001 Citrus and Peach Bowls, 2003 Capital One and Music City Bowls, the 2005 Sugar Bowl, the 2006 Capital One Bowl, and the 2007 Cotton and Chick-fil-A Bowls. Of the eight players he has had selected in the NFL Draft, three came in just two years while at Auburn (Courtney Taylor in 2007, and Ben Obomanu and Devin Aromashodu in 2006). Knox helped Taylor become the school’s all-time leader in recep-
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THE KNOX FILE Hometown ____________Rosebud, Texas Bachelor’s _____ Northeastern State, 1986 Master’s ________Northeastern State, 1990 Wife________________________ Toralyn Children ________ Gregory, Torian, Tyson Birthday _______________ Sept. 10, 1963 COACHING CAREER 2014-p Mississippi State (Running Backs/ Special Teams Coordinator) 2009-13 Mississippi State (Running Backs) 1999-2008 Auburn (Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator) 1996-98 Ole Miss (Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator) 1995 Ole Miss (Wide Receivers) 1992-94 Stephen F. Austin (Wide Receivers/Special Teams) 1990-91 TCU (Graduate Assistant) 1988-89 Northeastern State (Graduate Assistant) BOWL GAMES AS A COACH 2014 Orange Bowl (MSU) 2013 Liberty Bowl (MSU) 2013 Gator Bowl (MSU) 2011 Music City Bowl (MSU) 2011 Gator Bowl (MSU) 2007 Chick-fil-A Bowl (Auburn) 2007 AT&T Cotton Bowl (Auburn) 2006 Capital One Bowl (Auburn) 2005 Sugar Bowl (Auburn) 2003 Music City Bowl (Auburn) 2003 Capital One Bowl (Auburn) 2001 Peach Bowl (Auburn) 1997 Motor City Bowl (Ole Miss) tions, and Obomanu finished second in touchdown receptions. After earning his bachelor’s degree while playing quarterback for Northeastern State, Knox began his coaching career at his alma mater in 1988. Knox spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Northeastern State and two at TCU before being named to the staff at Stephen F. Austin in 1992. In three seasons on the Lumberjacks’ staff as the receivers and special teams coach, Knox helped a program that had won only three games in the previous two seasons to the 1993 FCS playoffs and a top-25 ranking the following season. A native of Rosebud, Texas, Knox is married to the former Toralyn Foster, and the couple has three sons: Gregory, Torian and Tyson.
2015 MISSISSIPPI STATE FOOTBALL